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nikkijazzie's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
whatsmacksaid's review against another edition
4.0
"She looked at Krishna. Was there recognition in her eyes? No, she hadn’t even awoken to new life when he found her. And yet."
Shit, man. This whole story is so intense and intensely thoughtful; it's one of the few zombie stories I can say I like.
Shit, man. This whole story is so intense and intensely thoughtful; it's one of the few zombie stories I can say I like.
nathanaeljs's review against another edition
4.0
Elegant and unusual take of the zombie story. Almost more horrific for its lack of a true apocalypse. Instead there are just truly terrible choices to make. Love to see a longer tour of this world.
ariadne_oliver's review
4.0
Krishna is quite unsettled when he bumps into a woman’s corpse during his morning bath in Kolkata’s Hooghly River, yet declines to do anything about it–after all, why should he take responsibility for a stranger? But when the dead start coming back to life en masse, he rethinks his position and the debate around how to treat these newly risen corpses gets a lot more complicated. In this story from Indrapramit Das, a journalist strives to understand Krishna’s actions and what they say about the rest of society and how we treat our dead.
An unusual philosophical take on a zombie story that I enjoyed a lot. I liked the open ending and the vivid prose:
Some were only days old, looking almost alive but for their slack faces like melting clay masks, their lethal wounds and bruises, their paled and discoloured skin, their jellied eyes and the sometimes lovely frills of clinging white crustaceans in their hair, the tiny flickers of fish leaping from their muddy mouths. Others were black and blue, bloated into terrifying caricatures of their living counterparts, who watched in droves from behind the lines of fearful policemen at the top of the ghat steps. Fresh or old, all these dead men and women wading back to the world were united by the ignominy of their ends, un-cremated and tossed into the tea-brown waters of the Hooghly to be forgotten. Most, Krishna noticed, were women. All had crows as their punishing familiars, which clung to shoulders and heads as they tore flesh away with their beaks.
Available online free here: http://www.tor.com/2016/02/10/breaking-water-indrapramit-das/
An unusual philosophical take on a zombie story that I enjoyed a lot. I liked the open ending and the vivid prose:
Some were only days old, looking almost alive but for their slack faces like melting clay masks, their lethal wounds and bruises, their paled and discoloured skin, their jellied eyes and the sometimes lovely frills of clinging white crustaceans in their hair, the tiny flickers of fish leaping from their muddy mouths. Others were black and blue, bloated into terrifying caricatures of their living counterparts, who watched in droves from behind the lines of fearful policemen at the top of the ghat steps. Fresh or old, all these dead men and women wading back to the world were united by the ignominy of their ends, un-cremated and tossed into the tea-brown waters of the Hooghly to be forgotten. Most, Krishna noticed, were women. All had crows as their punishing familiars, which clung to shoulders and heads as they tore flesh away with their beaks.
Available online free here: http://www.tor.com/2016/02/10/breaking-water-indrapramit-das/
pezski's review
5.0
A wonderfully unique take on the zombie story, showing the phenomenon of the return of the dead from a different cultural perspective. While bathing in the river Hooghley in Kolkata, low caste Krishna finds the floating body of a woman. From a Western perspective, the way he simply moves it to shore and continues to bathe is shocking, as is the complete disinterest of the other bathers. When he later sees on the news that she is amongst the newly risen dead, he feels some responsibility toward her and rushes to claim the body and protect her.
This short tale wonderfully explores what it means to be alive and the possibility of an afterlife, as well as the appalling violence against women in India and that it is so often simply a fact of life.
Stunningly good, possibly the best story so far.
This short tale wonderfully explores what it means to be alive and the possibility of an afterlife, as well as the appalling violence against women in India and that it is so often simply a fact of life.
Stunningly good, possibly the best story so far.
pixieauthoress's review
3.0
This was a quick read with an interesting concept, but it never really gripped me in the same way other Tor shorts have. It's a zombie story, but instead of dealing with survival and trying to defeat the zombies, it focuses on how the resurrection of some dead people impacts views of the afterlife, and whether the dead have the same rights as the living. The dead do occasionally bite people, but they're more inconvenient than dangerous.
The story is set in India and focuses on a man who discovers a body washed up in a river, then later goes back to the scene when he hears that the dead are coming back to life. Out of guilt for not doing anything about the dead woman hours earlier, he claims her as his responsibility, and the rest of the story is told from the point of view of a journalist observing his life after this event. It was certainly interesting, but the pace of the story felt a bit weird, and there were several moments where I thought the story must be over, only to turn the page and find another chapter. The author did a good job of answering all the questions a reader might have about a world inhabited by both living and dead, but it wasn't the kind of story where I was eagerly turning the pages to read more, and it kind of felt like like the later chapters were added in just so the author could assure us that they'd thought over every part of the concept.
Maybe this story would be better suited to a longer story where there would be more time to explore the concept? It was definitely interesting, just not super gripping. It was nice to read a zombie story not set in the Western world where the immediate solution would just be to shoot all the dead. If you find existential questions of life and death more terrifying than gory zombie battles, you'll probably like this.
The story is set in India and focuses on a man who discovers a body washed up in a river, then later goes back to the scene when he hears that the dead are coming back to life. Out of guilt for not doing anything about the dead woman hours earlier, he claims her as his responsibility, and the rest of the story is told from the point of view of a journalist observing his life after this event. It was certainly interesting, but the pace of the story felt a bit weird, and there were several moments where I thought the story must be over, only to turn the page and find another chapter. The author did a good job of answering all the questions a reader might have about a world inhabited by both living and dead, but it wasn't the kind of story where I was eagerly turning the pages to read more, and it kind of felt like like the later chapters were added in just so the author could assure us that they'd thought over every part of the concept.
Maybe this story would be better suited to a longer story where there would be more time to explore the concept? It was definitely interesting, just not super gripping. It was nice to read a zombie story not set in the Western world where the immediate solution would just be to shoot all the dead. If you find existential questions of life and death more terrifying than gory zombie battles, you'll probably like this.
lnatal's review
2.0
You may read online at Thor.com.
jamesflint's review
4.0
Rep: Indian characters and setting
CWs: mentions of domestic violence, rape & murder, gore
CWs: mentions of domestic violence, rape & murder, gore
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