What did you like best about Zombie Turkeys? What did you like least? There were times when the book was laugh out loud funny, but other times it was just cheesy. Also, repetitive use of the word “said” in the dialog portions was obnoxious. I’m increasing my rating on this book, because I listened to it over a year ago, and it still pops into my head sometimes. I still say “Zombie Turkey” every time I hear a turkey gobble. And I felt compelled to order an autographed copy of the book. All of this says to me that I under-rated it the first time, and need to make it right.
Would you be willing to try another book from Mr. Andy Zach? Why or why not? Yes. I want to know where his zombies go from here.
Which scene was your favorite? Roland trying to get Lashaun to come out of the tree. She didn’t want to come down, because the turkeys had pecked her backside and it was showing through her pants.
Did Zombie Turkeys inspire you to do anything? Not eat turkey. Say “Zombie Turkeys” every time I hear a turkey gobble.
Any additional comments? The male narrator did a good job, but the female narrator didn’t differentiate very well between her different characters.
Zombie Turkeys by Mr. Andy Zach is a fun romp of a listen!
Zombie Turkeys by Mr. Andy Zach is a funny, quixotic romp of a listen. It follows the exploits of two intrepid blogger/(initially) online reporters, Sam and Lisa, as they track and help to combat a spreading infestation of killer zombie turkeys. It combines a unique take on zombies, a love story, some quasi-science, and lots of action.
I listened to the Audible audio book and initially I wasn’t sure I liked the narrator but eventually I warned to him. If you like unusual zombie stories with a new approach to story telling and lots of twists and turns, this audio book or book may be for you. I enjoyed listening to it and will be keeping the author on my radar!
When you first listen it an amusing story the narrative is absolutely amusing, and the story a bit “camp”, but under it’s comic veneer ss I listened ” locked in” at home from Covid 19 something very familiar emerges. Yes this is a fun to listen to, totally entertaining book and one you can’t storing listening to, however somewhat deeper it reflects the incompetent and bungling we are now experiencing world wide with this and possible other pandemics to come. This story parodies a disaster of Zombie Turkeys…but perhaps it warns us there could be far worst. Please do listen it overall great story and extraordinary naration.
This very funny tale has it all. There’s peril, adventure, mayhem, even a love story and a happy ending.
I laughed so hard that I occasionally had to stop and go back a few minutes so I could hear what I missed while I was cracking up. There were moments when I had to wipe my eyes, because I was laughing so hard I cried.
I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.
You have to check this book out. This was a far better book than I thought it would be. Mr Andy Zach has a ‘ell of a imagination, and Mr Phil Blechman does a great narration. I especially loved his turkey gobbling sounds, I had a great laugh every time he did it.
I reviewed a copy of the audio book from the author in exchange for my honest review, and here it is. First book read/ listen from Andy Zach, and I’m totally hook. can’t wait to hear/ RAF the remaining series. the story line is very entertaining, and the way they perform (yes perform not read) the book was perfect. Love the sound affects, they just made the story come to live. This story had it all, from killer zombies, love, mystery, and action. it’s a must read/ hear. I totally recommended.
This book is so mutch fun!! It’s silly and ridiculous, but in a great way! It just brought a smile to my face and an extra skip in my step as I listened at work. My day is pretty monotonous and even the regular audiobooks I listen too just felt monotonous.
I had already listened to My Undead Mother in Law and I remembered I had this one also. Remembering how entertaining U.D.M.I.L was I decided to play this one because I needed a pick me up. And pick me up it did.
I made note of certain parts so I could play them for my husband at our lunch break. Definitely worth your time. The narrator’s are perfect for this series. The turkey calls made me laugh out loud. Great job to all involved!!
This dark comedy combines action and humor set mostly against the back drop of rural Indiana. Sam and his editor Lisa run a small town newspaper, and in their search for a good lead stumble across the story of a life time – Zombie Turkeys!
We follow the turkeys as they make their way from farm to farm gathering more all but immortal fowl while leaving death and destruction in their wake. Sam, Lisa, and soon more reporters track the turkeys across the country side learning not just how to fight back but how to destroy them. This story is not just action packed but is also full of unexpected heros and even has time for a love story or two.
