Mir's Reviews > Married with Zombies

There is nothing special about David and Sarah. Even their names are boring. In fact, I never remembered their names during the course of the book, I had to look them up for purposes of writing this review. They are vaguely middle-class but having financial difficulties (what twentysomething isn't?), don't have exciting careers, have no special secret backgrounds in martial arts, weaponry, or magic, and pretty much lack any noteworthy hobbies or personality traits. In short, they are an Everycouple. We get the story of the zombie apocalypse from their point of view, not because they are exceptional but merely because they happen to not die. At least, I think this is what the author was going for. But is the average couple really this bland, this boring? I don't believe that; my father used to tell me, "There are no normal people, just people you don't know very well." I get that Sarah and David are intentionally generic, but this was neither believable or interesting. At the start they seemed more petty and spiteful, and I was looking forward to some character growth, but instead they sensibly abandoned their antagonisms in the face of mortal danger and went from generic-feuding-couple to generic-monster-fighting duo. But since I couldn't believe in them as individuals I didn't much care if they lived or died. I would have actually preferred to hate them more; then I could hope for either their deaths or some sort of transformative experience.

But don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this book. It is a light, slightly amusing, inoffensive story that requires no effort on the reader's part. There were a few moments of cleverness and a few moments when the characters seemed to display fledgling emotions. And there was no necrophilia, which is always a plus in my book. So I have no complaints about the hour or so this took out of my day; on the other hand, I'm not planning to read the sequel.