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Joyce Carol Oates
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Zombie: A Novel Paperback – Illustrated, September 15, 2009

by Joyce Carol Oates (Author)
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 925 ratings
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Zombie is a classic novel of dark obsession from the extraordinary Joyce Carol Oates. A brilliant, unflinching journey into the mind of a serial killer, Zombie views the world through the eyes of Quentin P., newly paroled sex offender, as he chillingly evolves from rapist to mass murderer. Joyce Carol Oates—the prolific author of so many extraordinary bestsellers, including The Gravediggers Daughter, Blonde, and The Falls—demonstrates why she ranks among America’s most respected and accomplished literary artists with this provocative, breathtaking, and disturbing masterwork.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ecco
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.43 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0061778915
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0061778919
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Meet Quentin P.

He is a problem for his professor father and his loving mother, though of course they do not believe the charge (sexual molestation of a minor) that got him in that bit of trouble.

He is a challenge for his court-appointed psychiatrist, who nonetheless is encouraged by the increasingly affirmative quality of his dreams and his openness in discussing them.

He is a thoroughly sweet young man for his wealthy grandmother, who gives him more and more, and can deny him less and less.

He is the most believable and thoroughly terrifying sexual psychopath and killer ever to be brought to life in fiction, as Joyce Carol Oates achieves her boldest and most brilliant triumph yet—a dazzling work of art that extends the borders of the novel into the darkest heart of truth.

About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco; Illustrated edition (September 15, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061778915
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061778919
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.43 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 925 ratings

About the author

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Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates

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Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
925 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ron K
5.0 out of 5 stars Zombies Make the Best Friends
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2017
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This is not a novel I would have ever expected from Joyce Carol Oates. Despite my addiction to horror fiction, I am not a fan of werewolves and vampires. Zombies turn me off so much I haven’t even watched a complete episode of “The Walking Dead.” But when I saw Zombies as the title of a Joyce Carol Oates novel, I had to try it. What could such a talented author do to make me interested in a novel which I would usually pass up? I read the sample and was amazed by the hints of what the content would be. The unusual writing style is an equally great hook to a reader.

Quentin P. is not a zombie but he wants to have one. He stumbled upon a means he thinks he can use to make one. Since this is a trial and error process involving pointy objects propelled sometimes by blunt instruments, there will be mistakes. People will die. That makes Quentin a serial killer. Quentin continues to experiment and modify his methods in increasingly bizarre and complex ways. Along the way, his mind explores increasingly darker paths as rationales for his actions are adopted then discarded when found inconvenient. We see the disintegration of any semblance of a rational, social being and the emergence of a killing machine with a goal. Quentin wants a (compliant) companion.

If the horror of the killing doesn’t get you, the sexual component to the motivation might. This is not a novel for the kids or anyone easily offended. Quentin is not only a serial killer but also a convicted sex offender. Readers don’t have to react by locking up their daughters. Daughters aren’t what turns Quentin on.

The writing style is creative and it is worth reading the novel just to appreciate the writing style. How many times do we read a novel in which the sentences begin with “&”? Quentin gets interviewed a lot; by his probation officer, by a group therapy doctor, and by a doctor responsible for medications. As Quentin reports his interviews to the reader, there is frequent repetition of the phrase “I say.” This is not a criticism, it is effective as it pokes at the reader’s attention.

Through all the turbulence of Quentin’s life, we can still find comfort in the fact that he loves his mom and dad. He helps grandma with chores and even drives some of her friends around. Whether this makes up for having to live with a convicted sex offender evolving serial killer pedophile is a judgment the reader will make.

Winner of the 1996 Bram Stoker award for best novel, this 196-page novel appears in Kindle as a 2009 reprint with a Kindle price of USD 6.34 and real page numbers. Just after the horror genre, I like free books but for me, anything Joyce Carol Oates writes is worth the money.
24 people found this helpful
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anne jones
3.0 out of 5 stars that his parents would continue to enable him in the blindness and stupidity of their parental love. It’s hard to know which is
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2014
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Joyce Carol Oates is very readable and so prolific! But every one of her books that I have read has at least a very dark undercurrent. I am always left wondering why she has such a dim view of humanity alongside of a feeling of awe at her ability to get inside of another person’s mind. Blonde was harrowing and sympathetic portrait and has stuck with me for years, giving me wholly new perspective on the life of a bombshell. This story, however, was utterly creepy, which I guess is a mark of how well she inhabited the character, but it was the most disturbing story of hers that I have ever read. Maybe the most unsettling thing about it is that there really was no end. No neat and tidy capture, no consequences: just a sense that the Person would continue to perpetrate his horrific crimes, that his parents would continue to enable him in the blindness and stupidity of their parental love. It’s hard to know which is more disturbing, in fact, the criminal’s mind or his stupid parents.

