Zombicorns by John Green on January 2011
Pages: 72
John Green's zombie apocalypse novella as a perk from the Project for Awesome.
* The book has been made available under creative commons license, so it can be acquired legally online.
3 Nuts
How is it that John Green even makes a stupid zombie corn novella sound pretentiously beautiful even when it is hurried and uncopyedited? Forget about your feelings about the guy for a minute and consider how a random charity project he put out for free is better written then like half of what the rest of us will put to paper for the entirety of our lives.
Now that’s not to say that this novella is particularly good story-wise, it isn’t. And it’s not supposed to be. As John says,
This is a bad zombie apocalypse novella. It was written in a hurry. It is riddled with inconsistencies and it never quite arrives at whatever point it sought to make. The $25 you donated to charity in exchange for this steaming mess of prose will help our species shuffle along, and I hope you’ll feel warmed by your good deed as you read.
It was done entirely for charity. But that doesn’t mean he completely rushed through it. It’s certainly more polished than anything I have ever come up with. It has some very nice lines that read very well, especially out loud. For a guy who could have easily just phoned something in just supported on the weight of his name to earn money for charity, he at least showed a bit of effort as he wrote.
This is entirely a book written in the voice of John rather than the voice of a character. I can hear him read it in my head as I go along, the cadence of his voice and the way he reads and speaks. He has a very particular way of speaking and of writing, even when he is supposed to be in character. I think if you tok out any significant paragraph of text from one of John’s books I could tell it was written by John in the rhythm of the lines and word choice alone.
Zombicorns is very silly, but its also kind of fun. It’s a fun, nonsensical sort of read that you go in expecting something weird and not that good. If that’s how you go into this story you’ll have a good time. You’ll laugh, you’ll roll your eyes good humoredly, and you’ll walk away with a smile. If you go in expecting a groundbreaking John Green novel, why are you reading a zombie apocalypse novella again?
If you like John Green and are a bit of a completionist (like me) go ahead and download the thing. It’s fun, its John Greeny in voice, you’ll probably enjoy it. Just know it’s not going to change your life.
What is your favorite John Green novel? Share in the comments.
From my shelf to yours,
Don’t forget to be awesome.
Erin
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