The Dead

by Mark E. Rogers

The Judge came like a thief in the night. No one knew that the world had ended---until the sun began to rot in the sky, and the graves opened, and angels from Hell clothed themselves in the flesh of corpses...Long out of print, this murderous theological fantasy presents an epic vision of damnation and redemption, supercharged with mayhem, terror, and old-time religion. Looking for a good scare? Try The Dead, and bite off more than you can chew.

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Suspense, Ebooks

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Mark E. Rogers

Mark E. Rogers was an American author and illustrator. Rogers, while a student at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School, wrote a short novel, The Runestone, which has since been adapted into Willard Carroll's 1990 film starring Peter Riegert and Joan Severance, although it remains unpublished, except as a numbered, signed limited edition chapbook published by Burning Bush Press in 1979. At the University of Delaware, he continued his interest in writing, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974. He was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

He thereafter became a professional writer. His published works include the Samurai Cat
series; a number of novels, The Dead, Zorachus, and the latter's sequel, The Nightmare of God; a series of books known as Blood of the Lamb; and another series called The Nightmare of God. He has also published three art portfolios and a collection of his pin-up paintings, Nothing but a Smile.

Rogers often had heart problems, he died from apparent heart failure while hiking with his family in California's Death Valley.

source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Full review 2/16/19)

Cover of my 1989 Berkley mass-market (297 pages). "Angels from hell clothe themselves in the flesh of corpses to form an unholy army" you say? Sold.
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Hoo boy. Imagine for a moment that the Book of Revelation is seemingly real, and it's happening. The End Days are here. Loved ones are vanishing into thin air. Planes are falling out of the sky. The dead are rising and killing everyone. They're unstoppable. Would you:

A. Mourn your lost loved ones while also trying to figure out ways to survive? Or:

B. Give zero shits about your lost loved ones and endlessly debate theology with every single person you come across, no matter the circumstances, no matter the imminent danger, no matter how non-sequiturial it may be in relation to the conversation already taking place, no matter if you even know the person you're speaking to?

If you answered B then, well, I'd probably stay away from you if we met in real life. But also, this novel would be perfect for you. The Dead is less a zombie novel than it is author Mark Rogers debating himself, struggling with his own sophomoric thoughts on religion vs. atheism. I'm not joking when I say that the vast majority of conversations in this book -- even before the shit hits the fan -- have at least one reference to either God, atheism, the Bible, angels, science vs. religion, Darwin, Creationism, heaven and hell, arguments over whether Hitler was Christian or not, Catholicism vs. Protestantism....you get the idea. And that's just not how real people talk. This happens even when the characters barely know one another. Repeatedly. Just random interjections like these.

I was fine with all this for the first 50 or so pages, but then I started to get the sinking feeling that the ENTIRE novel would be like this. And I was right. Or at least, it's possible that the final 30 pages redeemed the whole thing, but I'll never know because I stopped caring about 200 pages earlier and finally threw in the towel. Way too late. Nearly every character is insufferable (though at least the main protagonist, Gary, was minutely less so), and I was actively rooting for their deaths -- the more slow and painful the better. That's a major sign of a bad novel. In a 90-minute B-horror movie it can be fun watching asshole characters get their comeuppance, but in a 300-page novel there needs to be someone to sympathize with and root for.

The only thing that kept me reading was my interest in trying to figure out just what in the hell Mark Rogers was attempting to get across here. At first it almost seemed satirical, written by an atheist poking fun at religion, but somewhere along the line a switch was flipped, and Rogers was like, "Plot twist! I was a hardcore fanatic all along, suckers." The whole book is a baffling mess that makes no sense at all.

