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Breathers: A Zombie's Lament |  | Author: S. G. Browne
Publisher: Broadway
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $8.00
as of 11/21/2009 15:30 CST details
You Save: $6.00 (43%)
New (39) Used (17) Collectible (3) from $3.96
Seller: any_book
Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 22829
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767930614
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780767930611
ASIN: 0767930614
Publication Date: March 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For fans of Max Brooks’s The Zombie Survival Guide and zombie aficionados everywhere, a hilarious debut novel about life (and love) after death.
Meet Andy Warner, a recently deceased everyman and newly minted zombie. Resented by his parents, abandoned by his friends, and reviled by a society that no longer considers him human, Andy is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his new existence. But all that changes when he goes to an Undead Anonymous meeting and finds kindred souls in Rita, an impossibly sexy recent suicide with a taste for the formaldehyde in cosmetic products, and Jerry, a twenty-one-year-old car-crash victim with an exposed brain and a penchant for Renaissance pornography. When the group meets a rogue zombie who teaches them the joys of human flesh, things start to get messy, and Andy embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will take him from his casket to the SPCA to a media-driven class-action lawsuit on behalf of the rights of zombies everywhere.
Darkly funny, surprisingly touching, and gory enough to satisfy even the most discerning reader, Breathers is a romantic zombie comedy (rom-zom-com, for short) that will leave you laughing, squirming, and clamoring for more.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
 Smooth read November 15, 2009
O. Carbo (Miami, FL USA)
I really liked this book. It's nice to read about the zombie's perspective. We as humans are usually one sided but this makes you think about how and what you think about.
Breathers: A Zombie's Lament November 5, 2009
M. M. Stafford
I bought this book for my boyfriend who is an avid zombie fan. When it arrived, I paged through it and read a couple chapters just to get a taste for it and it was hilarious! I knew he would be happy with it and he was! He loves it and I recommend it to any zombie fan.
 A Real Turd October 25, 2009
Arthur Kicker (Your Mom's House)
I love zombies. I love zombies movies. I love zombie novels. But 'Breathers' sucks a big one. I hate it when writers or directors try to put a "new spin" on the zombie film. Does anyone really want to read a book about a zombie falling in love? No. Skip this one.
 Definitely NOT a classic! October 22, 2009
T. Owens (Houston, TX USA)
Boy, this book was a let-down. Being a fan of the zombie genre (and having enjoyed "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z" by Max Brooks), this book sounded like a fun read.
To start with, the blurbs on the back of the book give away a couple of key plot points which make sudden "revelations" in the book completely meaningless.
As far as the writing, it is ok, but pedestrian. Browne is not a stellar writer and he makes no attempt to be a master of the written word...not only that, he has some stock phrases that he uses ("If you've never *fill in zombie experience here*, you probably wouldn't understand" is used over and over and OVER for supposedly humorous effect). He also uses a lot of clumsy zombie-inspired metaphors that are just lame. I have never read Chuck Palahniuk, the author of "Choke" and "Fight Club," but other readers have said Browne's writing seems like a pale imitation; I knew the writing smacked of derviation (from a number of people, no doubt).
The characters? Thin, one-dimensional and prone to the same kind of dialogue over and over and OVER. The main character (the narrator, Andy) is angsty for a long time, then gets over it after a certain turn of events and a lot of irritating soul-searching and simplistic haikus. The love interest is only interesting because she is hot...the best friend is funny because he's a typical young adult stoner. Boring. I think the Andy's parents are perhaps the characters that suffer the most, due to the author's unwillingness to "flesh them out." (haha)
Stupid things that happen? Take your pick. Andy is constantly whining about how he "can't remember what his daughter looks like" (he lives with his parents - don't they have pictures of their granddaughter anywhere?)...it's stuff like this that's irritating. People are constantly pelting Andy with food...do the "Breathers" have no lives other than to pelt zombies with Big Gulps and sandwiches? And don't get me started on zombie sex...it IS explained, but the explanation (and where the book ultimately leads) is seriously unsatisfying.
Yes, I gave it two stars because the story is, at the very least, different and the writer keeps a brisk pace. But, as one review I recently read mentioned, I was really glad when it ended. The potential for a refreshing twist on the zombie story was squandered by the author's inability to avoid the trap of unoriginality.
Breathers...zombies with a romantic twist 4.5 stars October 18, 2009
Patrick S. Dorazio (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Andy died in a car wreck a while back that took his wife from him and brought him back from the dead as a zombie. This only happens with a small percentage of the deceased, and those who return are not treated with much respect by the living, aka breathers. Andy tries to reconnect with the world by spending time with a therapist who doesn't really do much for him except ask inane questions and with a UA (Undead Anonymous) group that spends their time listening to the group leader tell them that they are important and somehow have a purpose in unlife. But Andy, like the others in the group, are tortured endlessly by the living. It seems that the vast majority of breathers are repulsed by their existence and tend to call animal control on them when they are out in public. Even Andy's parents, who are his breather guardians, don't really know what to do with him and relegate him to the wine cellar where he drinks endless bottles of wine and watches mind numbing TV as he slowly rots away. But soon he discovers an interest in another zombie, a girl named Rita from the UA group who comitted a suicide that didn't take, as well as some wonderful food a renegade zombie named Ray has whipped up that he claims is venison. As Andy discovers love and a newfound determination to tell the world that he has the right to exist, he begins getting stronger and more determined to create a unlife for himself and Rita, regardless of what the living world feels about him.
The story does meander a bit early on as Andy tries to figure things out but I liked the main character's dry sense of humor that turns rather dark the further along in this tale we get. I haven't read a full length novel before that was all from the eyes of the zombies and this one really gives a new perspective and allows the audience to feel real sympathy for these people who did not ask to rise from the dead or even their almost euphoric appreciation for breather flesh. And while Andy's commentaries about how we just wouldn't understand because were not zombies might get a bit repetitive to the reader, it does remind us that we really just don't understand how hard it is being a zombie in a living world.
My appreciation for Andy's plight sort of waxed and waned as the story progressed and his taste for breather increased. The breathers in this tale, all of them, are not three dimensional characters and there are few that we get to know with any depth. Those we do get to know, Andy's parents and his therapist, are all shallow and repulsed by Andy and his friends, who are far more lively and vivid as characters than the living. So this tale makes it fairly easy to see things from the undead perspective and how the living seem to deserve the fate they get at their dead hands, especially when the living commit atrocities on the unliving. But for me there is only so much empathy I can have for a zombie as it starts rattling off different delightfully tasty recipes for breather and starts having barbeques and dinner parties with homeless people as the main course. Still, this is one very creative and original black comedy that I got a kick out of through most of the pages. If you are a fan of the zombie genre, black comedies, and seeing things from a slightly different perspective than normal, give this one a try.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
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