Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum

Mecum, R. (2008). Zombie haiku. Cincinnati, OH: HOW books.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60061-070-7

Plot Summary

Zombie Haiku is the supposed haiku poetry journal of author Ryan Mecum that is found by Chris Lynch as he is attacked by Ryan inside an airport bathroom. Leading up to this event is a zombie apocalypse that began as an ordinary day when Ryan woke up late and tried to rush to work. His mind is joyfully preoccupied with thoughts of his new-found love. However, Ryan quickly realizes that things are not ordinary at all. When he got in the car, his neighbor stares at him oddly. The streets are clogged with abandoned cars. The radio station isn’t playing any music. Ryan finally realizes that the world has been taken over by zombies when he sees his co-worker, Beth, eating brains in her car. He runs away to find safety, but crowds of zombies are lunging after him. Ryan climbs up a billboard sign to get away from them and waits for help, which never comes. Desperate, he jumps down to try to run, but his landing is bad and as he rolls in the grass, zombies attack him. He is bitten, and he knows what will happen next when he doesn’t feel quite right. Looking for blood and brains, he finds his mother and then visits a nursing home. His human instincts fade away as his body transforms completely into a zombie and he joins other zombies on their way to the city. Eventually, the mass of the zombie plague makes its way to an airport where living humans are safely barricaded inside behind windows. When the fence falls, the hungry zombies feast away, and Ryan’s rigor mortis is catching up to him but not before he finds Chris Lynch in the airport bathroom.

Critical Evaluation

The verses of Zombie Haiku reveal the story of the undead poet through the three line 5-7-7 syllabication of haiku. The pages start off clean but get dirtier as Ryan continues his zombie journey and descriptive stanzas detailing the deterioration of Ryan’s body show the progression from human, to just-bitten, and then to transformation. The fragmented, disjointed lines and verses reflect the craze Ryan feels as he searches for fresh flesh. Humorous passages are juxtaposed against the horror of a zombie apocalypse: “I loved my momma/ I eat her with my mouth closed,/ how she would want it” and “Everything I thought/ tasted a lot like chicken/ really tastes like man.” Blood-stained Polaroid pictures duct-taped to the journal’s pages and sketches of severed limbs add to the horror. Drops and smears of blood and strands of hair randomly adorn the pages with gruesome effect. Traditionally, haiku is a very intimate and full of feelings, usually about nature and life. This creates irony; there is nothing natural about zombies, and they are the undead. Also, while haiku is usually a peaceful reflection of life, Zombie Haiku is anything but. Haiku is prescribed, there are rules that must be followed, and there is only one way to write them. Similarly, being a zombie means there is only one thing you must do: find brains. It is a little confusing between Ryan’s haikus and Chris Lynch’s scribbled notes and readers might not understand whose haiku journal this is at first. This modern spin on haiku poetry gives a traditional and ancient art new purpose: entertainment.

Reader’s Annotation

 

While trapped inside an airport bathroom, Chris Lynch finds this journal of haiku poetry written by author Ryan Mecum. In it, he reads of Ryan’s horrifying descent into zombie apocalypse until he himself can read no more.

 

Author Information

 

Ryan Mecum was born May 31, 1975 and grew up in Cincinnati, where he currently lives with his wife and children. He earned an English degree from the University of Cincinnati and he likes to write books about fiction and poetry.

Ryan Mecum enjoys interacting with and talking to teenagers. Some of his favorite topics of conversation are scary monsters, comics, and God. He works for a ministry called Younglife. He loves the band R.E.M. and once told the lead singer, Michael Stipe, that he loved him as much than he loves his wife.

Ryan Mecum is available to contact through email, his blog, and Facebook. He welcomes monster haiku written by anyone and often posts them on his website.

A website dedicated to zombie haiku can be found at http://www.zombiehaiku.com/index.html

More information about Ryan Mecum can be found on his website:

http://www.ryanmecum.com/

 

Genre

Young adult/ Adult crossover

Poetry

Haiku

Humor

Curriculum Ties

Haiku poetry

Book Talking Ideas

Write a haiku…

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

N/A

Challenge Defense

N/A

Why did I include this title?