Final grade: F-

(But a film version would possibly be gloriously insane. IF they just rewrote every single line of dialogue, cut out 90% of the characters, and totally changed the remaining 10% into interesting ones. And focused on zombie carnage only.)
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(Initial post-read reaction on 2/15/19)

I'll probably get some hate for this, but I thought this was....what's a nicer word for "absolute garbage?" This opinion has nothing to do with the novel's Christian themes that some others had issues with. While I'm not a religious person, I can still buy into angels and Satan and whatnot while reading, in the same way I can buy into vampires, werewolves and all manner of supernatural beings in fiction. But this was just pure nonsense, with not a single believable character to be found. At least Mark E. Rogers didn't play favorites: he portrayed both the atheists and believers as unbearably asinine (in fact, I'd say the atheists were slightly more sympathetic and level-headed, even if their views did end up being ENTIRELY WRONG).

I'll have more to say once I'm able to wrap my mind around this soul-deadening experience. I should have kept a list of everything I hated goddammit.

[S. Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the best zombie horror novels published before zombies went mainstream at the turn of the century, even if it had one of the worst covers ever. Engaging characters and an action-driven plot are only part of it; the big success was how The Dead incorporated Christian mythology (the Rapture, Demons, Heaven and Hell) into its zombie plague without coming off like a Left Behind knock-off. Theology and faith are main concepts explored and debated by the main characters, yet the narrative never devolves into preachy or overbearing demagoguery. You won't find this novel in the Christian Horror section, and that's a good thing. If you're a fan of zombie horror and haven't read this yet, add it to your TBR pile.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of zombie fiction. I have read most of what Amazon has to offer and will continue to seek out more as more product is produced. After reading some of the reviews of this book, I was pretty prepared to be disappointed in this novel as a real diversion from standard zombie fiction that gets preachy and rather annoying. I was happily mistaken in that presumption.

Certainly, this book utilizes christianity as a background with which to play with. The dead here are angry, vicious, damned souls that want nothing more than to destroy the rest of humanity, to pull them down to their own cursed level instead of being mindless flesh eaters. They rip and tear at people but do not devour them-it is not their purpose to consume the living but to have them join them in their agony.

Unlike "The Rising" and "City of the Dead" by Brian Keene, you do not get the sense that these cursed souls from the abyss or their demon overseer are being forced to act like Romero zombies because the author wants to bridge the gap between Romero and the Bible. At least that is not the sense I got. I am not saying that Brian Keene didn't do a good job of it, but this felt more biblical, more epic in nature. I got the feeling that the Mark Rogers created these creatures and felt no need to slap an added layer of "varnish" on them to make them more like other similar creatures in other works.

I would agree that the main characters do fit into some stereotypical molds-the agnostic, the atheist, the religious zealots, etc. It did not detract from the overall story though. They were only stereotypes on the surface-the character development was still satisfactory and individualized these people quite well. The ones that must fight to live after the "rapture" have to find ways to escape the ever increasing army of the dead and find ways to come to grips with this new reality-that they must change their beliefs, their attitudes if they want to transcend it. Survival here is not the true goal, at least not on this plane of existence.

Obviously, this is not your typical zombie work and if you go into it expecting that, like some other reviewers, you will probably be upset and feel you were jipped. Especially if you feel like the author is somehow getting all "high and mighty" with his message. In my view, it was very well done though. You don't have to agree with the christian view points or perceptions of the apocalypse to find this work interesting to say the least and quite an fun action adventure to boot. The action sequences are well written and keep things moving at a rapid pace.

Some have said there was a lot of editing errors in this book. I just read "Zombies in my Hometown" and I can say with all honestly this book is infinitely superior as far as the editing is concerned to many of the books out there in the genre. Yes, there were spelling errors and I got the sense that the font was changed before the book went to press and some of the words were jammed together because of it, but unless you cannot tolerate a few mistakes here and there, you should be able to get through it with minimal anguish. After all the self published zombie works I have read lately, I consider this book towards the higher end of the scale as far as editing is concerned. Of course, compared to highly polished works produced by big publishing houses it is lacking, but again it is nothing that will really bog you down.