Comfort food for that juvenile part of you that never quite outgrew your comic books. Just forget that it’s preposterous (after all, you were already warned by the title; what did you expect?), and go with the flow…
What added to the Zombie Turkey situation was the author took the reader through the different towns of Illinois by a reporter working on his big story added great humor to the saga. The reader has to wonder how Mr Zach dreams up these crazy stories but they all seem to work.
Zombie Turkeys is definitely not your typical zombie book. Instead, it is a parody of the standard zombie book, and as such may even be destined for cult status. The book doesn’t take itself seriously and neither should you.
Its relatively choppy and repetitive writing style would not work well with a serious horror novel, but somehow fits when used in this humorous take on the zombie apocalypse.
In general, I enjoyed reading this book, but I was left feeling that it could have been funnier and that the plot dragged in a couple areas in the last third of the book. Although the twist at the end was relatively obvious, it nevertheless seemed suited to the book, like watching a train barreling towards a car stuck on the tracks and when the crash finally came, it left a satisfied smile.
So if you want a change of pace from your usual brain-eating zombie feast and a little light reading, you just might want to gobble up this little book.
I am not one for non-fiction especially zombie material, but this was a very entertaining book. The satire kept me reading. Being from Central Illinois I was quite familiar with much of the locations mentioned in the book. I look forward to what is next.
This review is written by Kathi Trumpinski, not Thomas. OMG! You simply MUST buy this book! I met Andy at a local convention, and the title “Zombie Turkeys” intrigued me enough to buy it.
I read it during the next 2 nights, and was amazed how well he knew the area he used in the story. You see, I lived in LaSalle and Bureau Counties all my life till I moved to CA in 1974, so I recognized all the places he mentioned. He’s a very outgoing guy, and beware what you tell him to write in the book when he autographs it! Thank you, Andy, for this wonderful, surprising story!
I enjoyed this book because it has a unique “twist” on the zombie phenomenon. It’s not “laugh-out-loud” funny, but it’s quite entertaining. Well worth the time to read if you like zombies.
He felt great. He was full of energy, he had many hens to breed with, and he was the leader of a great flock.’
Sam Melvin is a reporter with the Midley Beacon, it’s a tiny local paper – with an online presence – run by its penny-pinching editor Lisa Kambacher. When Sam sees the two turkey hunters on the slab in the local mortuary, he knows he has a story to cover and he sets out to do so with great gusto. As the zombie turkeys multiply, Sam and Lisa are the leading media team on the ground and the Midley Beacon goes international, solving their financial woes and syndicating their work across the globe. But it’s not all good news. After all, there are those people-killing zombie turkeys heading into town…
This was a book I picked up with trepidation as it seemed all too possible it would be a ‘one trick pony’ stretching a single joke to beyond breaking point across the length of an entire novel. Wrong! It is like a bowl of potpourri on the sideboard of life – lots of subtle blending examples of humour – many of them very American so I suspect there were even more than I noticed, handicapped by my British perspective. This is a book that takes ironic comedy to a whole new level – maybe ‘steelic’ comedy…? Humour is a very personal thing, but this book hit me right on the funny bone.
‘Wanted badly: .30-06 carbine. Will trade hunting dog or wife for it.’
This is a well-written book which takes a totally deadpan approach to a thoroughly – hysterically – funny sequence of events. It is dark comedy, so avoid if you are squeamish. The pace of the book rolls along in a perfect, unhurried way – screaming up into the action sequences and taking time to enjoy the more delicious moments of humour. The story itself is a lot deeper than many real zombie books and the explanation for the zombie phenomenon is as clever as it is satirical.
The characters are well portrayed, deep enough to engage with and care about, but not so deep you get distracted from what they are doing by their personalities. They are the agents through which we see the events unfolding rather than the focus of the story. But the humour is subtle, all-pervading: like the idea of the survivalist organic turkey farmer, part of a network of such, living off grid – except for ordering things from Amazon on his wife’s credit card of course…
‘The most disheartening thing was, she’d stab one through the heart, it’d drop fifteen feet to the ground with a satisfying thud, and then it’d stagger to its feet five minutes later and fly back up fifteen minutes later.’
The downside is that maybe some of the humour is lost on a non-US reader. There were a couple of moments I thought ‘Huh?’ then decided it was probably a reference to something outside my cultural parameters. The only other criticism I had was that it maybe played the theme along a tiny bit too far and perhaps had a few scenes been a bit shorter, a bit less detail on the way the plague spread, or a couple of turkey attacks left out – it might have been a sharper read. But these are very minor nit-picks against the whole.
