Balladeer’s Blog’s Eleventh Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Early in December is the ideal time to look at this dark-humored version of A Christmas Carol that was done in the style of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I AM SCROOGE – A ZOMBIE STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (2009) – Written by Adam Roberts. This book was a gift from a friend a few years ago and it’s pretty entertaining. Think of The Dead Next Door set at Christmas.
Roberts plays with various aspects of the narrative, even joking about superogatory “o’s” in Marley’s moan of “Scrooooge.” He peppers in a lot of similar jokes all the way through the book. The schtick is exactly what you would expect – the title is a joking reference to I Am Legend followed by Dickens’ qualification of A Christmas Carol as “A Ghost Story For Christmas.”
From there the beats of the tale follow their familiar – well, familiar-ISH – path. Scrooge’s nephew welcomes him with a cry of “Scary Christmas” instead of “Merry Christmas” and all of London is subjected to zombie attacks with all the expected zombie set pieces.
Marley’s Ghost is instead Marley’s Zombie and the Christmas Spirits are Christmas Zombies and so on. Needless to say Scrooge was turned off by Christmas long ago because of attacks by the undead around the holiday season.
Even Tiny Tim appears as a decomposing – but hungry – animated corpse. By story’s end Ebenezer Scrooge is filled with a new sense of purpose as he rallies his fellow Londoners to follow his lead in slaughtering the zombie hordes.
Or, as Scrooge beseeches his hastily-assembled army “Go bash ’em, every one!” I got a lot of laughs out of the book but there’s no denying that Adam Roberts should have cut it down by half at LEAST.
A one-joke premise needs to be over and done with before the reader has a chance to let themselves feel their eyes start to roll at the 9,795th variation of the same gag. +++
FOR MORE VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/a-christmas-carol-2/
Balladeer's Blog 
Reblogged this on El Noticiero de Alvarez Galloso.
I appreciate it! Thank you!
Anytime
😀
Uh-oh. Cut by half? 9795th variation? Hmm, unh, okay. Don’t read any more of my stuff. Among my faults are verbosity, cliche, redundancy, and I’m told I’m obtuse and obscure at the same time. I think that’s what they said. You obviously are not working on commission on this one, huh?
Ha! Yep, no commission. And your stuff is always slick and fun to read! You don’t bore readers to death.
I’m thinking you worked too hard today. Wa-a-a-y past your bedtime.
Ha! Maybe so!
That certainly sounds a different take on the story but I kinda like the crazy notion of it haha
I agree with you! It’s pretty crazy.
😉
OH MY GOD!!! You brilliant man! You just gave me another Christmas gift for my beautiful man! He’s going to LOVE this! Looking for it right after I leave blogland today! HOW FUNNY! Thank You a million trillion! Cheers!!! 😃💕🤗
Thank you, too! Glad you liked this and hopefully he will enjoy it too!
It’s on its on its way. So excited. He’s gonna LOVE it! Our new Christmas tradition, for sure! Bailey’s by the fire, reading our zombie Christmas book. I can see it now…..🤣
It sounds like something from Currier and Ives! (I’m kidding.)
OH! It truly does! Seriously! I saw an article that said they are going to be reopening and are specifically interested in having a branch that honours the romantic/softer side of all things zombie!!! 🤣
Hey that is a great development. “And everyone agreed it was the best Christmas ever” as that old cliche from 1970s Christmas specials went.
Indeed!!! 😅
Ha!
Out of the whole story, pyro was my fav.
I understand!
How gross!
I understand.