I am a person who enjoys a lively debate; a good argument about religion and philosophy. While some of the conversations going on in this novel did seem a bit contrived they still brought up interesting points of view and commentary that was stimulating to read through. I don't have to agree with everything put in print or get angry at someone for speaking out for something I might disagree with so none of it upset me. I honestly did not feel that the author was preaching but was posing different ideas and giving his characters the passion to state them.

I will state for the record that my opinions are influenced by the fact that I grew up Catholic-went to Catholic schools, the whole nine yards. As I grew to adulthood I spent a great deal of time questioning my own and other religions and am not a practicing Catholic or a member of any other churches at this time. Despite that, I am always interested and open to various view points on both God and religion and so reading this book was, for me, an interesting exploration of both of those topics.

As I stated in the title of my review, this book is fun, fast paced, and different than a "normal" zombie novel. If you are generally open to seeking out something a little different in the undead realm that has some religious undertones to it you might enjoy it, but if you are looking for just a traditional undead tale with no hint of the "wrath of God" then this book might not be to your taste.

[Todd Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is definitely NOT for everyone. It as a very dark undertone that laced with religious dogma. The blending of the zombie genre with the religious rapture is very abrasive in most places. With all that said, I have to say I enjoyed this.

There's never been a book that I've felt so much emotion for. A lot of the time angry with the Catholic bashing. It not that it offends me. I'm not a religious person. But it seems that Rogers wants to beat you over the head with his views.

But the zombies lining people up at the beach to drown them in the high tide to make more demon troops. The slowly dying of the sun and earth.. It all adds to one of the most frightening zombie apocalypses ever put on paper.

I've read this book 4 times. And i'm thankful for it's flaws. It's a definite conversation peace and has sparked many arguments.

I love it!

[Thee_ron_clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead takes an interesting spin on religion and the rapture. As opposed to how some might translate the Book of Revelation from the Bible, this novel adds an interesting twist. Those left behind are hunted and tortured by demonic zombies. Pretty decent read if you don't mind a bit of religion thrown into your horror novels.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea why but this is the scariest book I have ever read. but I do have to say it was the worst edited book I have ever read

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for the gore and horror. 2 stars for the unfinished Christian subtext and unsatisfying ending.

[Joseph Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Gritty with the supernatural world undertone. I would read more of this kind of book. Loved the ending!

[Natasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book!

[Frances Braddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have read many times trying grasp the religious aspects, its horrifying, gave me nightmares and this if anything is how i picture it would be.

[Richard Kearney · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who like a good dose of theological disputation with their zombie fiction, Mark E. Rogers' novel The Dead may be just the ticket. I was originally motivated to pick this novel up because Rogers, who spent his high school years in Point Pleasant Beach, sets the action in the fictional town of Bayside Point, situated on a peninsula on the Jersey Shore. As it turns out a good deal of the plot involves a group of survivors attempting to overcome the problem of escaping from such a location when bridges are out, navigable boats are unavailable, and narrow stretches of land are surrounded by water. But Rogers intends for his story to provide more than a tale of zombies run amok at the shore.

Main protagonist Gary Holland and his wife Linda, two academics who teach at Delaware University, are summoned home to New Jersey by the news of Gary's father's death. Even before the funeral takes place, Gary finds himself tormented by strange dreams involving his father rising from the dead and what appears to be an announcement of God's Last Judgment. Adding to his sense of dread is his mother's sudden and unexplained disappearance shortly after his arrival (we are soon given to understand that she has been raptured to Heaven before Hell literally breaks loose on earth).

Gary's family continues to prepare for the funeral even as a number of very disturbing events take place around them, including multiple simultaneous plane crashes, the deliberate derailing of a local train, and a wave of bloody murders. Finally at the burial site itself the dead - including Gary's father - begin to rise in the cemetery, setting off the havoc that engulfs the main characters for the rest of the novel.

