Apocalipsis Z

A Spanish lawyer and a band of other survivors attempt to stave off a swarm of zombies that have ravaged Spain and other parts of the world-the result of a nasty virus turned loose during a botched terrorist heist at a top-secret Russian installation. The lawyer, a Ukrainian pilot, a nun, and a young woman are all making their way across the Atlantic via helicopter to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, rumored to be one of the few safe zones inhabited by survivors. There, they hope to find succor, but what they find instead is a society organized according to a highly militarized and bureaucratized system. Their initiation into that society will leave them scrambling for their lives. The lawyer (arguably lawyer-turned-writer Loureiro himself) is the novel's emotional centerpiece, narrating the events with enough intrigue and suspense to keep the reader interested. As far as the story goes, the reader can appreciate the pastiche of images, platitudes, and apocalyptic lore Loureiro serves up, taken as they are from such reliable pop-culture fodder as zombie flicks, post-apocalyptic fiction, and graphic comics. Recommended for libraries with a fantasy and/or horror section.—Michael Sosa, Brooklyn, NY