This is a book I can recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who enjoys slow-boil satire and does not mind a few gory giblets thrown in the mix. If you want a good comedy read, you should gobble this up!
Zombie turkey takeover. This was a really cute book about turkeys turning zombie due to an infection that initially started in wild turkeys and spread to turkey farms. Due to genetic mutations in these zombie turkeys, they become wildly aggressive and kill anything they can spur or peck to death. Trouble is they can’t be killed easily. They can grow back heads, limbs, etc. and the flocks keep growing and growing.
This becomes a great story for a reporter named Sam of the Midley Beacon. He and his editor Lisa chase the growing flocks of zombie turkeys that are coming from Illinois farms to get stories on the havoc they are wrecking.
Lots of people are killed and through trial and error people discover that fire and salt water can stave off these flocks of fury. But despite efforts to contain and kill these turkeys, the numbers keep growing until the national guard is called in to help exterminate this epidemic.
The author crafted a pretty good story as to how the turkeys became infected and wove in a bit of romance here and there. All in all it was a good read but it didn’t tie up as nicely as one would hope at the end but that’s because there is a book two.
4.0 out of 5 stars The handprint turkey on the cover is your first clue.Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017Verified PurchaseLet me start by saying that “Andy Zach” has an unusual sense of humor (or possibly has escaped from a lunatic asylum and is living under an assumed name). I invite you to check out his Amazon author page and read the bio.
He’s gone all in on this zombie expert thing (since his parents were zombies) and states that he reanimated dead animals as a child for a science fair. He also currently raises phoenixes as a hobby. One more thing before starting on the story. What is that ‘thing’ on his head in his author picture?
Right off the bat, you have to assume that with a title like “Zombie Turkeys” that this will be a humorous story, yet it unfolds almost like a documentary.
I wanted to love it, but something didn’t fully click with me. I did LIKE it, nonetheless. There are some cute running gags about expense accounts and the occasional shift of POV to the head ZT
“He felt great. He was full of energy, he had many hens to breed with, and he was the leader of a great flock.” There are plenty of other gags (like ordering a Zombie Turkey killing flame thrower from Amazon Prime) that continue to make things fun, as well as all of the way-out ways they develop to dispatch the undead turkeys.
The central character is Sam Melvin, a reporter with the tiny local Illinois paper “The Midley Beacon”. Sam becomes an internet sensation by reporting on the Zombie Turkey outbreak. He always manages to be in the right place at the right time to get the story. Sam is a VERY mild-mannered reporter and I found him a little too ‘everyman’. Walter Mitty at least had adventures in his head, Sam seemed to get to the scene MOSTLY in the aftermath of the battle.
Overall, I think it was the characters that left me in the friend-zone with this story. None of them struck me as endearing, which I think could have gone a long way to make this a better story (for me). Perhaps I should also go on the record as stating that I’m not a Zombie Genre fan. Never watched an entire George Romero movie and switched off “The Walking Dead” after 3 episodes. I’m more of a “Shaun of the Dead” and “iZombie” kind of guy.
Before closing, I also have to say that at the end of ZT, there is an opening chapter of Andy’s second book “My Undead Mother-in-law”. I found it interesting enough to put it on my reading list for the future. Maybe I just don’t like turkeys?
If you have an off-beat sense of humor, give Zombie Turkeys a try. It might be right up your alley.
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017
I am not a zombie fan, but have been known to like turkey especially with stuffing. No seriously, this book is so imaginative and original but I wouldn’t classify it as a novelty book. It is too well written for that. Especially like the author using small towns in central Illinois as sites of the attacks as I am also from central Illinois.
This read will put a smile on your face no matter where you live. Looking forward to his next book about mother in laws. His funny, askew view is very entertaining. Enjoy the read!
Fun read. I enjoyed the running, fighting, and trying to survive the zombie turkey attacks. I think every Holiday should have a reading of this book. It is past time for the turkey to turn the dining table on the ravenous humans. Check out this book, it is a funny, irreverent journey into the end times.One person found this helpful
I loved every gobbling, clucking page of this book. It’s this hilarious and insane story that wonderfully hits all the right zombie outbreak tropes I love, but done with turkeys and thanksgiving themes. SO FUNNY! I could read about heroic turkey farmers making chipper-shredder last stands for just about forever.
