I must admit to having a little beef with that fellow, Jesus.
It’s probably because my childhood, most of which was spent in a small Irish town, once referred to as ’The Alabama Of The North’, riddled with all shades of fundamentalist christian churches, veering from the very black-and-white to the slightly-less-black-and-white-but-still-pretty-fucking-grim. Twice weekly, I found myself suffering hellfire doom-and-gloom and dreary renditions of old, archaic hymns in our family place of worship. There, my little ears were bombarded with stories of people who were one prayer short of glory, waking amidst the flames of hell, crying for just one more chance… And by fuck, was that scary biscuits when you were all of nine years old!
Such were the building blocks of my youth, leading this little reviewer to scurry quickly to the Big Smoke, at the age of eighteen, to a world with a little more grey and frey around the edges. I quickly forsook the horror stories of my youth for a much more palatable kind, that of the Stephen Kings and George Romeros of this world.
So when Andre Duza made noises about his new release, Jesus Freaks, I was excited from two perspectives. Firstly, I absolutely adored the wall-of-death-fairground-ride that was his debut novel, Dead Bitch Army (Haven’t read it yet? Geez, why not?!) and the Indie Gods chapbook starring the same character, her Royal Scariness, Bloody Mary. After reading those little gems, anything the man Duza was releasing was certainly going to be greedily devoure!
Secondly, what with the rotting bone I had to pick with everyone’s ‘favourite’ messiah, Jesus (unless you’re Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindu, or Atheist, or me etc. etc. etc.) I was quite intrigued to see what Duza was all about with this one…
I should have guessed, of course…
Not content with one Jesus, Duza introduces his latest tale of woe with two Jesuses-s-s-s (Jesui?), miraculously unleashed on an unsuspecting world, doused in bloody rain and plagued by a spat of folk-rising-from-the-dead. Duza’s principal Jesus hails from the US of A, blonde and blue-eyed, the type favoured by folk like deputy villan of the piece, Rev. Jesse James Dallas. The other …er… Jesus, is found in none other than war-torn Iraq, sporting more of a Middle Eastern pallor, and going by the title of Yeshua. As to how these two prospective messiahs fit into a zombie story would be to spoil the piece, somewhat, save to say that they do. And do very well…
Duza’s Jesus Freaks is a very odd novel, and little fits together quite as you suspect it. There are more twists and turns in the storyline than a sliced-open-intestine, leading the reader through a collage of graphic and gloriously described scenes of gore-stained mayhem, starring characters so comic-book that you can almost see the speech bubbles submerged within the print.
Boy-done-good-anti-hero, Kane, at first seems like the classic bad-ass cop, renowned for getting things done his way (a way which seems a little unorthodox in his 2015 New World) but soon learns to channel this fervour within a society fending off an ever-threatening plague of zombies. Streetwise Jason Williamson, at first appears to be your everyday gang-weary, North Philly kid, before he too is lured into the madness of Duza’s plot, mixing all kinds of chaos up as he crosses paths with Kane.
Duza certainly pulls no punches as he pounds home his latest horror, introducing and manipulating each character with ease, as the zombie tide continues to rise…
As the zombies get their airtime, I begin to wonder if their ever-worrying presence is a parody of how the Western world deals with its poorer residents, or alternatively, a reflection of the simple, blind-faith mindset of those converts flocking to the new millenium Jesus, and his glitzy showbiz miracles…
(Or both? Or neither?)
… But to be absolutely honest, I soon forget about the social commentary that most definitely peeks its head above the covers, in most Duza output, and just get stuck into the blood-and-guts shotgun-pumping goodness of scene upon scene of headshot hoo-haa.
As the novel progresses, shifting curiously from one character to another, the two Jesus-us (JESUI?!) clocking up their respective followers, sporting very different agendas, you might begin to wonder if Duza has the makings of an epic here, a series that could have spawned across a trilogy of novels, perhaps, as opposed to being mixed together in this one outing. Some characters, and perhaps concepts, might seem to get lost within the maze, perhaps taking one twist too many? One might be guilty of wishing, at times, for the constant eloquent explosion, that is Duza’s writing style, to be reined in a little, if only to give a little bit of downtime before the next perfectly choreographed episode is frogmarched across the page. For others, the feverous pace and high-pitched action will be just the ticket, splashed delightfully between Duza’s usual guest list of quality artists’ impressions of the action, lending a definite movie-feel to proceedings.
Yet, few would find themselves not enjoying Jesus Freaks…
To call Andre Duza an author would be like calling Icelandic banshee, Bjork, a singer. It somehow falls short of describing exactly what Duza achieves with a book like Jesus Freaks. As a follow-up to Dead Bitch Army, Jesus Freaks sings gloriously of what pearly gates are in store for him, and has the rest of us all guessing just how the feck he can reach any further beyond our dark, horror-hungry imaginations. For some, me included, Dead Bitch Army will prove that little bit more accessible, and perhaps a better starting point for the Duza initiate…
… But for most, Jesus Freaks should be a pool of blood-soaked zombie goodness for every self-respecting fan of horror literature to dip their pinkies into. Duza does what he sets out to do, tearing up the zombie cliché with a delightful combo of gore, wit and imagination that should appeal to every forward-thinking fan of horror.
And in true comic-book style, ‘nuff said…
Review by Wayne Simmons (aka Spiral)
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