CSFF Blog Tour - Review - Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos

Book:  Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos

This is Julie again. I have a review system you may (or may not) want to look at to see HOW I come up with my ratings and what I rate on.

Ridiculously simplified summary: In the modern-day northwest US, a ragtag crew of misfits helps a werewolf overcome his dark inner nature through Christ. On the way, they learn to face the monsters in themselves.

Content: I hadn't read Mikalatos' book My Imaginary Jesus before this one, though there are several references to the narrator being the author of that book.

This is touted as a "ferociously funny quest to discover what it means to be fully transformed." Blogger Shane Werlinger described the book as "humorous," which is exactly the word I'd use. It made me smile in quite a few spots but only made me actually laugh a few times.

As you'll see tomorrow, it's not terribly easy to make me laugh. Actually, I never read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" but I remember my high school best friend would always quote lines from it and try to make me laugh. The only time it worked was when she said a line but substituted "Arby's" for a restaurant that wasn't local (the original line would not have made me laugh). Honestly, you can get enough reading the first few pages on Amazon to know how funny you'll find it.

Rating:


Compelling: 8 out of 10. It read fine; I cared enough to want to know what would happen to the characters. For the most part, the religious aspects meshed with the story, though I could have done without some of the religious debate (at the start I was outright bored by the sections written by Luther). Even as a Christian, I would have rather see less arguing about trivialities like which Bible to choose. (OK, that part was a little funny because I really hate a certain translation/paraphrase, but it's the only example I could think of! Anyway, that's a minor point.)

Characters: 7 out of 10. Again, a lot of the humor comes from characters acting stupid, which can make it a little hard for me to like them. (I think of Michael Scott on The Office; sometimes he's stupid-funny and sometimes he's just stupid.) Matt (the character, as distinguished from Mikalatos the author) was absolutely bumbling throughout, and a few of the characters weren't that well-defined, instead flexing to fit into whatever joke they were needed for. You could say the same about most sitcom characters, though, so fair enough.

As a woman, I was a little disappointed that the only female characters to speak of were a vampire--by far one of the coolest/best characters, but a minor one--and Matt's wife, who spends most of her time humoring Matt and possibly making snacks. (Yes, there is a conversation where a group of 4 or 5 men literally cannot meet at anyone's house because there is no woman in those houses to make them snacks. I'm sure a lot of people found that hilarious. But my dad--who was the stay-at-home parent and did most the cooking--has gotten so tired of portrayals of stupid men in sitcoms, I think that's rubbed off on me a bit.)

That said, Luther and Lara in particular were good characters, and the character TYPES who were lampooned (and in particular the churchgoing zombies) had a lot of truth to them.

Writing/editing: 8 out of 10. I only noticed a couple continuity errors (I believe there is one on Amazon's preview, with the flashlight getting dropped, then soon after, being gripped tightly). If there were other issues later on, I missed them because I was caught up in the story. As in almost all comedies, sometimes the jokes trump the storyline. Some of the jokes were notably stupid/bad....but if that notably stupid/bad joke makes you smile (or in at least one case, laugh out loud), does that make it a good joke? Yeah, probably.

To me, the ending read almost like a modern short story, where the whole world changes profoundly. That isn't my favorite thing, but others might love it. Fortunately, the bonus content at the end of the book (which I touched on yesterday) brought back the light tone I'd missed from the beginning of the book.

Plausibility/believability: 3 out of 5. Yeah, this is an almost useless category for a book full of zombies. Still, I basically bought the world as it was, even when the characters were acting fairly insane.

What I really struggled with was that the narrator (Matt) portrays himself as generally silly/stupid/inept throughout the book. (His werewolf friend briefly assumes that Matt has some sort of spiritual knowledge based on his book Imaginary Jesus, which I'll touch on tomorrow.) Yet at the end, Matt is the one giving lectures on Christianity. There are hints of his spirituality throughout the book, but I just couldn't believe this same character who refers to his Toyota Corolla as his "Secret Lair" would attend, much less enjoy, a classical music concert and use it as a metaphor for Christianity.

I am almost certain Mikalatos the author can be both silly and serious, probably exactly as outlined above. But fiction, oddly, has to be more believable than real life. I think the challenge comes from the book relying on Matt's silliness for the humor, and then relying on Matt to deliver the spiritual message, when he wasn't even the character who changed in this book. I'm not certain there would be any way to write that better, though....if Matt had been serious throughout, I don't think I would have enjoyed the book.

Positive: 4 out of 5. There isn't a perfectly happy ending, and I don't feel like the book answered all the questions brought up about Christianity. But overall it shows that Christ can overcome all things.

Gut reaction: 3 out of 5. It was LOTS of fun to read a Christian book with werewolves and vampires. I love when books make me smile and this one did. It was a good read.

Bonus points: 5 out of 5.

Recommended for: Fans of comics/monsters coupled with extreme silliness.

Probably not good for: People who are offended by vampires/werewolves/zombies. (I say this because some people hate seeing any sort of monsters/supernatural elements in stories, even if they are the bad guys....though in fairness, those people probably should not be reading this blog!)

Total Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Here are the other participants in the CSFF Blog Tour.  Check them out!

Gillian Adams
Julie Bihn
Red Bissell
Jennifer Bogart
Thomas Clayton Booher
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Theresa Dunlap
Amber French
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Janeen Ippolito
Becky Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Leighton
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Joan Nienhuis
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Shane Werlinger
Nicole White
Dave Wilson


*I received a copy of this book free from Tyndale in exchange for this review.*