The main dude, Mr. Unknown Blogger, was also a very likable and fun main character to ride around with. I loved reading about this bottom-of-the-pile reporter turning his life around even while the hordes of zombie turkeys get worse and worse.
Just writing this review makes me want to read the book again. So much fun.
Zombie Turkeys is not as bad as one would expect a book about zombie turkeys to be. It was campy, which was good, but it was also cheesy, which was bad. It was action-packed, which was good, but it also dragged on at the end, which was bad. The male narrator did some crazy voice work (including a passable imitation of Barack Obama), which was good, but the female narrator didn’t differentiate much between her different characters, which was bad. What does it mean to say a book broke even? I don’t know, but that’s what Zombie Turkeys did for me.
***Update- So it has been over 3 years since I rated and reviewed this book, and I still catch myself saying “Zombie Turkeys”. I bought an autographed copy of the book. I bring it up in conversation repeatedly. I’ve ordered an autographed copy of the sequel “Zombie Detective”. I am bumping the rating up to four stars, even though the things I wrote above are still true. Sometimes a book just gets into your head, and I think that speaks volumes for any title.***
I’d be hard press to classify this book. While it’s about zombies (turkeys) I couldn’t call it horror. It has too much of a parody side to it.
In this story, that reminds me a lot of a documentary after the fact, we follow how an online blogger becomes famous reporting the attacks of the zombie turkeys. While it is a little bit grim, the author doesn’t push toward it, so maybe if you have a pre-teen reader who loves zombies, you might want to check it out and see if it would fit his or her need.
If I could give the author one advice, it would be to cut down on the number of exclamation mark. The words are saying it. The addition of it doesn’t add anything. That said, this is a fun and quick read. It differs from the usual zombie stories. I mean it’s unique. I doubt you could find another one like it anywhere.
Have you ever seen Thankskilling? If you haven’t yet, don’t, it’s absolutely terrible. It attempted to meld the concept of horror films with turkeys with a smidge of humor as the glue, but let’s just say it failed miserably (honestly, no audience could possibly gobble that up).
Fortunately, being no stranger to reanimating corpses, Andy Zach succeeded in that department. Zach’s Zombie Turkeys (yes seriously…sort of) was a lot of fun and involved, you guessed it, the zombie apocalypse…but with turkeys.
Zombie Turkeys follows a myriad of distraught survivors as they’re faced with the unthinkable. Sam and Lisa battle their way across a corpse infested Illinois. The fun part about the book comes from the absolute absurdity of it all, and the fact that the turkey (our patient zero in the flesh, light or dark meat your choice) gets his own perspective chapters that added a uniqueness to the classic trope. All around a fun romp through a near future where turkeys get their just revenge and survivors serve up some rotted carcasses with a healthy dose of stuffing!
What a hoot!! Really involved plot following a scientific approach to the spread of the zombie bacteria. If course it spread like crazy with everyone making money and eventually the happy side plots were overshadowed by critters and eventually people getting zombified. Great!
The book was funny. Just thinking about zombie turkeys is hilarious. But there is some serious stuff going down. Turkeys are strong birds and in the numbers quoted can really hurt someone. I liked how they solved the problem but I’ll let you read it to find out.
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.
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).
The book cover is perfect! The story is a creative, funny & unique parody of the “zombie” genre. Don’t read it if you have no sense of humor or hate zombie books. I wasn’t rolling on the floor laughing, but definitely giggling in places in between some good action scenes. If you like Mel Brooks or Monty Python movies, you probably have the right sense of humor for this book.
Imaginative! The idea of zombie turkeys is funny at first, but after the joke wears off it turns into a legitimate horror story. It even gave me zombie nightmares! What kept it from getting five stars was some pacing issues in repeated scenes and conversations. The action was good and the twists very creative! Fun for any zombie fan.
Funny book! I don’t laugh at a lot because I can usually see the jokes coming. This one had me laughing. It was a fun story and sucked me right in. I didn’t want to stop reading.
OK, so the cover is perfect for this book. It was a very amusing read, dry wit. I liked it and may try the next book. It was a fun story with humor and ….well, zombie turkeys. What more could you ask for?
I reviewed a copy of the audio book from the author in exchange for my honest review, and here it is.
First book read/ listen from Andy Zach, and I’m totally hook. can’t wait to hear/ RAF the remaining series. the story line is very entertaining, and the way they perform (yes perform not read) the book was perfect.
