REVIEW: Het Madden by Calvin Miller
Het Madden is not your typical zombie story. The reader doesn’t follow a group of survivors on their struggle to survive. Instead, Miller tells his story through the eyes of one of the undead.
Hetfield Madden begins his day normal but quickly takes a turn for the worst. A virus is spreading through the world at an alarming rate. Nothing seems to stop this virus from spreading and soon enough Het is infected. At first he’s not sure what is going on but slowly begins to put the pieces together. He tries to eat food but it is quickly regurgitated but only meat products seem to stay down. It does not take long for him to take a liking to human flesh.
Het is not like the rest of his zombie brothers and sisters. He has the ability to think and has better mobility. Feeling angry for what he has been infected with, Het decides to get answers. He wants to know why he was cursed with this virus. The zombies all around him begin to follow. Some understand why they are following Het but others just follow the crowd while most zombies wonder off on their own. Het’s undead army grows as he continues his journey to find answers.
Miller does a great job with Het Madden. The plot is wonderfully thought out and the characters are likeable. In my mind, the zombie point of view is still a new and fresh idea. The closest novel that I could compare Het Madden to is S. G. Browne’s Breathers. The only similarity is that both books are told from the zombie’s perspective. When I first started doing zombie book reviews a story like this would not interest me at all. Zombies aren’t supposed to be smart or talk, all they should do is try to find uninfected and eat them. I’m beginning to appreciate where authors are taking the genre it’s fun and exciting. Miller does an incredible job taking me out of the box so to speak.
I do, however, need to get critical here. This book, despite having a unique plot, desperately needs an edit from a real editor. They are a few misspellings, mostly using the wrong word like “the†instead of “they†or using the number instead of the word. Another thing that gets me is the use of the word ‘clip’ for a magazine. Someone who has done research into firearms would know how anal people are about gun terms. The last and probably the biggest complaint I have is how uninteresting the writing is. Many common words are used like the following quote
“The woman gives me a shot of something and they all sit back down.
She says ‘We cleaned out your mouth and gave you a shot of adrenaline. You should try and talk now. What is your name?’
I say ‘Madden. Who are you?’ fairly plainly, which surprises me.
She replies ‘CDC. Center for Disease Control.’â€
The word ‘say’ is used so many times throughout the book. To keep the writing interesting using different words would have been better. For example, since Madden is answering a question the word ‘answer’ or ‘reply’ would be a better choice. Now on the last sentence Miller does use ‘replies’ when the female character answers a question, so why doesn’t he use a similar word when Madden replied to the question? The writing is very confusing, that’s just my opinion though I like to read writing that’s interesting. Not only does it help the reader imagine the story but it also assists the flow.
Despite my tiffs with the writing Het Madden was very enjoyable. Once I came to terms with the writing the story was easier to just read through. We, here at Buyzombie.com will support Miller and we also would like to thank him for sharing his story with us.
Quotes were used with permission by author.
Available at Amazon.
