Choose your own fable

This post is meant for us to organise the selection of fables to read in class, so that nobody his or her partners' choices.

After selecting one of the fables adapted by Tolstoy and checking that nobody else has chosen it before, write your name and the title of the fable in the comments thread. If the fable was already taken, I'm afraid you'll have to pick up another one.

Jerry´s kids meet Wormboy (review)

David J. Schow

(Review by Ivanna Palazzetti)

`Jerry´s kids meet Wormboy´ is a horror short story about zombies which was written by David J. Schow. It belongs to a big book of short stories collection called `The book of the dead´.

This particular story tells the reader about a cannibal teenager named Wormboy who decides to entrench himself at the crest of Valley View cemetery´s oldest hilltop. He leads the group of the Born-Agains which confronts Right Reverend Jerry´s one. Jerry is situated at the opposite hilltop leading his Deacons, the 'geeks' of his undead congregation. He controls his Deacons by feeding them rattlesnake venom and tries to convince them with his interpretation of the Armageddon and the Second Coming. After some fights between Wormboy and Right Reverend Jerry, the plot has an unexpected and horrific twist, which I´m sure you wouldn´t want to read about.

I, particularly, wouldn´t encourage teenagers to read `Jerry´s kids meet Wormboy´, because it includes some inappropriate themes such as homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, discrimination, and cannibalism among others like religion. What is more, the vocabulary that the author has used in this story is too complex not only for adolescents but also for adults, and in some parts there are even insults.

-Ivanna Palazzetti-

Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed (review)

Written by Steve Duffy

(Review by Guadalupe Bustingorri)

Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed written by Steve Duffy is part of a book called Zombies – Encounters with the hungry dead created by John Skipp, an American author, who has collected different stories that reflect upon some of the teenagers’ interests when reading is the subject matter. It is worth mentioning at this point that this book can be matched with what is known as horror fiction, a genre of literature which is quite accepted by teen and young adult readers.

Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed counts with three male friends and a girl, who is dating with one of them, as main characters. This story takes place in a night trip. At first, everything was going easy and enjoyable for these friends, but this situation changes when a person known by them called Andy appears turned into a zombie. The story has an attractive and unexpected end that leaves the reader thinking about it for some minutes.

To some extent, the story is pretty much attention-grabbing since it deals with some issues related to teen people such as love insecurities when starting a new relationship, sexual feelings, courage and the stereotyped personalities among a group of friends who are, more or less, at the same average age. Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed also includes a great sense of adventure which is present at least in most of the teenagers´ lives around the world.

However, there is nothing said out of the ordinary about these affairs in this horror story. What I mean to say here is that, there is nothing new or undiscovered about them.

If it is only for entertainment or just because of the pleasure that reading might provoke, I would highly recommend this story. But if you are seeking for originality or the deeply treatment of certain issues as I have previously mentioned before, do not even dare to waste your time.

The zombies of Madison County (review)

(Review by Pablo S. Barroca Roldàn)

The zombies of Madison County by Douglas E. Winter is an interesting short fiction story. It is about a writer who creates two characters Douglas Winter, a writer and lawyer, and Stacie, a zombie girl, who see each other again after some years but in different conditions. Even though, they have restrictions and only few time to be together, they try to enjoy as much as they can.

This story takes place at Madison county, Illinois and is described by the author as an inferno because of the misery, destruction of the buildings and cars of the city; after a great battle against the zombies. The way the author describes Madison County gives realism to the scenery and to the story also.

Love, passion, physical restriction and sexual desire are themes treated in this short fiction and of course, topics that yal are accustomed to watch at tv shows everytime. It is higly recommended.

Lazarus (review)

Leonid Andreyev

(Review by Silvina Rago)

Written by the Russian Leonid Nicolayevich Andreyev, this magnificent short story conveys pessimism to perfection. Having returned from death, Lazarus is welcomed by his relatives and friends who will soon notice he is no longer the same person.

Open to political and religious discussions, Lazarus’ content and writing style ensure a thorough and delightful reading. Andreyev has expertly personified death and will undoubtly engage those readers who love short fiction stories.

Worth every minute of it, I highly recommend it.

God Save the Queen (review)

God Save the Queen is one of te short stories of the well known book “Encouters with the Hungry Dead”. This collection of horror and supernatural stories about dead and zombies, written by masters of the horror, has become the favourite of those who love this kind of tales. This one, in particular, written by John Skipp and Marc Levinthal, gets you closer to the worlds of the dead and the living beings, and shows you the different ways of “surviving” of both. God Save the Queen tells the story of an ordinary living boy who lives few days with the Royal family. After having stayed for a short time with the queen and her family, he becomes almost a member of the family and an important character of the story carrying it to an unthinkable end.

