“Forgive me at this point for diverting, as all of our attentions have been diverted of late, to the brain eaters,” Nick Caraway pleads to readers early in this zombified version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s epochal novel of glitz and disillusionment. Inspired by the likes of 2009’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which kicked off a spate of prankish revisions of classic literature to include horror elements, Soini (author of Gloucester’s Sea Serpent) brings the conceit into the modernist era, on the occasion of Fitzgerald’s 1925 masterpiece entering the public domain. Significant portions of the original text still appear—the green light on Daisy’s dock continues to transfix, and the novel still peaks with that climactic glimpse of “a fresh, green breast of the new world.”

But it’s transmogrified by Soini’s inventions, chief among them what President Coolidge called the “disruptive interruption” period—a war with “Homo Zombiti” and its aftermath. A laugh-out-loud scene imagines a delegation of zombies signing a peace treaty; here, it’s this conflict that has shattered a generation, rather than the First World War. Soini’s prose can’t quite measure up to the jeweled romance of Fitzgerald’s, but it’s strong, and he’s more generous and successful in his additions than the authors of some works in this curious genre. An encounter with Groucho Marx at a Gatsby party is a delight, and jokes about the Cubs and talkies, plus cameos from luminaries like Maxwell Perkins all contribute to the sense of play.

Gatsby remains a tragedy, albeit one whose Jazz Age highs allow room for fun. Soini, thankfully, has thought through that tragedy, taking it seriously as he springs undead surprises. Whether this illuminates the original or is instead a sort of party trick is left to readers to work out, but it’s fair to say that Soini’s additions aren’t just clever—as Carraway likens that lonely ol’ sport Gatsby to “a sort of zombie outside of his horde,” they have weight.

Takeaway: The undead roam Fitzgerald’s classic, but the story still has weight.

Great for fans of: Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sherri Browning Erwin’s Jane Slayre.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A