I think what I need to read at some point is a biography of Ms. Oates.
6 people found this helpful
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C.W.
4.0 out of 5 stars Zombie was a good, fast read
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2015
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Zombie was a good, fast read. I've read a lot about serial killers, so I suppose I've been desensitized to this sort of thing at this point, as nothing Quentin P. describes in this novel made me react as strongly as some reviewers claimed to have reacted. However, Quentin is definitely a vile character, and is a great contrast to the usual depictions of sociopaths as cold, calculating machines. Quentin is very much human, and his thoughts resonate with heat. The sexual component of his murders leads him to fervor, makes him incessant and obsessive, and he takes many steps to avoid detection from police, but he is never cold about it. He is always personally involved, attached to his victims in his tenuous, disposable way. His life is spent in filth, and he spends as much time doped up on whatever drugs he can scrounge up as he does breathing.

The novel itself was over before I felt I was done with Quentin, and overall, it was less intense than I'd been hoping. When I read the reviews, I was hoping for some truly revolting scenes. Instead, a lot of his aberrations are mentioned cryptically ("Thanks, Dad, but I’m not hungry I guess. I’ve already eaten.") or recounted later, as in a memory, rather than a first-person narration of his deeds as he does them, which I feel would have helped the novel feel a bit more visceral, but that may not have been Oatse's point. His life is presented to the reader as though we were looking down into murky water, where Quentin lives undetectably below the surface. He lives to be undetectable, to force himself into his victims lives without them ever knowing, and Oates presents this type of person very well. It just wasn't what I was hoping for when I bought the novel.

Because it was a solid and interesting read that left me feeling more positively about it than negatively or neutrally, I'll give it a 4/5.
6 people found this helpful
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Loveleetoi
2.0 out of 5 stars Zombie, it's dead alright
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
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I read this book because out was recommended to me since I'm in to this genre however this book is a horrible piece of shyt. It started off slow it's based is from the view of a sex offender who graduates from sexual assault to full on murder. This story is LACKING? And here we're gonna remember that this story is so much like Jeffrey dahmer? In parts it dragged for chapters others it grabbed your attention with parts of his hunt looking for his "zombie" some areas that talked about his process and actions with his zombie were skipped over so you feel cheated was the writer to shy to actual go there or did they think it added to the suspension of the story either way it left you disappointed and the last kicker was how the book ended OMG REALLY? So sad because it had the potential to be a good book. But just missed the marke on so many levels
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Top reviews from other countries

M. Louise Ripley
5.0 out of 5 stars Loving Gordon Lightfoot
Reviewed in Canada on August 19, 2023
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So sad to hear he had passed. Listened to his music all day for several days. This album had songs I did not know.
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Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars A boring, poorly written, Dahmer rehash with all the interesting bits sucked out.
Reviewed in France on October 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
Absolutely nothing happens in this book, it's mind numbingly boring, the characters are voids and it reads like a bad Google translate. I never though a rehash of Jeffrey Dahmer (which is all this is) could ever be so beige. I hate-read the last 20% only to find there's no ending and it literally just cuts off mid book.
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M Harris
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking, important, and utterly brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2021
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Inspired by the case of Jeffery Dahmer, ZOMBIE is a book that is traumatic to read, and also impossible to put down. The story of Quentin P, it charts his life after being put on probation for molestation of a young boy. What the authorities don't know, is that Quentin has already many bodies in his wake, and wants to make more. It's visceral, upsetting, compelling, thought-provoking, and a complete classic. I read it in a day, unable to put it down.
3 people found this helpful
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Priscila Ferreira
1.0 out of 5 stars It is boring you need to force yourself to keep going
Reviewed in Australia on January 27, 2024
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It is boring, the only way for you to continue until the end, is to force yourself to feel how he feels. I think if the author had elaborated the killing parts it should be a good book but the most important parts was left behind.
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JimR
4.0 out of 5 stars Relentless, dark, masterful.
Reviewed in Japan on October 28, 2013
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The writing in Zombie is unusual, evoking the unfathomable twists of a serial killer's thinking and asking the reader to work a bit more than the average novel. But behind the experiments in structure, the actions and thinking of Quentin P_ are fulgin black and full of gripping teeth.
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