What was most surprising to me about Andy Zach’s Zombie Turkeys? – that is qualified as an actual adventure story! I wasn’t expecting that. About a quarter way in, when a young reporter gets the assignment to follow a swarm of 10,000 rampaging turkeys into a stretch of unfamiliar woodlands, it actually grabbed my attention while I was driving, and I was scared for the reporter (even without the zombie element, 10.000 turkeys is a LOT, and being a reporter is no protection against 10,000 wild animals).

We get a little bit of everything in this novel. The prologue is very funny. There is plenty of carnage, the author has plenty of fun envisioning industrial scale defenses against zombie turkey hordes. There is nice wish-fulfillment as a small-time newspaper becomes wildly successful reporting on the zombie-turpocalypse. Finally, there is also nice wish-fulfillment as the reporter finds ways to survive, the reporting teams grow and expand, and even as love finds its way into the mix.

Part 2

There are two major comedic set pieces included in the novel: a turkey dinner at the Whitehouse (which had a funny moment (to me), where Michele Obama encourages her children to walk across the backs of the secret service agents, and says something along the lines of “Go ahead sweetheart – that’s what they’re there for.”) The second major comedic piece involves professional sports and fandom – when a zombie horde overruns a stadium, fans compete to see which band of hooligans can kill the greater number of invading turkeys – it is a broad set-piece that gets richer and richer as it plays out.

A book with the title of “Zombie Turkeys” promises light entertainment, and that is delivered. There is more adventure than I expected, and slightly less direct comedy — the characters play their scenes straight. The comedy is in the absurdity of the events (at least for me).
Fans of zombie fiction should definitely give it a try. Graduates of the “Goosebumps” books (and there are a LOT of them) might also really enjoy it. Fun. Gruesome yes, but fun (and very friendly).