Review of Zombie Stop Parade by Richard Buzzell

Written as a diary by someone only identified as ZombieStopperUno, ZombieStop Parade spans over ten months and begins not long after a hacker named "Jackal" releases financial records that indicate the illegal activity of some big time corporations. The Jackal releases this information on several websites—one in particular is the nonconformist site ZombieStop. Created by a couple of twelve-year-olds, Corky and ZombieStopperUno—now in their twenties; both are college drop-outs—ZombieStop's goal is to "inspire people to stop acting like zombies" bred by American corporatism and media marketing. After firebombings target two of the financial institutions that the Jackal exposes, ZombieStop receives suspicion from the FBI, the public, and the media as being behind the firebombings because of their opposition to what these institutions stand for and for their call to action against them.

ZombieStopperUno chronicles these events and the reverberations that follow.. He discusses the influence of corporations and the media in American culture and society, the importance of seeing through the corporate mindset and of working to reverse corporatism's largely negative effects. As the diary goes on and there's more speculation about whether ZombieStop may be behind the firebombings, ZombieStopperUno questions Corky's ambitions for the site and the future of ZombieStop as a nonconformist site. Despite Corky's demand for optimism, ZombieStopperUno isn't without the cynicism for the future that this generation has been faced with and expresses his doubts as to whether its even possible to reverse the prominence of the corporatist "mythology."

What I liked most about this book was not only the style but also its balance between social commentary and action. Its social commentary is not melodramatic or didactic; it's a thoughtful evaluation of what our society has become. The book is satirical, humorous, and leaves the reader something to think about, if not another way of viewing American society. The ideas in this book are not new, but challenge the American mindset just the same. ZombieStop Parade is a good read and hard to put down. I recommend it to anyone open to ZombieStop's vision of staying alive and not joining the undead.

ZombieStop Parade by Richard Buzzell is available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.


Review by Diana Reed