SG Browne - Breathers: A Zombie's Lament
Cinematic satirical debut novel already in film development
(Piatkus)
As openings go, this one is an attention-grabber. Imagine you’ve just woken up to discover your parents’ corpses have been put in the fridge freezer, only to realise that you, their 21-year-old son, stuck them there. And all because you are a newly resurrected member of the flesh-eating undead and your mom and pop just didn’t appreciate this new state of mind.
Breathers is also quite cinematic, which is probably intentional on the part of SG Browne, who worked in Hollywood for a few years. This first novel is in development in Tinseltown with ultra-hip Diablo Cody (Juno) producing and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson rumoured to be playing the book’s drop-dead gorgeous zombie lovers. As a blueprint for a zom-rom-com in the Zombieland mould, Breathers works just fine. As a satirical novel, it’s readable enough, though it lacks bite and could do with fleshing out.