I first saw this little book in an airport bookstore. I think it was Washington Dulles International Airport. Anyway, it cracked me up. I didn’t buy it because I didn’t need anything more weighing my luggage down, but as soon as I got home, I ordered it. When we study poetry in class, I pull it out and show it to my students, and they love it. Again, who doesn’t like zombies?!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Ryan, C. (2009). The forest of hands and teeth. New York: Delacorte Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73681-7

Plot Summary

Mary has listened to her mother tell stories about the ocean, and her hope is to see it. That would mean leaving her village, which sits secluded in the middle of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. The village is surrounded by a fence, and outside the fence is where the Unconsecrated live. They are zombies, but they infect their victim instead of eating flesh. The Sisterhood has rules and religion to keep the village alive. It’s a post apocalyptic story that takes place seven generations after a plague that kills people, but the people come back as zombie-like creatures. Mary’s father left the village never to return, taken by the unconsecrated, and Mary’s mother has been pining for him ever since until she is infected as well. When the protective fence is breached, Mary and her friends must fight to stay alive. Meanwhile, a love triangle develops between Mary and two brothers, Travis and Harry. Ultimately, one of them is infected, and Mary must put him out of his misery. Mary eventually does reach the ocean and learns a valuable message.

Critical Evaluation

The narrator of The Forest of Hands and Teeth is Mary, and through her first-person account, readers are drawn into a rich setting made clear through descriptive details. Readers are captivated by the first few lines: “My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water as far as you could see and that it was always moving, rushing toward you and then away” (1). The suspense begins here and builds through the plot’s twists and turns. In some ways, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is reminiscent of Lois Lowry’s The Giver with their similar ruling societies and barriers. However, in this story, Mary is facing the Unconsecrated, which adds to it an element of horror. Also like The Giver is a sexual undertone. Much of the story is Mary’s thoughts rather than plot action. When the story reaches its conclusion and Mary is at the ocean, the frame created by the link to the beginning presents us with a satisfying conclusion and still leaves an opening for the next installment, The Dead-Tossed Waves (2010). Readers will be inspired that determination and hope can ultimately wash evil away.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Mary would love to see the ocean her mother has always talked about, but she cannot leave the watchful eyes of the Sisterhood and the fence keeps her protected from the zombies on the other side. When the barrier is breached, Mary and her friends must fight for survival while they are being challenged by conflicts of knowledge, friendship, and love.

 

Author Information

Carrie Ryan was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She was very active in sports and read on the weekends. She especially enjoyed Sweet Valley High and Christopher Pike. She went away to college to experience a different climate in Massachusetts, but ultimately she did not like how it was cold most of the year, so she moved Virginia. There she wrote books that agents did not like. She then tried her hand at chick lit, but she felt did not have the kind of life experience that would lend itself to this kind of writing.

 

Ryan made the life-altering decision to go to Duke Law School to pursue a career in law. It was there that she met her now-husband, JP. He took her to see the first horror movie she had seen since Poltergeist. She hated horror movies. Dawn of the Dead (the remake), fascinated her and she was intrigued by everything zombie. JP happily indulged her new obsession. Ryan wanted to know what happens after a zombie apocalypse generations later and so The Forest of Hands and Teeth was born.

 

More about Carrie Ryan and her books can be found at her website:

http://www.carrieryan.com/

Genre

Young Adult

Science Fiction

Horror

Survival

Zombies

Romance

Curriculum Ties

Geography, infectious diseases

Book Talking Ideas

Infectious diseases, epidemics

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

Horror

Challenge Defense

If this book were challenged, I would cite these reviews as well as consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

Booklist 01/01/09

Publishers Weekly starred 02/02/09

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 04/01/09

School Library Journal starred 05/01/09

Horn Book 10/01/09

Kirkus Review 02/15/09

Why did I include this title?

 

Who doesn’t love zombies? They’re the new vampires. Mary’s story teaches us a good lesson: if you have hope and determination, you can get through anything.