The hardcore horror novella, Night of the Loving Dead, is the result of the collaboration of James Newman, the author of Midnight Rain and Holy Rollers, and fellow horror writer James Futch.

The main character, Sheila, becomes a guard at Grady Memorial Hopspital’s morgue, working night shift--a desperate choice she has to make trying to make ends meet and paying for her tuition. The previous guard, the now retired Mr Cephus Davenport, warns her never to be around the autopsy room downstairs after midnight, but she still goes there to look around with her boyfriend, Alex, to find something incredible. At nights, corpses at the morgue come alive, and these zombies are not driven by the desire to eat, but only to have sex till the crack of dawn. After the discovery, Alex, who is a poor musician, currently working in the least respected branch of the film industry, comes up with the idea of recording the orgies of the dead, but the corpses soon get out of control.

The book gives a realistic introduction to the porn industry and the people working in it. It includes a high number of explicit and overly violent sex scenes. It is not for those of you who easily become shocked or disgusted, and, for obvious reasons, is very likely to attract the attention of the necrophiliac. Though the world the reader is introduced to is a rather sexist one, with depicting Sheila, the authors are able to create a credible female character to which the reader can relate. On the basis of the blurb at the publisher’s website, the title and the well-written opening, I somehow expected a book that employs more black humor, but the authors, quite unfortunately, decided to focus on the pornographic scenes instead, though they still managed to introduce a number of twists in the plot and they also came up with some interesting minor characters.

The book is advertised on the publisher's website as the most twisted tale you've ever read. Surely, it is.

Reviewed By Ilona Hegedus
© April 2005