BOOK REVIEW: THE NECROMANCERS: OR LOVE ZOMBIES OF SAN DIEGO

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The Necromancers: Or Love Zombies of San Diego, by E.Z. Graves (Contemporary Instructional Concepts, San Diego, CA, 2012).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

August 12, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)--San Diego resident E.Z. Graves, who teaches college English composition at Grossmont College in East County, has written a horror science fiction novel: The Necromancers: Or Love Zombies of San Diego, using El Cajon and La Jolla as a backdrop. Reading like George Romero's Dawn of the Dead or the movie Blade with Wesley Snipes, The Necromancers: Or Love Zombies of San Diego, will certainly keep those who are horror or science fiction buffs entertained.

 

Typical of the East County theme of Graves' book is the Prologue; Los Dias de los Muertos, which states: "I was walking down Main Street in the Hispanic section of El Cajon, which means 'the box.' It was November 2, the second day in the celebration of the dead, and I could see all the little poor kids running around wearing their skeleton and ghoul costumes. They were really cute, but I also noted that they were being protected by several adults who were armed with AK-47s. I, too, was wearing a skeleton mask and costume because I didn't want to get shot."

The premise of the author's book centers around a teenager, Josh, and how he and other teenagers become "love zombies." They join forces with other teenagers in the San Diego area who fight out of the La Jolla Caves. Their fight is against zombies that are flesh eaters and have less control of their actions and their emotions than the so-called "love zombies." With the help of world renowned geneticist, Dr. Mike Barkin, Josh and the other "love zombies," along with the "breather" teens that they have joined forces with, set out to rid the world of this zombie plague, of which they are all a mutated form. There are also some comical aspects of this science fiction tale by the author Graves, as befitting the central characters of this novel being teenagers.

The Necromancers actually were ancient magicians who wanted to conjure up the dead and talk with them in order to find out the future, so tells Graves in his book. When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, she had the same romantic notion that by raising the dead in the form of a monster she could prove science was wrong, as stated by one of the central characters in this book.

Graves' background as a college English composition teacher certainly comes out in his telling of this story, particularly in the climax of this tale.

Dennis Moore is a writer and book reviewer with the East County Magazine in San Diego and the book review editor for SDWriteway, an online newsletter for writers in San Diego. He is also the author of a book about Chicago politics; "The City That Works: Power, Politics and Corruption in Chicago." Mr. Moore can be contacted at contractsagency@gmail.com or you can follow him on Twitter at: @DennisMoore8.


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Comments

The Necromancers

Although a bit different from my review of the book in East County Magazine, it was good to read a different point of view. I do agree with the reviewer that we are going to hear more from this book, possibly a movie.

"ParaNorman"

Focus Features' animated comedy "ParaNorman," about a boy leading the fight against zombies that rise from the grave, was No. 3 with $14 million this past weekend at the movie box office. "The Expendables 2" with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, debuted at No. 1 with $28.8 million, as The Bourne Legacy fell to No. 2. Perhaps E.Z. Graves will follow suit with ParaNorman, which is similar to his The Necromancers: Or Love Zombies of San Diego, and make it into a movie.

Review of novella

Thanks for this review of my new novella, Dennis. I enjoyed the fact that you didn't give away a lot of the plot, as I wanted the excitement of the action to pull the reader into the story. I tried to use genetics in a realistic way so the reader can see how zombies could be created by the "wrong hands." For all my students, I am Jim Musgrave, the author of The Necromancers. I teach at Grossmont College, and I'm getting ready for another fun semester in this wonderful community of East San Diego (sans zombies). If you're really into horror, you might want to check-out my new horror anthology, Horror on the Installment Plan, featuring professional authors of the macabre genre: http://www.contempinstruct.com If you subscribe, you could win a trip for two for Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts (where they burned witches)!