Love the sound affects, they just made the story come to live. This story had it all, from killer zombies, love, mystery, and action. it’s a must read/ hear. I totally recommended.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Review
What a humorous dark comedy! The author does a great job of creating a one of a kind horror story that captures the essence of films like Sharknado while also bringing an even balance of humor and horror to the narrative.
The characters were well rounded and unique for a story set in the dark comedy genre. While given enough depth to care for them, the author did a great job of crafting the characters to give room for the ever-growing threat of the zombie turkeys and the hilarious circumstances that brought these creatures to life.
The Verdict A humorous, well-written and evenly paced read/listen, the audiobook version of author Andy Zach’s “Zombie Turkeys” is an instant hit! The first in the Life After Life Chronicles series, the book keeps readers on the edge of their seats. The narrators do an excellent job of capturing the characters and their personalities, and readers will not be able to get enough of this amazing audiobook. Be sure to grab your copy today!
This dark comedy combines action and humor set mostly against the back drop of rural Indiana. Sam and his editor Lisa run a small town newspaper, and in their search for a good lead stumble across the story of a life time – Zombie Turkeys!
We follow the turkeys as they make their way from farm to farm gathering more all but immortal fowl while leaving death and destruction in their wake. Sam, Lisa, and soon more reporters track the turkeys across the country side learning not just how to fight back but how to destroy them. This story is not just action packed but is also full of unexpected heros and even had time for a love story or two.
What a deliciously silly book! If you love zombies and comedy, this zombiedy story is for you. The whole premise of zombie turkeys is just so ludicrous it makes the whole tale funny, no matter how seriously the characters take their roles. Story is suitable for the whole family. Very little blood & guts, no swearing, sweet, innocent romance.
I really enjoyed the main characters, Sam and Lisa, who work for a small newspaper in Illinois. Sam is out for the real story, thoroughly enjoying his investigative reporting. Lisa runs the little newspaper with efficiency and soon she has the entire nation demanding their news reports. Zombie turkeys are a bad problem, for sure, but they have launched this small newspaper right into the big leagues.
I loved all the straight line jokes, like how the turkeys couldn’t possibly outsmart law enforcement or the military. Yet people aren’t thinking like turkeys, let alone zombie turkeys. In order to predict their behavior, one must mindmeld with the zombie turkey!
Then there’s the weapons deployed to eradicate the turkeys – flechettes, flame throwers, big knives, grenades, etc. The story takes every opportunity to poke fun at being over-prepared… for the wrong things. Yet, no one could possibly see zombie turkeys coming, right? The story ends with one final piece of investigative journalism which just might explain where these deadly birds came from. So looking forward to book 2! 5/5 stars.
The Narration: Phil Blechman & Raven Perez are a great duo for narrating this book. Blechman has the majority of the narration as most of the story is told through Sam’s eyes. Perez narrated for the ladies when the story switched to their point of view here and there. The recording was done very well as it sounded like these two narrators were in the same room. Both had unique voices for character and I loved their regional accents. It also sounded like both were enjoying the story. The pacing was perfect & there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
This was a fun listen! Sam Melvin is a reporter for a small newspaper in a small town. When people start being attacked by turkeys, Sam is on the job! As the first one to report the outbreak of a disease turning the turkeys into zombies, Sam is busy trying to find the flock and let the world know what is happening.
The story follows numerous attacks by the hoard of turkeys and the various ways that people try to fight them off. There is a little romance along the way for a few couples, even in the face of possible death. Add in the backstory of online news and entrepreneurship, a football game turned zombie fight and a great white shark and you have some great scenes!
The author does a great job with his descriptions of the zombie turkeys and the action that ensues when they attack. There is enough science thrown in to make the story more believable and this definitely gave me a pause for thought.
The narrators did a great job and I will definitely be hearing the turkey gobble in my head for a long, long time! If you are looking for a humorous way to spend a few hours, you won’t be disappointed.
I read this book to preview it for teen readers. I found it light and humorous considering it being a zombie tale. Now, I wouldn’t recommend it for the hard-core adult zombie, post-apocalyptic fans, but it’s perfect for young adults!
Andy’s take is unique, fun, and refreshing. The story wraps up cleanly with minimal gore and lots of tongue-in-cheek remarks. How fun to learn you can order a flamethrower on Amazon!
