8 Zombie Novels to Feast On

Zombies have roots in Haitian folklore, but it was George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) that really defined what most people think of as a zombie today. Since then, countless different takes on the living dead have hit the big screen—from the 28 Days Later franchise with its fast zombies to Shaun of the Dead (2004) with its comedic twist on the undead. But there are also plenty of zombies shambling their way through the pages of books. So if you’re hungry for more brains, blood, and gore, here are eight of the best zombie novels to dig into. Dead in the West (1986) // Joe R. LansdaleWorld War Z (2006) // Max BrooksWarm Bodies (2010) // Isaac MarionThe Girl with All the Gifts (2014) // M. R. CareyDread Nation (2018) // Justina IrelandSurvivor Song (2020) // Paul Tremblay The Living Dead (2020) // George A. Romero and Daniel KrausGrief Eater (2026) // Emma OsborneDead in the West (1986) // Joe R. LansdaleCover of 'Dead in the West' by Joe R. Lansdale | Night Shade / AmazonReverend Jebediah Mercer has lost his faith in God and is traveling through the Wild West when he comes across a town with a problem: Mud Creek, Texas, has been overrun by zombies. Thankfully, Jeb also happens to be a skilled gunslinger. Filled with pulpy action and dark humor, Dead in the West proved to be a hit and Joe R. Lansdale went on to write other stories about Jeb fighting supernatural threats. The original zombie novel and subsequent short stories can all be found together in Deadman’s Road (2010).World War Z (2006) // Max BrooksCover of 'World War Z' by Max Brooks | Del Rey / AmazonRather than being set during the apocalypse like most zombie stories, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War instead reflects on the catastrophe after humanity’s narrow survival. As the book’s subtitle indicates, this is done via interviews with numerous people from across the globe—from soldiers and civilians to doctors and astronauts.This planet-wide perspective was vital to Max Brooks. “I was sick and tired of this giant global crisis being told through the eyes of like one guy, or a tiny little group,” he explained in a 2023 interview with Ain’t It Cool News. “It would be like trying to understand World War II watching only [Saving] Private Ryan.” The 2013 movie adaptation sadly went against this original intention by narrowing the story down to the perspective of just one man: United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt). Warm Bodies (2010) // Isaac MarionCover of 'Warm Bodies' by Isaac Marion | Atria Books / AmazonWarm Bodies is often billed as a zombie romance, but there’s still plenty of feasting on brains to be found throughout the book. The story is told from the perspective of a zombie—known only as R (he can’t remember his name)—who isn’t as brain-dead as the rest of the infected. While hunting humans one day, he becomes enamored with a young woman called Julie and impulsively decides to save her from his hungry friends. Although Warm Bodies eventually became so popular that it was turned into a movie in 2013—starring Nicholas Hoult as R and Teresa Palmer as Julie—it was originally self-published. “I printed out a couple hundred copies and I just sold them on my website,” Isaac Marion told Wired. The novel was then picked up by Atria Books, but the version they published was “dramatically different” from Marion’s first printing, being about 80 pages longer in order to fully flesh out the story. The Girl with All the Gifts (2014) // M. R. CareyCover of 'The Girl With all the Gifts' by M. R. Carey | Orbit / AmazonBefore The Girl with All the Gifts had even been published, the rights were acquired to turn it into a movie and M. R. Carey was even hired to be the screenwriter. “I was actually writing the novel and the screenplay at the same time,” Carey explained in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). The story revolves around a 10-year-old girl called Melanie, who has been infected with the fungal zombie virus that ended the world as we know it two decades earlier. But unlike most zombies (known as hungries in this book), she has somehow retained her ability to think—that is, unless she smells human flesh. Melanie is being schooled and scientifically studied at a military base in England when all hell breaks loose. Dread Nation (2018) // Justina IrelandCover of 'Dread Nation' by Justina Ireland | Clarion Books / AmazonDread Nation is set in a world where the American Civil War was ended when the dead soldiers on the Gettysburg battlefield came back to life with a hunger for human flesh. This time period “seemed like the perfect terrible moment for things to get even worse,” Justina Ireland said in a 2018 interview. “War is horrible enough because you’ve just lost someone, but there’s a whole new level of trauma when your dead friend is trying to eat your face.”The story is set seventeen years after the initial zombie outbreak and follows Black teenager Jane McKeene, who has been trained in the art of zombie-killing behind the walls of the relatively safe city of Baltimore. Jane’s future is supposed to involve working as a bodyguard for a wealthy white family, but things take a turn when a conspiracy leads to her being sent out into the wild, zombie-filled West. Survivor Song (2020) // Paul Tremblay Cover of 'Survivor Song' by Paul Tremblay | William Morrow / AmazonThe publication of Survivor Song was unexpectedly timely. Paul Tremblay began writing the outbreak novel in 2018, but it wasn’t released until the summer of 2020—right in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A zombie-like rabies infection has broken out across Massachusetts, and although a lockdown is in place in an attempt to stop the spread, heavily pregnant Natalie ends up being bitten. With limited time before she turns into a crazed biter herself, she rushes to a get a vaccine with the help of her friend Ramola.Tremblay wanted his zombie story to feel as grounded as possible and was worried that his depiction of the right-wing militia that Natalie and Ramola encounter along the way was too silly. But the COVID-19 pandemic proved that he could have gone further. “If anything, I probably should have given them more outlandish beliefs, based on some of the reactions to the coronavirus,” he said in an interview with the LA Times. The Living Dead (2020) // George A. Romero and Daniel KrausCover of 'The Living Dead' by George A. Romero | Tor Books / AmazonAlthough George A. Romero is best-known for his zombie films—Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Day of the Dead (1985) are all considered defining classics of the genre—he also had an idea for a zombie book. Unfortunately, he died in 2017 before he could complete it, so Daniel Kraus stepped in to bring the story to life, taking the draft and notes that Romero had left behind and combining them with his own ideas to create The Living Dead. The resulting story is an epic saga that charts the zombie apocalypse as it develops over the course of 15 years. Grief Eater (2026) // Emma OsborneCover of 'Grief Eater' by Emma Osbourne | Interstellar Flight Press / AmazonA zombie plague has spread throughout Australia, and when Kristina gets bitten she decides to turn lemons into lemonade by getting revenge on her abusive family. The story flips between past and present, showing both the homophobia she suffered while growing up and her current journey across the country. “I wanted to explore what it would be like to have heightened senses, to have a strong, powerful body. To be virtually indestructible, and what that would mean to someone who had escaped a childhood and young adulthood full of trauma and abuse,” Emma Osborne explained in a 2026 interview.