By Katey Khaos

Take Breaking Bad, mix it with The Walking Dead, and you get Peter Stenson’s first novel, Fiend.

Yes, Fiend is a zombie apocalypse novel, but hear me out: It’s not your run-of-the-mill zombie read. The premise of Fiend is a zombie apocalypse caused by an airborne pathogen. The pathogen crept into the neuro-receptors of unaware, sleeping civilians, and they died in their sleep. However, some reanimated as the hungry undead ~ zombies!

Mind you, these aren’t your average zombies. They don’t moan or passively walk around ~ they giggle. That’s right; imagine an end of the world where bloodied inhuman monsters approach you giggling, as though your death is a joke. Creepy, right?

OK, so I said this pathogen killed its sleeping victims, but was everyone sleeping that night? After all, you can’t have a zombie apocalypse story without survivors. The only people that survived the onset of the pathogen were the people whose neuro-receptors were blocked off ~ and what better way to block them than with methamphetamine, of course! That’s right; meth prevents the airborne pathogen from killing or reanimating people as chucks (the name given for these creepy, chuckling zombies.) Keep in mind that, unfortunately, a bite can still turn you over to the dark side.

I love how Stenson has added this twist to the zombie genre. Sure, there’s usually a plague that takes over a city, and there’s an antidote that can save the civilians from being zombified, but never have I seen a drug addiction, so to speak, serve as the driving force to keep people immune. Notice I said drug addiction. That’s right; characters have to keep using methamphetamine to stay safe.

Our main meth-heads obviously care about where they’re going to get their next fix anyway, but now, meth is a supply just as valuable as food or drinking water. This is where things get (more) interesting. People on meth aren’t the most stable. People trapped in a zombie apocalypse setting are already snapping at each other, trying to make sure they’re not going to be the next victim. Take that and add in some drug-addicted characteristics ~ like tweaking out and paranoia. Enter murderous drug-runners, aforementioned paranoid meth-heads with guns and a loaded prison full of zombies.

Can the survivors make it out alive, despite their horrid dispositions? Find out by picking up Fiend ~ available in stores and online now.