Zombies rise from the local cemetery when a young witch casts a spell to scare an ex-boyfriend in Bijou of the Dead. The story follows seemingly unrelated individuals over the course of one zombie-filled day in a similar set up to Gregory Solis's Rise and Walk or a small scale World War Z. The interweaving story lines in the beginning lead the characters to a fateful meeting at the Bradbury Theater.

What are most notable about the story are the sympathetic characters. There is depressed Martin who tragically lost his family, disabled Ernie the cemetery caretaker, lonely Tina who delves into witchcraft, nerdy Joel who likes horror movies, hardworking Katie with an abusive ex-husband, etc. But one of the most fun characters was wisecracking Trudy. When encountering the chipper Katie, Trudy interrogates her by asking what is wrong with her, "Mood swings? Are you Bipolar or something? Are you going through the Change of Life early? It can happen."

There are numerous fun in-jokes for horror fans and several references to classic movies - Tina reviving a dead cat (PET SEMATARY), Enie the cemetery caretaker fighting off the newly returned (RETURN OF LIVING DEAD), and more. Make no doubt about it, Mr. Freese is familiar with his horror films.

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty and discuss the zombies. The main problem that you will notice right away is that the zombies do not make an appearance until nearly halfway mark. This gives plenty of time to establish the main characters, but Gorehounds may get antsy waiting for the big pay out.

The look of the zombies is interesting too as they feature blue, yellow, or green skin and their eyes glow yellow in the dark. I didn't care too much for that, but since it is my imagination, I can picture them as I wish anyway.

The zombies move and act like humans; mainly because they are resurrected by a spell and maintain some kind of old memories. They can use weapons such as knives, chainsaws, axes and more. There is a shed full of tools that you think humans would use, but instead the zombies do. Weird, huh? I think the weapons added in make for more inventive kills so while not being as realistic, it is more fun. And Yes, I do realize how ridiculous it is to argue about what makes a zombie more realistic, but hey, there are zombie enthusiasts out there, so this needs to be covered.

Another odd instance was when a zombie groped a girl's breast before he killed her. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it raises certain questions. Why would a zombie, whose sole existence is to consume human flesh, act in a sexual manner? Did he retain a memory from his human life that would give him the desire to do that? I just wished this was explored more or removed completely as it only occurred once in the story.

There is awesome gore deliverance including teeth scraping out an eyeball, torso skin peeled off like a shirt, hands bursting through walls to pull apart a man, a girl tied to a chair with barbwire, garden shears through eye sockets that cut a brain in half, and more!

But my favorite part of the book is a chapter that describes couples being attacked only for the reader to later realize it was just a movie that the real couple was watching. Clever.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, so turn away if you don't want anything revealed. There are two characters left standing on the rooftop at the end, which leads to a beautiful "This is just a high dive" moment. But this was interrupted with a helicopter. Now I would have been okay with the rescue and then the Epilogue explaining reunions with family and what not. Except it turns out that the zombies have taken over the world, almost like humans, and we never get closure on whether or not Katie reunited with her little daughter. (It is safe to assume No). Also, if the original spell was for the zombies to terrorize the Bradbury Theater, I'm not sure why they would want to take over the whole world. Overall, I think the ending would have been better suited for a movie instead of a book. The absolute chaos at the end reminds me of NIGHTMARE CITY, which is definitely a good thing.

Distributed by Wasteland Press in 2007, it has since been picked up by Stone Garden Publishing and set for re-release in 2010.