Margins
Wicked Weeds book cover
Wicked Weeds
A Zombie Novel
2011
First Published
3.82
Average Rating
184
Number of Pages

A Finalist for the Best Translated Book Award Set at the contact zones between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this is a polyphonic novel, an intense and sometimes funny pharmacopeia of love lost and humanity regained; a most original combination of Caribbean noir and science-fiction addressing issues of global relevance including novel takes on ecological/apocalyptical imbalance bound to make an impact. A Caribbean zombie—smart, gentlemanly, financially independent, and a top executive at an important pharmaceutical company—becomes obsessed with finding the formula that would reverse his condition and allow him to become "a real person." In the process, three of his closest collaborators (cerebral and calculating Isadore, wide-eyed and sentimental Mathilde, and rambunctious Patricia), guide the reluctant and baffled scientist through the unpredictable intersections of love, passion, empathy, and humanity. But the playful maze of jealousy and amorous intrigue that a living being would find easy to negotiate represents an insurmountable tangle of dangerous ambiguities for our "undead" protagonist. Wicked Weeds is put together from Isadore's scrapbook, where she has collected her boss' scientific goals and existential agony, as well as her own reflections about growing up as a Haitian descendant in the Dominican Republic and what it really means to be human. The end result is a precise combination of Caribbean noir and science-fiction, Latin American style. Wicked Weeds, A Zombie Novel combines Cabiya's expertise in fiction, graphic novels and film to create a memorable literary zombie novel of a dead man's search for his lost humanity that can now take its place alongside other leading similar novels like Jonathan Mayberry's Patient Zero, S.G. Browne's A Zombie's Lament, Daryl Gregory's Raising Sony Mayhall, World War Z by Max Brooks, and The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell. As for the novel's immersion in orality and Caribbean folk traditions and noir it can very well align with Wade Davis' The Serpent and the Rainbow and Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.

Avg Rating
3.82
Number of Ratings
355
5 STARS
30%
4 STARS
33%
3 STARS
28%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads

Author

Pedro Cabiya
Pedro Cabiya
Author · 6 books
Escritor, poeta y guionista. Nace el 2 de noviembre de 1971. Irrumpe en el mundo literario con el libro de cuentos Historias tremendas (Isla Negra 1999), galardonado Mejor Libro del Año por Pen Club International. En años subsiguientes publica Historias atroces (Isla Negra 2003), y las novelas Trance (Norma 2007), La cabeza (Isla Negra 2005)y Malas hierbas (Zemí Book, 2011); todas han adquirido status de culto. Ha participado en numerosas antologías internacionales. Se ha destacado también por su cultivo de la novela gráfica con títulos duros como Ánima Sola, Juanita Morel, Obelenkó y Justin Time.
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