A couple of weeks ago, my husband I happened to be in the mall on the last day that our local Borders book store was in business. All books were 90% off that day and my husband happened to stumble upon this one. So, I coughed up $1.50 to have something a little off the wall, yet completely on topic to review for my readers.
Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of either fan fiction or zombie genre books or movies. But the back cover of Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion made me laugh:
Learn the tale behind a spiritual journey that resulted in the dismemberment of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Marvel at the seemingly indestructible quartet’s survival of a fierce attach by Eighth Level Ninja Lord Yoko Ono. And find out how the boys escaped eternal death at the hands of England’s greatest zombie hunter, Mick Jagger.
I was pleasantly surprised at how often I laughed out loud while reading this book. The writer seemed to have a real knack at making the boys come to life (or undead) as zombies (though, only 3 of the 4 Beatles are zombies…the 4th is a Ninja). AND, it would seem that Mr. Goldsher is as big a Beatles freak as the rest of us upon discovery that his story includes all the Quarrymen, Allan Williams, George Martin, Elvis, Geoff Emerick and many other well-known people in the Beatles entourage. But one can’t help but notice several important people missing, such as Sid Bernstein and Linda McCartney.
Also lacking in this book, written in the style of interviews, is the dynamic of a true Liverpudlian accent. In fact, the author seems to start out pretty well in the beginning of the book, but the accents seem to go by the wayside at the halfway point. (Note to Mr. Goldsher – please check out the writings of Jude Southerland Kessler on how to write Beatles dialogue) Not only does the dialogue take a downward spiral…but the entire story begins to spiral out of control as each chapter (written in years) seems to get shorter and shorter as the stories get more bizarre, off topic and filled with more profanity. I got the impression about midway through the book that Mr. Goldsher got desperate to increase his page count and just added senseless, humorless filler.
As I said, this book started out great and almost changed my mind about fan fiction…but alas, it ended up putting me to sleep on many occasions. I’m not sure what type of audience the author was hoping to attract or this book would appeal to since some of the details and profanity are too much for the teens that really dig the Eclipse series…and I think true Beatles freaks and baby boomers will find it an insult to their intelligence.
And in the end…you just can’t wait for this book to be done!
I rate this book: 1 out of 4 Beetles
Beatles-Freak's Reviews 
A movie deal’s been inked for this book. That said, I can’t imagine how it’ll get made. There’s also a sequel in the works. I did an interview with the author: http://www.examiner.com/beatles-in-national/how-the-zombie-beatles-come-together-paul-is-undead-author-alan-goldsher-explains
Strange book.
While reading it, I thought it would make a good comic book or cartoon…but as I said, about halfway thru, it just fell apart!
I did an interview with Alan Goldsher after the book was released, and we shared lots of Beatles trivia… All Beatles fans should check it out! http://michaelaventrella.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/interview-with-author-alan-goldsher/