Zombie Raccoons & Killer Bunnies

Anthologies always have two sides to them. There are the good stories and there are the bad stories and, if you get lucky, you will have more good than bad. In Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies I thought there was a lot more good to say about it than negative, and that it brought some elements I didn't expect. I thought it would make me laugh, for example, but I did not think that any of the stories would have any frightening aspects. Still, some of the stories actually broke out of the zombie mold, cut teeth with the four legged, and kept me reading because I was either laughing or thinking "that's really screwed up." It was also something different and, in the zombie arena, anything different is something that might be worth mentioning. In case you want to know, here are the stories followed by their authors: Death Mask : Jody Nye, Bunrabs :Donald Bingle, for lizzie : Anton Strout, Faith in our Fathers : Alexander Potter, Bone Whispers: Tim Waggoner, Watching, Carrie Vaugh, The Things that Crawl : Richard Byers, The White Bull of Tara : Fiona Patton, Dead Poets: John Pitts, Super Squirrel to the Rescue : P.R. Frost, Her Black Mood: Brenda cooper, Ninja Rats on Harleys : Elizabeth Vaughan, Bats in Thebayou : Steven Silver, Twilight Animals : Nina Hoffman, The Ridges : Larry Sweazy As you can tell from some of the titles, some stories are there to amuse, some are there daring to be different, and some simply add a new section into this thing we call zombie lore. I bought this not expecting much, flipped through it for most of a day and night because it amused me, and would tell anyone that finds the title interesting to risk it because it paid off for me.

I love to read anthologies . . . nice to get through a story in a sitting when time is tight. But this collection kept me turning the pages until I finished it. Good mix of veteran and relatively new authors, and a wonderful blend of funny and scary stories. There are a great many to recommend: Anton Strout's, Jody Lynn Nye's, etc. I was particularly fond of Donald J. Bingle's BunRab tale, which brought quite a wide smile to my face. Pick this one up.