The world, as everyone knows it, has decayed into chaos. Peter Mellor’s journey is just beginning. After waking up on the side of the road with a very murky memory of what was happening, where he was going, or who he even was, Peter is lost in this world. His only clues come from the wrecked car near him and the wallet in his possession. This man, seeming to be painfully normal and of no significance is about to start down his path that will lead him to much more than just finding out a few trivial details about who he is. Yet, this man, once known as Peter Mellor, is something extraordinary and about to achieve greatness. He is the exception to the rule- he is the sentient zombie that no one knows exists.
Scott Kenemore’s writing style in Zombie, Ohio is easy to get drawn into as he takes the reader on Mellor’s journey, through his eyes. We watch as he tries to find himself within his own fractured mind, as well as in his broken corner of Ohio. After fearing he’s lost everything in this new world that meant anything to him, he becomes the lawless, brain-eating being all zombies are thought to be. He enjoys it, relishes in the feeling of eating someone’s brain. Yet as much as he tries to be the unfeeling thing that is now his lot in the world, he constantly struggles with his humanity and moral compass.
Unseen plot twists keep the reader on their toes, wondering what will happen next as The Kernel travels on his journey. From finding out the stuff he’s truly made of, to showing that even the most broken and degenerated of beings can always make a comeback for good, Peter’s aimless shambling all throughout the state of Ohio leads him to knowing who he truly is, as a zombie, as a man.
Kenemore’s theme seems to be that no matter how broken, or even evil, a man may become, there is always some avenue of salvation available to him, all he needs to do is look for it and be willing to take the chance provided him. Peter’s cyclical route leads him back to the only things he can remember since waking. His salvation lies not in the outskirts of Ohio as he would like to believe, but instead in the same small college community that started it all.
Zombie, Ohio has a little bit of everything- hordes of post-apocalyptic zombies, broken communities with outlaw biker gangs, lawlessness, and general disregard for human life, internal struggles with the right and wrong morally correct actions in this new broken world, and even a small dose of paranormal. Most of all, it has salvation. The salvation of a single man at the end of his path becoming something else, something more, as well as the salvation of a whole community of refugees and college professors.
Available at Amazon.