God Save the Queen is an excellent story to be read by the ones who love tales about walking dead and at the same time it could make you reflect about the power of the monarchy and the difference between ordinary people and the royal family.

Call me doctor (review)

Eric Shapiro

(Review by Heredia Paula)

Call me doctor by Eric Shapiro is one of the short fictions that appear in the anthology "Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead" (2009).

The american producer and writer Eric Shapiro explores a different way to tell a zombie story. By placing a perceptive doctor as the main character, no one would suspect about his strange conduct. This doctor is not as any doctor, he has a different quality that makes him special in a differet way.

Alhough it is a science fiction story, its setting is quite realistic and descriptive. Directed to an adult or young adult audience, we can see how the main character deals with several feelings at the same time.This includes death, murder, crime and remorse.

Shapiro´s narrative is intriguing and full of details. The script is concise and some times confusing. It describes the deep and dark thoughts of the character in an explicit way.

I founded this story very surprising even though I am not fond of zombie stories. But if you are interested to read zombie fiction that shows humans and zombies coexisting in the same world, this is a good example to read.

Bodies and heads (review)

Steve Rasnic Tem

(review by Patricia De La LLera)

Bodies and heads, written by the American author Steve Rasnic Tem, is a short horror story taken from the book called Zombies: Encounters with hungry dead. This story deals with dead bodies that become alive again.

Bodies and heads is settled in Denver’s hospital where an unusual virus makes hospitalized people shake their heads almost all day long. The virus also causes on the affected people different behaviour disorders. The word zombie is whispered in the hospital’s corridors. Elaine and Betty, the devoted nurses looking after strange patients, have begun to suffer some symptoms.

This story holds the readers’ attention to the end where teens and young adults will find an exciting reading immersed in a zombie´s world. I highly recommend it. Don’t miss it!

The Good Parts (review)

Les Daniels

( review by Nieto Nancy)

The Good Parts is an amazing story written by the well known American author Les Daniels in 1989. It is part of a collection of stories which have been compiled in a zombi horror anthology edited by Jhon Skipp. The captivating story is directed to young people and adults who enjoy reading about zombies. Besides The Good Parts deals openly with issues about love, sex, paternity, maternity, pregnancy among others. These topics offer teachers many opportunities for interesting discussions and debates.since teenagers and adults may share their experiencies or appreciate new ones.

The Good Parts is a story about a big and virgin zombie who had only eyes for the meat. He would have been expressed that though in three words: the good parts. Throughout the story the strange walking dead looks for food all the time, but he only finds a female who will be his wife and mother of his son, later.

This work is interesting because Les Daniels uses many adjectives to describe the context and the characters in order to inmerse the readers in the horror story. As regards length is short to motivate them to finish the short fiction. This story presents an opportunity to young and adult people to reflect about life itself. It is highly recommended.

The dead gather on the bridge to Seattle (review)

Review by Giselle Albim

The dead gather on the bridge to Seattle is an extraordinary story by the editor and publisher of experimental poetry Adam Golaski. His horror and science fiction stories may captivate you since the very beginning you start reading one of his pieces of writing. The dead gather on the bridge to Seattle is a very well described story which allows the reader to be in Roger’s foot, a desperate brother who drives for hours in order to see his ill sister.

The setting of the story is the route from Decker to Seattle, which the main character takes after receiving a phone call from Viviana’s husband, his sister. A meteor shower amuses Roger while he is facing weird people and animals all along the gloomy way. Golaski is so good at describing facts, that you can not even imagine what is really taking place during Roger’s travel. Among desperate cell-phone-calls, situations that have no logical explanation, and some dismal gas stations, hours in the route are passing by including the quirky stuff around him.

Although I was able to feel as if I were the one driving that lonely route and was looking the lustrous pinkish sky. It is not a highly recommendable story if you are of those who wish to know all the details at the end of the story, because in this one, at the moment of closure you may find a surprise that depends on you enjoy it or not.

Best Served Cold (reviews)

(Review by Ma. Florencia Dominguez)

The famous Canadian author Justine Musk has written a story named “Best Served Cold” which focuses on the rising from the dead, in other words zombies. The main character, Thad, is a junky wealthy guy who makes private parties with his friends. He has a girlfriend, Kimmie, but he also has a mistress, Andrea.

In the story, Thad had to hide his mistress in a closet because Kimmie had arrived to the party. They have spent hours hovering lot of cocaine, eating, drinking and having fun by the time Thad remembered that Andrea was still in the closet. When he got there Andrea had become a zombie. I would highly encourage every zombie fan to go out and read this story, because it is very engaging and makes as scare throw the way the author describes the scenes and the characters.

