The Dead Walk Diaries: Night

Who is Joe Young and why isn't he writing more?? Just about every short story in this book would make an awesome novel. You really can't go wrong with this book if your a zombie fan. I definitely enjoyed myself.

The dead walk diaries was a fun quick little read. I enjoyed the different perspectives in each chapter. I have read a number of books about the walking dead and this was a pretty good read.

Young's first book in a series, is a collection of diaries that depict the ravenous onslaught of a zombie outbreak on the first night. Each diary offers a unique perspective on various predicaments of the uprising. Even though each diary is from a different individual with a unique struggle for survival, such as a young girl, a National Guardsman, a magazine writer, a college professor, a newcaster, and others -The stories overlap and interconnect creating a cohesive narrative and a rich reading experience. It delivers plenty of fun, action, blood, and gore to satisfy all fans of the genre -and even create new ones.

I debated on four or five stars for this surprisingly fun and brief compilation of individual's tales of the first night of the undead invasion. This book is somewhat mysterious in that there is no publisher listed and no details about the author. Heading to the website all you get is the option of ordering the book and a few tidbits on it plus it gives the impression that the author has collected these stories from other people--the website asks you for your diary entry, making me wonder if this book is actually the collected works of several different authors writing under the pen name of Joe Young (not that I would presume as such, but one could easily draw that conclusion based on looking at the website). I liked the sparseness of this work. Each of the entries allow you to form a skeleton of the overall attack by the living dead-how it may have started, the city these people dwell in, etc. We are also given a small amount of thread that ties each of the stories together--an example is a garage band blasting their instruments while the dead surround their house, which is one story and that is mentioned by a fleeing National Guardsmen in his story...and most of the tales have those sort of fleeting links that give this book a sense of cohesion. I was worried when I got this that it was self published. Too often zombie books are self published and do not even come close to being edited properly. As I mentioned there was no publisher listed on the book itself. As I read it I was pleasantly surprised to discover very few misspellings and typos which usually run rampant in the self published world. Again, I debated on four stars or five for this, and settled on five because this book explored a pretty wide variety of experiences. That was its biggest plus. We get a terrific cross section of short stories, each with a different take on things. We get the radio broadcast, a child's perspective, a National Guardsman, a Police Officer, and numerous regular citizens telling us how they survived (or did not survive). Good stuff and it deserves a spot in your library if you enjoy zombie stories at all.

Upon first glance at author, Joe Young's book, "Dead Walk Diaries" a reader may be tempted to groan and pass it off as just another zombie story. If one were to make such a mistake, they would find themselves missing out on one of the freshest, most sincere stories in this genre to date. Foregoing the speedy zombies of the twenty-first century, Joe Young returns to the mass of single-minded, lumbering corpses made famous by Romero. The formula used is a successful one: throw a bunch of innocent people amongst a mob of flesh-eating deadites and see how they do. What follows is an intense ride which grips you from the first scene and doesn't let go even days after you set it aside. The book is set up as various journals, memos, and video feeds of individuals who are experiencing the first night of a zombie infestation. What Joe Young accomplishes with this novel approach to story telling is taking a played-out concept and giving it a fresh face. He manages to take a zombie story and make it about the people fighting for their lives. The fear, confusion, and sheer revulsion felt by those unfortunate souls who find themselves dropped into a living nightmare is brought forth in a very real way to the reader. Joe Young becomes a ventriloquist of sorts, creating completely believable characters in an unimaginable scenario. Each journalist speaks with a clear and distinct voice, humanizing their plight. Each author experiences and reacts to their nightmare differently, causing the reader to momentarily forget that they are all written by the same hand. From the first character (a sweet, doomed, young lady by the name of Sara), to the last, you are given a glimpse into the dark secrets and naked emotions of some very real people, fleshed out with skill and aplomb. Filled with poignancy, humor, and -- of course -- horror, Dead Walk Diaries gives the reader the guilty pleasure of delving into the personal thoughts of various realistic people who are struggling to survive a night of terror. Bolt your doors and lock your windows. They're coming.