Some genres carry a certain expectation with them. Readers go in with preconceived notions about the rules and elements to expect in a particular type of story.
One such genre is the zombie story. Author Karen Wyle has flipped the zombie genre on its head with her novel, That The Dead May Rest. Below is my review of the novel and interview with Wyle about the book.
That The Dead May Rest plot summary
When a zombie outbreak emerges in the world with no known cause, a group of spirits in the afterlife begin to look for a solution. Using a psychic medium, they join forces with a group of living beings and work together to come up with a plan to stop them and put them back into their graves.
The story
That The Dead May Rest is a slow burn of a story that approaches the zombie genre from a very unique and diplomatic angle. Zombie attacks typically lead to brutal chaos. From Wyle’s perspective, the reader joins level-headed beings who calmly use practical reasoning to work the problem.
The integration of an afterlife setting populated with the peaceful dead was a choice I never would have thought to depict in a zombie story, but it makes total sense. How would you feel if, after you died, your body emerged from its grave and started attacking people? Then, how would you confront those victims when they arrived in the afterlife and it was your job to greet them?
That’s exactly the predicament that our protagonist, Millie, finds herself in. The guilt is overwhelming, but it only fuels her desire to right this wrong.
It’s these unique scenarios that bring a fresh perspective to the generic zombie story. I loved the idea of the living and the dead teaming up to resolve the conflict. After all, each side has their strengths and weaknesses which could be used to fight the problem from both sides.
The zombies reside somewhere in between, stumping both the living and dead as to how to treat their limbo state. And using a psychic as a type of telephone between the two worlds was a clever element that makes the story possible in a very matter of fact way.
The spin on the genre
Wyle, a self-proclaimed non-zombie fan, used her ignorance about the standard tropes in her favor and kept away all of the prosaic details about the creatures. In fact, she’s not even afraid to call them zombies, something that the genre tends to shy away from, likely because the original definition doesn’t fit the modern concept. But I think we’ve come far enough that the general public thinks of the violent, murderous, undead ghouls that Wyle depicts in her story.
One thing I would have liked to have seen more of, though, were the actual zombies. I wanted to see some of the panic and the scale of the issue on Earth. I also would have liked a faster pace, more suspense, and a bigger collection of techniques used to work the problem.
The characters
There is a long cast of characters, and the story flipflops through different perspectives in order to capture the multiple perspectives among the involved parties. Admittedly, I had trouble keeping track of who was who. The characters all sound the same and are so focused on the task at hand that we don’t get to learn much about them personally. We still root for them, but they’re more like archetypes than fully formed beings.
The message
I ultimately like this polite take on the standard zombie story. Nothing bothers me more about the genre than an entry where the living characters are more of a threat than the actual zombies. So, it was nice to see humans work so well together to resolve the issue.
It was also fun watching them try out different solutions based on various religious beliefs. However, a lot of the book is just planning and discussion rather than action, causing the story to drag at times.
In the end, though, I think this book gets more right than wrong. It just needed a little more action and character development, but I think that more authors should try their hand at genres that are unfamiliar to them. They bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to the stories, and it keeps the genre alive.
My rating
Also, check out my other book reviews of Wyle’s books as well as a guest post by Wyle.
The Decision: A Novel of Germany
An interview with Karen A. Wyle
How/when did you come up with the title of this book?
I sometimes have great difficulty coming up with titles. In those cases, I make lists of settings, characters, and themes, and then try to mix and match. I also try to come up with evocative lines of poetry that somehow tie into the story.
Here, however, my “Title Notes” document had only two entries, That They May Rest and That the Dead May Rest. I liked the emphasis on the ultimate goal the characters shared, putting the zombified bodies back in their resting places. Also, the sound of the title had a certain gravity I appreciated.
What do you want readers to take away from your novel?
I’ve already had some of the reactions I hoped for, along the lines of “this book is unlike any other zombie story I’ve read.” I didn’t write the book because I especially wanted to drench the reader in gore (though there is some), or even to drag the reader through a suspenseful narrative (though arguably I do).
I had an unusual take on the subject and wanted to explore it: namely, how spirits in the afterlife would feel and act if confronted with the news that their bodies were killing people. More fundamentally, as with all my novels, I hope readers will finish the book having exercised their empathy and compassion for their fellow mortals.
Do you have a favorite character?
I’d say Millie is my favorite. I found it deeply satisfying to watch her discover and display her competence and strength. I’m fond of other characters in different ways. For example, I view Janna and Paul in a quasi-maternal light, and I both chuckle over and applaud Rosie’s reluctant abandonment of her cynical armor.
If you were transported into the novel, what role would you want to play in the story?
Given the benign and enjoyable afterlife I posit, there’s something to be said for dealing with the crisis from there. Life is stressful enough without the added fear of being dismembered by mindless reanimated corpses. But I’m just as glad I don’t have to decide between constantly looking over my shoulder and giving up on my mortal existence.
As far as how my skill set would come in handy: after practicing law for many years and writing fiction in various genres, I’m moderately good at research. I could also jump in when one or another bureaucracy was making threatening noises.
You mentioned doing a lot of research for this novel. Was there any topic in particular that stuck out to you, and was there a particular fact that you loved that you weren’t able to use in the book?
I omitted certain recipes for creating zombies, despite intriguing ingredients like ground glass and the neurotoxin from a Puffer fish. I also restrained myself from going off on a tangent about dybbuks, demons who inhabit the bodies of (at least) the living. It would have been fun to show my earthly researchers trying to track down the names of dybbuks in order to seize control of them.
You also wrote that you are not a zombie fan. Are there any classic zombie stories that you’d like to watch or read now that you’ve finished writing your own contribution to the genre?
I’m so far from a fan that I don’t even know what the classic stories are. I did, years ago, read Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies and liked it, probably because – like my book – it took an unusual approach to the subject, treating its key zombie as something more than a one-dimensional slaughter machine.
How well do you think you’d do in a real zombie apocalypse scenario?
In my own version, once I was targeted I’d have no chance. I’m partially disabled, so there’s no chance I could outrun one. In scenarios where shooting the zombie in the head would stop it, I might not be quite as doomed, as I have some (small) knowledge of firearms. If that sort of apocalypse developed slowly enough, my husband would probably know just what weapons to buy.
Any plans for a sequel or spinoff featuring one of the characters of this story?
I have no such plans at this point. Offhand, I can’t think of a next stage in the story that I’d find satisfying to explore. But if I think of a new problem for one or more of the characters to tackle, I might pursue it.
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