Zombie

Written in the form of journal entries—collections of thoughts broken up by screaming capital letters and crude marker drawings—Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates is a journey into the psychotic consciousness of a serial killer. Zombie views the world through the eyes of Quentin P., newly paroled sex offender, as he evolves from rapist to mass murderer. With each page of his diary, Quentin details his obsession with creating a “zombie”—a lobotomized young man to serve as a sex slave—while interspersing recollections of his past nefarious deeds. Zombie provides a psychologically astute portrait of the cold calculation and dark obsession that can make a serial killer successful and elusive.