Lanternfish Press / October 2020
Reviewed by: Vince A. Liaguno

Literary debuts come in all sizes—some arrive with big and buzzy fanfare; others slip in quietly, unobtrusively. Although Matthew Vesely’s Elegy for the Undead falls squarely into the latter category, this stunning novella marks the introduction of a voice worth keeping an ear out for. What makes Elegy even more impressive is that it takes a weary pop culture phenomenon—zombies—and makes every one of the subgenre’s tropes seem fresh when backlit against the heartrending humanity of Vesely’s story.

Jude and Lyle, the protagonists at the heart of Elegy, are just your typical queer newlyweds juggling life, love, and careers when a zombie apocalypse upends life as they know it. Told in alternating flashbacks and time jumps from both Jude’s and Lyle’s points of view, we follow the couple through their circumspect courtship to marriage, from settling down and establishing a home in suburbia to navigating flesh-eating neighbors. One of them is bitten, infecting him with a virus that causes violent episodes and a gradual physical and mental deterioration. Although antivirals slow the progression of this newly-emergent disease, both men understand the progression of the illness and how it ends—death followed by reanimation followed by compassionate euthanasia.

Vesely’s story is masterfully paced, with the flashback and time-jump narrative devices used with a careful precision that builds tension, suspense, and emotional investment in his characters. Mini cliffhangers abound, propelling readers to turn pages quicker and quicker to find out what happened and what’s next. Although Elegy is a lean 171 pages of storytelling, the reader never feels rushed or cheated; Vesely tells the couple’s story completely.

The zombie infection in Elegy is, quite clearly from the outset, an allegorical stand-in for any number of degenerative diseases that robs its victim of their personhood—Alzheimer’s and ALS spring most immediately to mind—but Vesely’s tale never suffers for that obviousness; conversely, the universal familiarity of grappling with a malignancy that advances toward an inevitable end lends an emotional gravitas to the usual once bitten/twice dead body count apathy of zombie tales. Think about why Train to Busan or the earlier episodes of The Walking Dead resonated so deeply with audiences and stood out in an otherwise one-note subgenre and you’ll understand why Vesely’s tale is so special.

In Elegy for the Undead, newcomer Matthew Vesely has crafted a deceptively simple tale of love in the age of zombies; but look closer and you’ll find a beautifully nuanced tale of the complexities of human connection and an affecting rumination on anticipated grief. No surprise either that Elegy comes from Lanternfish Press, an impressive boutique publisher of other compelling, strange literary birds. It’s a novella of breathtaking achievement that one could easily imagine being adapted for the screen by an equally gifted visual storyteller like Osgood (I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, The Blackcoat’s Daughter) Perkins or Carter (Jamie Marks is Dead, Bugcrush) Smith and then becoming a breakout hit on the film festival circuit.

Purchase Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely here.