The other major character in the novel is Gary's older brother, Max, a former Marine, who provides critical leadership and military prowess to the survivor group during the initial panic and throughout the novel. At least as important to Rogers' narrative, however, is Max's devout commitment to Roman Catholicism and his proclivity to engage in vigorous debate over issues of faith, a strak contrast to Gary's largely unreflective agnosticism. Strange as it may seem that such debates could take place among characters preoccupied with dodging vicious attacks from hordes of murderous zombies, Rogers does manage most of the time to blend them into the plot without too much heavy-handedness.

In the course of the novel, Rogers proceeds to define all of the principal characters in relation to their religious convictions or lack thereof, and how they increasingly view their own actions or choices in the context of the apocalypse unfolding around them. The characters include atheists who deny the existence of God, a Roman Catholic priest undergoing his own crisis of faith, a born-again Christian fundamentalist businessman, and an array of others who try to make sense of what is happening by embracing or rejecting a religious framework. Eventually, Rogers "helps" his characters toward a clearer understanding of their own beliefs by bringing the zombies themselves into the debate in most explicit fashion.

Does "The Dead" work as fiction? Is it a good example of the zombie genre? It is something more? Or less? Rogers does an effective job of conveying the shock and horror of a zombie uprising and offers plenty of gruesome scenes, but by the end of the novel Rogers has subordinated most elements of his story to the depiction of an apocalypse in religious terms ... as he understands them. In effect, Rogers seems to abandon the novel for a religious meditation on the possible meaning of the last judgment; and as a religious writer his arguments often struck me as sketchy and oversimplified. Most zombie fiction novelists address ethical issues in their work - to do so seems a natural dimension of the genre - but Rogers seems more ambitious in offering an explicitly religious and cosmological vision in "The Dead." Although I didn't find it very convincing as fiction or theology, I can respect the attempt.

[Ryne Barber · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead is a simple title, but one that does not mimic the complexity of the story within. Rogers' 1989 novel has been reprinted by Permuted Press in a tome containing over 30 original illustrations by the author. Rogers has managed to work in zombies with an intricate religious plot that hinges on sinning and repentance.

We are introduced to Gary, an atheist who begins the story with strange dreams about his father's death that come true. Disappearances, strange mechanical failures, and shared nightmares preclude the zombie apocalypse, which soon becomes a fight for survival when Gary and his family, especially his brother Max, are targeted by the big bad daddy Legion in his quest to damn them to Hell.

The main point to bring up about Rogers' story is the fact that it manages to break free of the stereotypical zombie genre to include a legitimate plot about religion. Zombie films tend to make mention of some sort of religious aspect as a cause of the zombie outbreak, specifically blaming God for the suffering caused, but generally it remains two-dimensional in scope. Rogers' plot is more focused on the Last Judgment, and zombies are just a side-effect of that event. This makes the story so much more intriguing - instead of requiring the reader to slog through 300 pages of zombie mayhem which differs only slightly from others of the same ilk, we get drama that originates from the conflict of religion.

One of the best things about The Dead is its reluctance to jump right into the violent, gory nature of zombies. Instead, we're treated to creepy, atmospheric dreams and frantic conversations that make the lead-up to the Last Judgment so much more eerie than being thrown into the action right away. Rogers has done a good job of creating tension throughout the piece, enough to keep the reader going without knowing exactly what is happening.

The zombies are intense, especially because they can't be killed with just headshots. They're practically unstoppable, continuing to advance even when they're in pieces. It makes the action much scarier when the enemy is barely susceptible to weaponry. Legion also has some solid dialogue that gives him a really menacing quality.

The setup is good, it's no lie, but there's a point where Rogers starts to lose a grip on concluding the story. The salvation of the good is slightly confusing; some suffer, some don't and are just divinely spirited to Heaven. There are a few instances where the ideas are presented but never cleared up; for one, the mechanical failures don't seem to make sense, because the entities that are creating the problem seem to be against the zombies.

There's also a tendency to rely too much on religious dialogues to advance the plot. There are times when whole chapters are devoted to the characters waxing philosophical on their own ideas of religion, and while it adds good characterization, it can get a little tiring to wade through all of the mumbo-jumbo.

