Well, of course zombies are dead (well... undead), but that's not what I mean. What I mean is, is the zombie sub-genre dead?
The reason I'm even bringing this up is because I've been shopping around a YA zombie novel to agents over the last couple of weeks and had nary a hint of interest. Now, of course, it's hard to get any real inkling as to the reasons for such a snub from email form rejections alone (a pet-peeve I will save for another day). I mean, maybe said agents simply aren't digging my writing (but of course, that can't be it), but I thought I would blog about it and see if I could elicit some opinions here.
So, have zombies reached peak saturation among book buyers and movie goers? Or do you think there is still room for a few well written stories starring everybody's favourite rotting brain-eaters?
Personally, I think they're getting close. There have been a lot of horror movies and adult horror novels that have tapped "the zombie well" over the last few years, which is why I decided to write my zombie novel for a YA audience. Now I know there have been a few YA zombie novels already, but I don't think the youth demographic has been as inundated by the undead as the older markets. YA still seems to be the domain of angst-ridden teenage vampires a la the Twilight Series, and werewolves seem to be making a bit of a comeback. But zombies don't seem to be as well represented. So I figure I still have some room to maneuver with a well written zombie novel.
And so that's what I did. I wrote an edgy zombie novel for teens. And I set it in Canada's isolated Northwest Territories, which in and of itself offers some interesting situations. But as I've said, I haven't gotten a sniff from agents (so far).
So what do you think? Am I flogging an (un)dead horse with this one? Are zombies finally dead?
I, for one, sure hope not...
Zombies are something to escape or to be conquered while vampires are something to tame. Zombies are slow, dumb and ugly. Vampires are fast, stealthy, cunning and gorgeous. There is a romanticism about vampires that doesn't exist with zombies. I think it is similar to the allure, some people have, of owning a Pit Bull. (Or a Direwolf for that matter. Ha.). There is an allure to having control over a being that has the utter power to destroy you (or your enemies) in the blink of an eye. With vampires it's taken a step further when you throw in the "romance" factor, for lack of a better word. I think people find themselves immersed and invested in the tales of vampires, they see themselves as the characters and that is why there are these mass followings of series like Twilight or Anne Rice novels. People are far less likely to fantasize about running from a zombie.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say it isn't possible to capture that kind of following in a zombie novel, it's just different. Will Smith's movie, I Am Legend, came pretty close to being a zombie flick. I would watch a sequel and buy the book.