Book Review: ‘Trouble in Undead Detroit’ by H.J. Bennett

Trouble in Undead Detroit book review 0
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Werewolves, vampires, and demons…It’s tough being a kid.

The old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” comes to mind in the first fifty pages of Trouble in Undead Detroit. In accepting the book for review, I received a PDF copy with a an illustrated cover resembling a zine or independently published comic book. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with either of those things, and I have spent a lot of time reading books that look like this. However, often the lack of professional publishing comes off in the writing. There’s a plethora of spelling and grammatical errors indicative of the lack of an editor’s touch. Trust me. I know how important an editor is. Suffice it to say, I was not overly impressed with the design of the book, but I got over that quickly. It’s rare that I finish a book in two sittings. H.J. Bennett’s tale of a reanimated teenager of color living in a fantastical, yet mundane world where monsters and gods are unremarkably ubiquitous had me turning pages furiously.

Trouble in Undead Detroit takes place over the course of less than a few months between 1983 and 1984. It’s not entirely clear from the beginning why Detroit is the setting, but I suspect it has something to do with the evident class dichotomy that exists there, or any given city in the United States. It also wasn’t explained why the story takes place in the 1980s. Since I was about the same age as the protagonist at that time, I found myself relating to a lot of what the kid went through. Noah Jackson is well designed with a convincing male voice from that time. H.J. Bennett, you had me sooner than this, but when Noah described someone as a “dickwad” in the first few pages, I was convinced I was reading a world familiar to me.

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The story follows Noah and his gang of misfit cronies who may be too abruptly introduced, but don’t lack for depth in personality. Bennett fills out the characters like a seasoned author. None were wasted or superfluous. It was easy for me to identify archetypes without them being too formulaic. Roca bugged me like a pain in the ass friend might. I felt a little sorry for Oliver, but I also envied his tenacity. My favorite character is one I’d like to see more of; Swedey Pie is deserving of her own book. I fell in love with how she interacted with her friends and family, and her backstory made me pump a fist and smile. Not because she had a cliche-laden powerful origin, but because her beginning was so devastatingly original, I wanted her to be the main protagonist.

Noah is reanimated. Mind you, he’s not a zombie. That comes later in the story. Science gave us this new ability. The contrast and parallels to modern society and the way we treat each other can’t be ignored. Bennett draws eerie comparisons to many of today’s societal issues. There are even moments that seem frighteningly similar to recent events. Noah doesn’t only face racism. He faces judgment for who he is as a reanimated person. There’s a conspiracy afoot, and those in power are trying to drive a wedge between warm bloods and the reanimated. Warm bloods are persuaded to fear the reanimated. I’ve probably read about fifty different zombie books, and I thought every scenario had been explored. It’s a natural fit to examine our differences this way. Yes, it’s true Night of the Living Dead was a metaphor that forced us to face the racial divide, but Trouble in Undead Detroit takes it in a distinctly unique direction. Our differences go deeper. We are complicated in our backgrounds and beliefs; so Bennett orchestrates a situation that brings politics and corruption face to face with religious dogma and power struggle, all while staying true to each of her characters.

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Accolades aside, it was semi-distracting to me when an ’80s reference would pop up. I’d find myself making a note to check the timing on a detail to see if it was accurate. As a Buffalo Bills fan, the mere mention of Ralph Wilson had me Googling. Yes, he grew up in Detroit. Okay, I learned something. A mention of a bridezilla threw me off a bit since that term wasn’t coined until 1995 when Diane White used it in and article called “Tacky Trips Down the Aisle” in the Boston Globe. Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” played on the radio in an S.U.V. during a stand-off. Both new and appropriate for the time, so they fit. Still, for some reason these details distracted me from the bigger story. As a reader, if I can get past this challenge, I think Bennett’s connection to the decade is worthy. I am very much interested in reading her previous novel, Franken-Fatale, because of it. She addresses the oft argued vampires in the sun debate. Thankfully, they don’t sparkle, but neither do they explode into ash and mist. She doesn’t just nip it in the bud. She prevents germination altogether. She’s calling it out decades earlier than she should. That’s when I realized she’s going to own the ’80s, and I better just shut up and read. She is just that good at weaving the unbelievable with monotonous reality. I’ll try not to ask why there’s an NFL game happening on Father’s Day, and just enjoy the Black Sunday-style climax.

The arc of this adventure harkens to everything between S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and Tom Robbins’ Skinny Legs and All, while the tone is an unusual brew of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed book series and 1984’s classic movie Red Dawn. Some of the characters are so outlandishly unreal and unexpected that when the next one shows up, you just have to go with it. Trouble in Undead Detroit is modern mythology wrapped in a brown paper bag. I could easily see it dressed up as a screenplay or a show series we all want to binge, but the writing is too fluid and brilliant to be sacrificed to the Boob Tube gods.

Trouble in Undead Detroit is now available on Amazon.


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