Braineater Jones

Waking up in a swimming pool tainted with blood, a hole shot through his chest, he should be dead, and he is. Deemed himself Braineater Jones, he tries to navigate his new undead life. With no memory and few clues, Jones finds himself in a bar with others of his kind. Needing alcohol to keep himself from caving to his cravings, Jones also needs money. Braineater Jones becomes an undead Private Investigator for his own kind. Along with his sidekick, who happens to be a severed head, Jones solves the strange problems of his undead counterparts. However, the one mystery Jones forgets to solve is his own.
Funny and unexpected, Braineater Jones was a wonderful compilation of genres. Set in the 1930’s near prohibition and written in the pulp fiction style, there is a good mix of historical fiction, mystery, zombies and plenty of humor. Through the eyes of Jones, the reader only knows what he does, which isn’t much. This made for a very fast-paced read and kept me wondering what could possibly happen next along with Jones. I loved the incorporation of history at the time and the incorporation of history at the time and the Nazi/zombie connection. There was a great sense of place and time period, even with the inclusion of zombies, the language, atmosphere and people all fit perfectly into this world. The mysteries that Jones solves brought me deeper into his world and contained just the right amount of humor. Braineater Jones is a great pick for anyone looking for a different kind of zombie read.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.

This book is a wonderful noir pulp horror throwback I loved it.

Most of the zombies I read about are the mindless, infected, and/or shambling kind. But I much prefer my non-human creatures to be main characters in books rather than monsters to be killed, so having a zombie protagonist this time made me all excited, and for good reason because this was such a unique, creative take on the creatures!

See, in this version, they're still fully functioning, but they have to drink alcohol to stay "alive" because it pickles the brain, and, if rigor mortis starts to set in, they have to electroshock their bodies back into action. But since they're dead, any injuries they get don't actually heal, so, for example, our protag Braineater Jones here has to remove maggots from his bullet holes each morning, and all the zombies have their own little tips and tricks in order to keep their bodies looking and functioning as alive as possible. Also, their body parts stay alive even when removed, which leads to some extremely interesting scenarios, like Jones having a severed head as a partner in his detective business and a brothel where the men get to choose a head, a torso, and legs separately to form one woman. So what I'm saying is, I absolutely loved the creativity of the zombies and their whole little zombie society. The author really had fun with all the oddities and mishaps that would come with being a walking, talking corpse.

The writing was also great in that Braineater Jones had a fantastic voice. I'm no expert on the lingo and culture of the 1930s, but it felt pretty right. It was definitely not just a character from the present plopped into a 1930s setting. The way Jones talked, his thoughts, the slang he used---it really added a lot to the book.

The book was also funny in this sarcastic, bizarre, sometimes twisted, sometimes disgusting (literally, because their bodies were rotting corpses) kind of way. It's not for the faint of heart or the easily offended, but the absurdity of some of the situations combined with Jones's commentary made for a highly entertaining read.

There was also the crime noir/mystery aspect of Jones trying to solve his own murder case, but honestly, I'm not a big crime mystery person. I just liked the book for the fun zombie-ness.

So overall, it was a fantastically strange and unique zombie book that was so much fun to read!

Not the usual kind of book I read, but I thought it sounded like a good read. I wasn't disappointed. The book was a little difficult to get into st first, this was due to the setting and the slang terms used (there is a glossary at the end explaining these). The characters and dialogue were interesting and the story flowed very well, the journal type setting was an interesting way of distinguishing the chapters. Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would.

Braineater Jones by Stephen Kazenrewski is a horror and mystery and thriller read. Braineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life, how he died, or why he's now a zombie.
With a smart-aleck severed head as a partner, Jones descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder.
Very slow read.
I got through it.
It wasn't what I thought it would be. 4* from me. Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

“Braineater Jones” by Stephen Kozeniewski is another novel that I picked up mainly on the strength of the title. Well, that and the fact that it is a zombie novel, which is always a plus. I was just hoping that the story would live up to that catch title.

The man did not so much wake up, face down, in the pool but rather came to consciousness. After all, one cannot wake up from death. That is the state that he found himself again: dead but once again returned to a kind of life and with no memory of what had happened before his awakening. As he had no memory of the past, he did the only thing that made sense to him and set off on a quest to discover his murderer and bring him to justice. That is how Braineater Jones came to be.

In order to find his murderer, Jones must first overcome an almost uncontrollable urge to eat human flesh and soon finds that the only way to curb this unnatural appetite is with alcohol. Alcohol has become a major force in the world as a way to control the undead and Jones learns that the answers to his questions may lie with those who control the flow of booze. Alcohol is not easy to come by as the country is in the middle of Prohibition so Jones begins to follow a trail of blood and liquor to the man who controls the flow of the coveted contraband. The man that controls the alcohol may be the only one that can give Jones the answers that he needs. Unfortunately for Jones, he is also the only one holding back a zombie apocalypse by allowing alcohol to reach the mouths of the undead and curb their murderous tendencies. Since he is past the point of saving his life, Jones can only hope that he can find his murderer and maybe save the small shred of humanity that resides in his slowly decaying flesh.

I was not really sure what to expect when I started “Braineater Jones” and I definitely was not ready for the type of story that I found in the novel but that is not a bad thing. Konzeniewski crafts a tale that is equal parts zombie novel, noir fiction, and a hardboiled crime story to create a unique world that was instantly captivating. While these elements are diverse and can at times seem almost in opposition to each other, he manages to pull all of the threads together to create a vision all of his own. The book is set in the world of the prohibition in the United States and he plays that off well with the zombie’s need for alcohol to control their cannibalistic urges. This creates an inherent tension that hovers over the novel as the reader gets a clear sense of a world on the brink of the apocalypse and holding on to a type of civilization through the underworld rather than through the actions of the world’s leaders. Destruction is only a breath away and this sense of impending doom is filtered masterfully through the mind of Jones. He becomes a herald not only for the search for individuality in a monochrome world but also for society’s struggle for survival in spite of itself.

“Braineater Jones” is not a perfect novel but it is a fun one to read. Konzeniewski brings his original vision and voice to the story to give it a twist all its own and kept the story fresh. This is not the first novel of its ilk but it does stand out as something original in a genre that has become stuffed full of the same old types of zombie tales. The novel does drag at times during the middle and there is surprisingly little action in the story which makes it become a sort of “thinking man’s” story as Konzeniewski puts more emphasis on the causes behind the story rather than on zombie action. The story’s genre-bending turns keep the reader guessing throughout and the twists never seem to come out the way in which they are expected. If you are looking for a tale full of zombies eating the flesh of helpless humans, this is not the story for you. But if you want a smart, thoughtful zombie story that is equal parts mystery, noir, and horror, then do not hesitate to pick up this book and take a trip into a zombie-infested alternate past.

I would like to thank Red Adept Publishing and NetGalley for this review copy. “Braineater Jones” is available now.