Dead Love Book

Zombies, ghouls, vampires, gangsters; pursuit, betrayal, death—it's a globalized manga turned literature. Dead Love is Twilight with teeth.

Publishers Weekly

In this lethargic zombie tale, McFerrin (Namako: Sea Cucumber) confuses stalking for love and beautiful prose for a meaningful plot. When Erin Orison, a talented young dancer, travels to Japan in search of an audition with a renowned choreographer, she becomes embroiled in a murderous double-crossing conspiracy involving the Yakuza and the mysterious Consortium. Her brief affair with a Yakuza assassin leads to her apparent death and subsequent resurrection as a zombie. Somehow maintaining a measure of free will, she tries to escape the various forces seeking her, stymied at every turn by a supposedly lovesick corpse-hopping ghoul. The detached narration, passive protagonist, and oddly anticlimactic ending are symptoms of an overall failure to turn an interesting idea into a compelling narrative. The hardcover edition includes a 16-page manga not seen by PW. (Sept.)