But summationally, The Dead works well to combine suffering and sinning with zombies in a crazed world, with characters who are continually tested by ultra-stressful events. There's some great imagery here that provides a dense atmosphere, one which can become creepy in the right setting. While the illustrations could be better in printing quality, they do add a lot to the story alongside it, and Permuted Press' new edition of Rogers' novel thankfully reprints this worthy zombie read.

[Jason Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A combination of Biblical/Raptural apocalypse and zombie horror, this is a really good read that, unlike many Christian eschatological novels (such as the unreadable "Left Behind" series), can even engage non-Christian readers such as myself. Mark E. Rogers keeps the action moving along at just the right pace, from the first slow hints that something might not be right with the world -- the dreams of Last Judgment, the mysterious disappearances -- to the sudden eruption from graveyards and funeral homes of millions of fast-moving, intelligent, murderous, unkillable corpses, their faces twisted forever in horrible grins of malevolence and pain. A small group of (conveniently heavily-armed) survivors, centered around two brothers and their families who have come together for their father's funeral, desperately fights to survive just a little longer in the face of infernal evil and impossible odds...

I originally knew Mark E. Rogers as the author of the comedic/satirical "Samurai Cat" novels (which he also illustrated, like the cover of "The Dead"), so I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he played the apocalyptic situation straight, using his everpresent knack for action, gore and vivid descriptions, with only a few touches of humor (such as one great paragraph making fun of Stephen King's "It"). This is the book that Brian Keene's "The Rising" series (which came later) could have been, if Keene had been a better writer and willing to actually address the theological implications of what he was writing about, instead of just running the characters from place to place until they're all dead. (Also, the corpses in "The Rising" are merely POSSESSED by demons who move in when the person's soul leaves, while the corpses in "The Dead" are the same people they were in life, only damned and twisted and turned evil -- a MUCH scarier idea!)

Some readers may be turned off (or turned on) by Rogers' conservative politics: frankly, as is typical in Rapture books, all the liberal and atheist characters in this book are two-dimensional caricatures. However, FWIW, Rogers seems to be more socially conservative than religious per se; he doesn't spend much time on dogma or really seem to be trying to convert readers (to the Roman Catholic church, incidentally, not the usual Raptural born-again Protestantism), and you know the author isn't too uptight about the Bible when the story includes semi-humorous lines like "But I thought this was a Catholic universe!" and a metaphor comparing Jesus Christ to a Hechler & Koch submachine gun. As a lefty/liberal type, I might not want to talk about politics with Rogers, but I'd sure as hell want to talk to him about horror novels, since he's written such a good one.

[Josh Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read this book for the second time. The first was when I was in junior high thirty years ago. I think I picked it up at a K-Mart or something because I liked the cover and was into zombies. I tried reading a reprinted version years ago but it felt too different because of the clean format so I eventually found a first-printing copy for nostalgia. It’s weird what I remembered from it and how I remembered some parts differently, but I’m also a little disturbed at the graphic material I consumed at that young age. I mean, that same year, my mom confiscated a cassette tape from me that had a recording of Metallica’s One on it because she thought it was too gross for me and that *paled* in comparison to the stuff I was reading at the time (which is kind of odd considering that she got me into Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King a few years before that). There is a lot of Christian theology and debate that’s in it, too, and I’m not sure how I got through that the first time because I didn’t really get that stuff when I was a kid. I guess the zombie parts were interesting enough that I didn’t care.

I thoroughly enjoyed it this time around, though. The premise is that the rapture has happened and Earth has become hell (hence, the theology). The dead rise from their graves and go about torturing the living who weren’t good enough to vanish off to heaven. These zombies are much scarier than the ones from the Romero movies or The Walking Dead because they are intelligent and malicious. They can use weapons and drive cars, similar to the ones in Brian Keene’s The Rising, and if that’s not bad enough, they’re pretty much superhuman. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could survive a few hours in this nightmare world.

