Book Review: Night of the Living Dead Christian

Night of the Living Dead Christian
By Matt Mikalatos
Saltriver, 2011
English, 288 pages


Description:
What does a transformed life actually look like?
In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed Imaginary Jesus, Matt Mikalatos tackles this question in an entertaining and thought-provoking way—with MONSTERS!!! While Christians claim to experience Christ’s resurrection power, we sometimes act like werewolves who can’t control our base desires. Or zombies, experiencing a resurrection that is 90 percent shambling death and 10 percent life. Or vampires, satiating ourselves at the expense of others. But through it all we long to stop being monsters and become truly human—the way Christ intended. We just can’t seem to figure out how.

Night of the Living Dead Christian is the story of Luther, a werewolf on the run, whose inner beast has driven him dangerously close to losing everything that matters. Desperate to conquer his dark side, Luther joins forces with Matt to find someone who can help. Yet their time is running out. A powerful and mysterious man is on their trail, determined to kill the wolf at all costs . . .

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Night of the Living Dead Christian is a spiritual allegory that boldly explores the monstrous underpinnings of our nature and tackles head-on the question of how we can ever hope to become truly transformed.

Review:
It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book this much. The story is laugh out loud funny in some places (zombies breaking into spontaneous song!) and just a punch in the gut in others (see the descriptions of monsters above).

Matt seems to have a wickedly sharp sense of humor and it has kept me glued to this book.

I have to be careful though, I've started seeing other people and church members in his descriptions! Oh look, zombies...careful of that vampire...

I really can't say how the story ends (I never tell plots in my reviews) but I can tell you that you are going to be thoroughly entertained for every single page. It's hard to put down and even harder to not laugh out loud (awkward at times...). You will not regret the time you spend reading this.

There is a readers discussion guide and a guide to monsters in the back. I'm wondering how this would go over for a October Bible study...lots of fun I'm sure.

I received a copy of the book for the purpose of a review. No additional compensation has been received and I was not required to write a positive review.