Zombies

“Luckhurst is characteristically acute on many of these recent iterations, reading modern zombiedom with his usual swashbuckling confidence. . . . Never does he allow the familiarity of the more modern material to overshadow the beginnings of the phenomenon. No matter how it is diluted, parodied, or misunderstood, the rage of the zombie’s origin, of these ‘ambulatory dead,’ endures still, as a kind of haunting.” -- Times Literary Supplement

“Luckhurst tells the sinuous tale of the life of the zombie with evident glee in a book that is academically valid but fun to read.” -- Independent

“From their emergence in the 1920s Western imagination to their position today as the go-to trope for a generation ‘flatlined by the alienating tedium of modern life,’ zombies have proved remarkably flexible metaphors. They have come to embody the Other, the economic zeitgeist, and even ourselves. This entertaining study begins in Haiti, with 19th-century America’s fears about vodou.” -- Sunday Telegraph

“As we discover in Roger Luckhurst’s always entertaining history of the walking dead, this evolution in the zombie’s homicidal efficacy has been mirrored by a rapid evolution in their cultural significance. . . . Such irreverence and range is characteristic of Luckhurst, who mixes pop cultural connoisseurship with scholarly rigour to great effect. . . . His style is engaging, his commentary lucid, and his message clear: they’re coming to get you, however fast you run.” -- Daily Telegraph

“A short review cannot do full justice to this book. I urge you to read it and, for those who have never read Roger Luckhurst before, seek out many of his other writings. What he does brilliantly is weave culture, politics, and history into a singular tapestry that leaves scope for thought and discussion. The history of zombies is, in his hands, demonstrably worthy of our attention and time.” -- Hong Kong Review of Books