“Barnes, a rare sentient zombie, tries to develop a program to create a zombie-human nation, but sadly, all he wants is a brain. Yours. A witty and unexpected take on the zombie genre; I had a great time.”

“An unusual take on the zombie genre: part Grapes of Wrath, part postmodern memoir.... Becker’s writing is crisp.”

“A zombie delight for the thinking man (and woman), Brains is a feast of literary parallels, pop culture references, and historical metaphors, with enough blood, guts, and brains to satisfy any zombie lover’s appetite. Smart, gory, and fun.”

“A zany disembowelment of American pop culture. Snarky. Gory. Out of control. Dementedly delicious...brainilingus!”

“Witty and clever, Brains is a thinking zombie’s book about what it means to be human, or almost human, and what we all owe each other whether we like it or not.”

“What a glorious, ghoulish gait down the lofty gantry of the badass brain-eating zombie genre. Outstanding book. 5/5 Masturbating Monkeys, all across the board. The author, Robin Becker, totally and completely rocked my world with Brains. ”

“So begins the craziest story I’ve had the pleasure to read in a long time. First, I have to note: I don’t like horror stories, never read them, and most especially avoid them at the theater. Zombies? They freak me out. So why did I read this story? EOS sent out a sampler of their books to reviewers, and as I was paging through the selections, I took one look at the title, and was ready to keep flipping pages. But for some odd reason I read the first page. Then the second page. And then, well, EOS had only provided the first three chapters, and by the time I’d flipped the last page, I was hungry for more. Brains!”

“This book is all about balance. Balance between the inherent problems of zombies and story; balance between the stuffiness of the main character and the need to have an intelligent main character who can also chronicle events; balance between a need for a quest and a need to trivialize alternatives to a cross-country trip. For the most part the uniqueness of the idea keeps discrepancies to the side. I mean this may be the first zombie novel told from the perspective of the zombies. ”

“Another debut author novel, another novel from the zombie perspective, another great read. Lately there are lot of debut zombie authors and a lot of new books coming from the zombie perspective, and yet I am still being surprised because each one of these novels are completely different and provide a new perspective that hasn’t been done before. With her book Brains, Becker has written a funny yet heartwarming story and has managed to turn a zombie into a hero. ”

“I was at Borders (aka, my home turf) when I say this book in passing. It caught my eye, and I had to pick it up. Brains, A Zombie Memoir. I laughed out loud (much to the chagrin of the hoity-toity group perusing to my left. Victoriously, I proclaimed to my little guy (a 15 year old who loves Borders almost as much as me) “Ha! This just might be crazy enough to work!” And boy, did it. I, for lack of better terms, engulfed the story, first pass . Then, I gave it a second pass, and found it just as great. The story is incredibly well paced, humorous, captivating, witty, brilliant, utterly believable, and surprisingly heart-touching. In case you didn’t understand, I LOVED this book. It is one of the best books I have read in years.”

“Do you think you know all there is to know about zombies? Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? What if it happened and you found yourself changed – a zombie but in still able to think and reason? What would you do? Could you control your urge to feed?”

“Becker’s book is called Brains. It is the memoir of a zombie. In the grand tradition of George Romero meets John Gardner, whose Grendel tells of the epic struggle of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view, Becker gives intelligence to a zombie-bitten man named Jack Barnes and sends him on a self-imposed quest to be the Moses of zombie kind, a thinking messiah to plead the zombie case for survival to humankind. You know, “let my people go” and all that.”

“What seemed impossible before reading the book becomes plausible at the end as the zombies seem more human than the monstrous humans set against them. These zombies set out on a quest with a goal in mind and put aside their zombie instincts to achieve what they wanted. Sure, they fell off the wagon a few times, their human chauffeur was kind of jerk and deserved to be eaten, but what human being doesn’t mess up? They are human, or as close to human as zombies can get, and the ride to this realization is enjoyable and mysteriously hopeful. ”

“Written in a terse style reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk, “Brains” crackles with irreverent jokes, one-liners and zombie neologisms (among the cleverer ones, “zombeteriat”). It’s also stacked high with pop culture references. Strung back and forth are lists of movies, brands, music, celebrities and writers, as though Becker wants her characters to feel at home in their post-apocalyptic world. ”

“It’s fun and easy to read, all the while throwing literary and pop culture references at you, just to show how much zombie Barnes has actually retained from his human life. ”

“Brains: A Zombie Memoir” is a postlife twist on the brain-eater genre that’s only recently begun to infect zombie films: monsters that retain some memory or sense of self.
The book’s a must for zombie fans. If you’re not one, this might infect, er, convert you with its pop-culture jabs, heartwarming moments and visceral horror”

“In this summer’s Brains: a zombie memoir, Robin Becker tries to do for zombies what Anne Rice did for vampires in Interview with the Vampire back in 1976. ”

“While the premise of a sentient zombie going on a journey to find his maker and coming to terms with his zombism is not a new story, I enjoy how Robin Becker had written this. You actually feel that you are in this despondent world that the dead currently roam and you become invested in the characters ”

“Professor’s upcoming zombie story humorous, entertaining ”

“Brains had me laughing one minute and contemplating human existence the next. An absolutely amazing debut! ”

“I have to give major props to Robin Becker for creating for readers a new way to look at zombies. I certainly will never think of the same after reading this gore filled, humorous and action packed novel.”

“Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker was brilliant, to say the least. It was edgy, refreshing and totally unlike anything I have read lately.”