This would make an *amazing* movie if done right. There’s a lot of gore and horror but some great action as well. One character named Max is a total badass ex-Marine and there’s a chapter with him single-handedly wreaking havoc on these super zombies and if there ever is a movie and they don’t find a way to work Der Kommissar by Falco into the soundtrack, they’ve made a serious mistake (It makes sense if you’ve read the book).

Overall, great, kickass zombie novel, if you’re into stuff like that and don’t mind some religion mixed in.

[Brainycat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written story of the christian apocalypse that takes place shortly before rapture and over the next few days. Personally, I like antiheroic points of view so the pro-christian dogma felt a little heavy handed at times, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

The focus is on the interplay behind a handful of friends and family who find themselves together at the family patriarch's funeral when all hell literally breaks loose. The characters each represent a point of view about faith and spirituality; at least the males do. I was very disappointed at the lack of strong female characters; despite being half the cast their entire job is to cry, bandage wounds and die.

The characters all blend together in my head. Max stands out as the main protagonist with the most "screen time", and his uncle Buddy stands out because he was such an asshole. All the other characters seem like shades of each other; they only stand out uniquely in one on one conversation but are immediately forgotten again. This may be because they are all white, hetero and middle class.

The action was very well paced, but the violence wasn't as gory as I like. The action did keep moving the story along though. There were no steamy scenes, but given the scenario and the pacing sexual encounters would not be appropriate.

About half way through the book I realized the main protagonist Max is an allegory for Jesus in the days before his crucifixion, and I was able to wade through the author's sermons because I was looking forward to the next reference. I wasn't disappointed, and the climax wherein Max all but cries "Why hast thou forsaken me??!?" was very well played.

Even though I found myself rolling my eyes at the christian point of view, the story is well constructed and the writing solid despite the weak characterization. I made a point of finishing it to claim the moral high ground; I may not agree with the points the author wants to convey, but I'm man enough to listen to all of them.

[Ingame149 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dead by Mark Rogers.

First off yes this is a Christian themed book with zombies in it. I know, I was amazed with the blending of two genres as I read the book and they blend seamlessly together.

Mark Rogers is a devote Catholic so there is a lot more spirituality and discussions on faith than you're going to find in other books along with enough swearing to give this book a firm grounding in reality. One of good thing Rogers is very good at is presenting both sides of an argument, so when two people are debating or arguing you never feel one side is truly winning. It might seem that way at first but later on you're going to get the other sides version of things to balance everything out.

Another thing Rogers does is write really well. I wouldn't say he's a great writer but man can he tell a story. His writing is on par with Stephen King, only Rogers editing of useless material is much better. King over writes to many of his books now by a hundred pages or so. There is none of that in Rogers books. His characters are true blue collar workers or at least feel that way, which helps to give them a firm a grounding in reality and easy to relate to. The pacing moves along with a decent speed but nothing too fast and violence is well very violent as one would expect from a zombie themed story. It was a good read and doesn't take too long to finish if you're in the mood for a little light, fun reading, this is the book for you.

[Jared Walz · Rating 2 out of 5]

A zombie novel that's obscurely splattered with more religious references than guts. The characters are always fighting over something: whether or not God is merciful, whether or not one survivor or the other is going to hell... a whole bunch of nonsense, especially when there are more rational things to think about when the apocalypse comes. It didn't help, either, that the author is pretty sexist. The women are literally pushed to the side the entire time, and are only referred to as "crazy bitch" or "woman" when they do something to get themselves noticed. Of course you hate every single one of them, because Rogers makes you, and are entirely indifferent to the men, because the author's seemingly incapable of making you care about even his personal favorites. And the worst part is: this one starts out pretty good. It just degenerates really, really quickly.

[Lisa Decesare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will say this, the premise of the book is an original and fun concept. Supposedly the end of days have come and the demons that are attacking those left behind take the form of zombies.

I like zombie lit and this was a different twist on a tired story.