Bitter Ground (review)

Written by Neil Gaiman

(Review by Cristian Matas)

“Bitter ground” is a short story written by Neil Gaiman who is probably best known for his works as an author of comic books and science fiction novels. The author’s peculiar and multiple interests are somehow reflected on this short story, which is surely peculiar and never normal at all from its first lines, leading the reader to ask himself continuously where the author is taking us and what the point is in the narration. It appears to be a weird story where the narrator, who is also the main character, puts himself into a series of accidental events. He looks like a person who has lost his identity and who is wandering along without any point at all in life. He is denying himself for the failure of a relationship, and he feels like he has no reason to live in this world anymore. This is the beginning of the story and also the leitmotiv of it and the gradual loss of life and identity.

Bourbon Street is the perfect scenario for narrator’s thoughts. His encounter with Macumba, the endemic occultism of the city, is simple and decisive. “Bitter Grounds” explores the fragile ties that secure us to our own individuality. Although there are some moments in which the readers have to be totally involved in the story in order to understand it, they can’t miss it at all.

Lemon knives'n'cockroaches (review)

Lemon knives´n´cockroackes is a science fiction story written by Carlton Mellick. The story deals with themes such as: sexuality, depression, death and freedom. These topics may adolescents fell identified with.

The story is about a fictional world in which creatures and zombies are the main characters of strange experiences.

One point to consider is that the narrator gives creatures and insects human feelings and emotions, and this can be perceive by readers through the vocabulary and adjectives used by the author.

Another point to take into account is that the author´s descriptive writing produces a sharp sensation on readers since they can picture the story in their minds.

The short story is bizarre but it will hold teenager´s attention since it is focused on young adults possible interests when choosing some reading material.

Respect the corpses! (review)

What do you think about zombies? Have you ever thought about their "lives"? Perhaps S.G Browne's "A Zombie's Lament" will help you to answer those and many other questions. This story, told by a really hurt zombie, sadly (and sometimes funnily) deals with the desires, fears, and problems of his life after death. I would encourage every teenager to go out from their graves and eat the brain of this story!

Sea oak (review)

By George

Review by Adriana Astrada

Bizarre and sarcastic “Sea Oak”, George Saunders’ short story is a real source of humour and entertaiment.The narrator is a young man who works at a male strip restaurant/club. He lives with his sister Min and his cousin Jade. Both girls stay at home to take care of their babies. The matron of the house is their aunt Bernie, a never-married woman who accepts her fate with smile.They all live in an appartment complex. One day aunt Bernie dies and their lives will change in an unexpected way.

George Saunders’ Sea Oak is a satirical master work interlaced with dry wit. A must have for all junior high and high school libraries.

The Quarantine Act (review)

Mehitobel Wilson

( Review by Nuñez Melina)

The Quarantine Act is a complex story written by the well-known and famous writer Mehitobel Wilson. This story is directed to teenagers and adults who love horror fiction and enjoy stories concerned with zombies. The author uses a wide vocabulary and she does not include illustrations which would be useful for the readers to understand the story.

The main characters of this story are a man called Alan and his wife Julia. Alan is in quarantine because of an epidemic that affects many citizens in the state where he lives. He refuses to accept an injection to be immunized and he dies but he becomes a zombie who is present all the time and mantains a relationship with his wife during the rest of the quarantine.

I do not recommend this story since it is very difficult to follow and to understand. What is more, the author mixes different events in the story that makes the reader feel lost.

Thrillers for young adults

(Review by Laura Dambolena)

“Zombies. Encounters with the hungry dead” is John Skipp’s recollection of dread tales, which includes “Dead men working in the cane field”, a short story written by W. B. Seabrook, the zombies-of-the-old-school-tales author. This particular text belongs to a series by Seabrook himself in which he goes to Haiti to understand the country’s folklore. One night, his host, a peasant called Polynice tells Seabrook a well-known Haitian history about some men brought, from afar, by a man who send them to work for low salaries in a cane field. Polynice suspects them to be zombies, as he saw something strange in them he cannot define. The protagonist does not believe in supernatural events so he looks for a very reputed scientific who says that the story may be truth.

The book, with its dreadful bloody cover design, promises, from the very beginning, all the adventure teenagers are seeking for. “Dead men...” in particular deals with several issues: the fact–fiction dichotomy, the “romantic” concept of death, cultural differences, folklore, reincarnation, and mystery, among others. It is highly recommended for young adults from thirteen to seventeen years old. They will find this tale very interesting as the story develops a scary thriller, leaving teenagers with a dilemma in an unexpected and surprising open-ending.

STEPHEN KING’S The Return of Timmy Baterman (review)

Review by Karina Moreschi

What would you do if someone you believe dead appears just before your eyes in any street of your hometown?...

Stepen King’s “The Return of Timmy Baterman” leads you to the thrilling sensation of such encounter. This excerpt from “Pet Sematary”, the 1983 King’s novel, finds Jud retelling this story to dissuade Louis, the main character of the novel, from bringing back to life his toddler baby, dead after being run over by a track.

