Dead Day (graphic novel) - Paul's REVIEW bureaucracy

*I received this book as an eARC from Aftershock Comics via Edelweiss. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

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Title: Dead Day
Author: Ryan Parrott 
Artist: Evgeniy Bornyakov
Upcoming Release Date: March 16, 2021


Synopsis: YOU JUST CAN’T KEEP A GOOD CORPSE DOWN

If the dead could come back for just one night, would we want them to?

Meet the Haskins, a seemingly normal suburban family, as they prepare for the annual macabre holiday known as “Dead Day" – when the deceased rise from the grave from sunset to sunrise. Some come back to reunite with family and friends, others for one last night of debauchery, still others with only one thing on their decomposing minds: revenge.

From writer Ryan Parrott (OBERON, VOLITION, Power Rangers) and artist Evgeniy Bornyakov (DESCENDENT, YOU ARE OBSOLETE) comes an unnerving tale of existential horror with grave consequences.

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Review: I've really enjoyed Ryan Parrott's Power Rangers comic series so when I saw he wrote a zombie-focused book, I had to check it out. As this book makes clear in the forward, this book is not solely about zombies being zombies. It's about the relationships between people, both dead and alive. 

There's a special day when some of those dead and buried rise from the grave. Obviously, such an unusual change in the norm of life has led to extremists. Cults! There's the gun-toting mock militia bent on re-killing the dead. There's the veiled cult who guide the dead and have a spiritual connection.

Then there's the family we focus on. What appears to be a traditional family with a mother, father, son, and daughter is a little bit more complex. I definitely wanted it to be more divergent from the assumed American family, though. This book is very White-centric and hetero-normative. I'm always looking for queer representation in everything I read. There's one mention of the Day of the Dead, but it's just a one-off comment. With a concept so close to a Latinx cultural day, I was surprised there wasn't more of a connection. There's definitely room for more worldbuilding reveals in this world, though.

I liked seeing the bureaucracy of America dealing with this concept. This book is very much about revenge. There's a lot of violence in this book. And violence is often used as a way for a character to solve a problem. 

I didn't connect too much with the characters in this book. I really dig the concept, but the family members and their priorities aren't things I directly relate to. I give this book a 3/5. 

--PAUL