Sadly, the book was not edited at all. Words ran together and the spelling and punctuation definitely needed help. It was also very heavy handed where religion was concerned.

But, it wasn't a total loss, the story was interesting. I read it all the way through, just skimming over the too intense religious debates. I just don't understand why the author did not have ANYONE edit it at all.

[Hilary · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was more a Christian book than a Zombie book, and shouldn't be marketed to the Zombie crowd. To get through this book you have to be very familiar with scripture. In addition to the Christian aspect, which didn't fly with me, the book was also, I suspect, self-published, and not very well edited. There were numerous typos on every page, and the formatting was distracting and difficult to read. The dialogue was cliched and flat, and worst of all, the very first chapter has an alarm clock ending. Serious ouch.

My favorite thing about the book: the cover. It's worth blowing up the picture and looking at it, 'cause it's so cool.

[Matt McRoberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an alright story, but went too heavily on the religion stuff. Spent lots of time breaking from action so the characters could have more religion discussion. It was boring after a while especially when they're running for their lives and just stop to have another religion discussion. Also not really a fan of the demon possessed zombies especially ones that were almost super powered. I've seen the possessed zombie thing done before and had it done much better then in this story.

Overall an ok read, but i don't expect to re-read this one any time in the near future.

[Stout · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book with some well-drawn illustrations and interesting characters. The story was unique in comparison to other books in the genre and overall it was a good read. There were times when the story did not keep me engaged and this was a book that I put down many times before finally finishing it. I would recommend it to fans of zombie literature looking for something a bit different.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read many a novel about zombie/zombie-like apocalypses, but this is the only one that actually unnerved me the way a horror book should. The rest are just dark, fun, suspenseful romps compared to this novel. Published in 1989, "The Dead" predates both the "Left Behind" series and the current zombie craze. It is very well written and illustrated, a page-turner that I ate at one sitting. Get the novel. Read it. Know your zombie apocalypse like you've never known it before.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good zombie read. I felt it tended to drag at times, but Rogers knows how to create a scene and is able to come up with new and interesting ways for people to be overwhelmed by zombies. I especially enjoyed the theological discussions interspersed throughout the story. I felt like I was reading Dante's Inferno, quite enjoyable. If you like zombies and wonder if God could ever use zombies as a means by which to bring about the apocalypse, do not pass up this book.

[Mitchell Sayre · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I quite enjoyed this book. It's interesting to see an author try to tackle the subject of the biblical apocalypse. It's also a book, due to the subject matter, that requires its characters to be less than likeable. They are the "sinners" left behind to deal with the fallout. It becomes a story of redemption for some and a story of completing the journey to hell for others. It's a quick read and good story that might make you consider things a little bit. Worth a look.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always like the line "When hell is full the dead will walk the earth". This book deals a lot with religion and the end of times. I do like the notion of trying to understand what armegeddon must be like. The good people go to heaven, the dead live and beware if you are on the new earth. Hell is indeed a issue. can you be saved? Doubtful, but one fine read following some of the left behind.

[Jeannie R · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dead is hands down the best Zombie story I've ever come across ( and that's saying a lot)! This book is hilarious & terrifying as well as original & thought provoking. I've honestly read it 5 times and like it better with each reading. READ THIS BOOK!!!

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok read.

Story was ok, too much religion for me. More a story of a fictitious purgatory. I didn't have the errors in grammar or punctuation that others have mentioned, it must have been edited again due to the complaints.

[Paul Iannizzotto Jr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright honestly I do like this book even if it is out of my comfort zone but what's with ALL THE TYPOS!? It was so hard to read with a typo or 2 on every single page. This could've been an even better book if they proofread it...ugh 3 stars for me.

[Moro Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got a big kick out of this, it's original and very scary. (Liked the illustrations, too.)

[Malik Tous · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best zombie book ever. Not very well known, but a lot of other people have ripped it off. Very scary and intelligent. Some might be put off by the theological stuff, but I ate it up.