Turned into a short story within the book “Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead” tells the story of Timmy Baterman, a seventeen years old boy who was killed charging a machinegun nest on the road to Rome during World War II. His father, Bill, buried Timmy and later he came to life, and was seen by terrified folks from that time on. Jud and some other companions went to Baterman’s house to confront Bill and Timmy, but the young boy confronted every one of them with well hidden secret of theirs lifes that nobody could have known except them. Giving the impression that the returned Timmy was a kind of evil person, Jud and his fellows left the house horrified. A strange event happened after this visit.

This genuine King’s horror tale will grab you from the very beginning and make you twist.

Highly Recommended

IT (review)

By theodore Stirgeon

Review by Gisela Koval

“Do dead things live again?” is the questions that led the American science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon to write “It”. This tale is included in “Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead Horror”, a collection of horror fiction stories. “It” is the story of a farmer family, who unknowing the existence of a living thing in the near forest, go on with their monotonous lives. The disappearing of their beloved dog kimbo will let them go into the woods and will expose them to the chilliest events as soon as they face the death itself.

“IT” is story filled with enjoyable terror, cold fear, suspense, intense descriptions of facts, and a catching plot . The readers will experience horror while reading “It”. Highly recommended for teens and young adults who don’t believe in “bad fella” any more. But after reading “It”… Who can assure it.

A Case of the Stubborn (review)

Robert Blotch
(Review by Florencia Villaverde)

A Case of the Stubborn is a zombie`s story written by the well-known author Robert Blotch. It tells the strange events of a southern family that has to deal with their dead grandfather.

The old man, who suffered a fatal heart attack, refuses to believe that he has died and continues with his life normally, as if nothing has happened. However, it causes great trouble to his relatives so his gransdson decides to adopt severe measures in order to prove him that he has already begun to rot.

It`s a very interesting story with a funny ending. You would really enjoy reading it. Highly recommended.

Sparks fly upward (review)

Lisa Morton

(Review by Florencia Gonzalez)

In Sparks fly upward, Lisa Morton deals with a controversial theme in a rather strange context. Abortion and the zombie world don’t seem to combine but they do in this horror tale. With rising temperatures and deadheads around, the first anniversary of a colony of survivors is the setting where Sarah tells us about her experience through her diary entries.

An appealing style and a very vivid description of the events drive you directly into this new scary world. I invite you all, fanatics or not of the horror genre, to read this story and to make your own judgment.

The Prince of Nox (review)

Kathe Koja

(Review by Angélica Santi)

“His name was Death; the yang to birth's yin and he had gone through it heedless as a tramp, stunned by plain sensation when he should have been most aware.”

In this edgy short story, American author Kathe Koja deals with the intense emotional rollercoaster of a super clever zombie using a third person to give a detailed account of his doings and feelings, from his initial transformation to his final moments.

This ingenious device gets the avid reader stuck to the text, as eerie sensations collide in his mind, while Koja’s meticulous writing style provide a wide variety of vocabulary and language.

A must-have for those enthusiasts of this genre.

Dead like me (review)

(Review by Natalia Diquech)

If you are the kind of person who loves reading horror fiction stories about zombies, dead people who wake up from theirs graves thirsty of blood and flesh, you should not miss Dead like my. The imaginative American writer Adam-Troy Castro portrays in this story a man who is trapped in a world full of zombies, or as the protagonist called them bastards, with no other chance that to act like one of them, with no other chance that to let himself go by his passions, anger and hunger if he still wants to be alive.

He is a human being but he cannot act as one. He can neither think nor dream because thinking and dreaming is something the Livings do.

This intriguing story directed to adults, because of its content and vocabulary, focuses on the ability human beings have to adapt to different environments in order to survive the most horrid and devastating situation. Among the many topics the story encompasses the most significant ones are loneliness, anger, lust and survival. All of them are brought into focus in this exiting and compelling story that you really ought to read.

Dead like me is one of the many stories you can enjoy reading on the collection “The living dead”.

The Visitor (review)

By Jack Ketchum

(Review by Renée Fredes)

Award-winning American author Jack Ketchum has made a great contribution to the horror genre. He has written the short story called “The Visitor” which belongs to a collection called “Zombies: encounters with hungry dead”. This short story deals with death and dead bodies rising again. “The Visitor” tells the story of a man, Will, whose wife has been bitten by a friend in her collarbone. At hospital she dies but Will continues visiting the same bed where she has died. During several visits he sees terrible things like mutilated bodies and dead people rising. In spite of that, Will pretends that all is well but this day something different happens.

“The Visitor” is a compelling story that holds young adults attention to the end, where there is a final unexpected twist. I highly recommend it for those who like this type of genre.