Zombies, zombies, zombies.
They have taken over everything. Slow walkers. Aggressive attackers. It doesn’t matter. They are eating brains and changing all readers into their own devices. Except for author Lia Habel. She has chosen to write zombies set hundreds of years in our future. Set in a sci-fi Victorian age, she has developed a world that feels wholly real with characters you care about.
Dearly, Departed hasn’t been done from what I’ve seen. Loved it.
Here is a bit more about Dearly, Departed:
Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.
Sounds like a great twist. I decided to ask Lia some questions about Dearly, Departed, how she came to use zombies, why she chose a future setting, and what she’s currently working on!
RELEASE DAY INTERVIEW: DEARLY, DEPARTED BY LIA HABEL
Shawn Speakman: Hi Lia! First, congratulations on your novel’s release day! Tell Suvudu readers about DEARLY, DEPARTED?
Lia Habel: Hi! Oh, gosh, it’s getting increasingly difficult to sum up D,D – doesn’t it usually work the other way around? The book takes place a few hundred years in the future, in what I like to describe as a “cyber-Victorian” or futuristic steampunk setting. There are two warring neo-Victorian tribes at the center of the novel. Throw a zombie plague into their ongoing battle, and you’ve got the general idea – but with a twist. A small percentage of my zombies manage to hold onto themselves after death – they don’t give into their new violent and cannibalistic desires, and with care and proper orientation, can keep going for a few years more. This opens up a whole realm of undead characters. One of them is an army captain, Bram Griswold, who despite being dead for two years is just such a strong, sweet guy that he attracts the attention of my living heroine, Nora Dearly.
SS: Zombies have been in the genre a long time but the last eight years have seen them rise — pun intended — along with vampires and werewolves. What made you as a writer want to use zombies in DEARLY, DEPARTED?
LH: I’ve always been a monster lover. I distinctly remember seeing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast for the first time in the theater (dating myself!) and being so disappointed at the ending, even as a child. For me, the fact that he became this “handsome” prince (I thought he was ugly, truth be told) cheapened all the struggle and the romance I’d just witnessed. This trend continued as I got older…I’ve no idea where it really came from, but I’ve just always been monster-sympathetic. Show me a creature I’m supposed to fear or find repulsive, and there’s an 80% chance I’ll end up on his or her side. Zombies are no exception. I especially love zombies because they are so human – I think that’s what makes them simultaneously terrifying and terribly moving. They symbolize humanity at its most violent and at its most tragic. So naturally I thought it’d be really fun to write about heroic zombies!
SS: Despite their very different backgrounds, the love story between Nora and Bram resonates as the story unfolds. What do you think is key about their relationship?
LH: I think the key to Nora and Bram’s relationship is the relative lack of physicality. This isn’t a teenage romance where the girl looks at the guy and he’s surrounded by this nimbus of light, he’s so freaking hot – he’s dead when she meets him. He looks dead (although he’s really cute and well-preserved for a zombie, don’t worry). Likewise, physical romance is kind of off the table. And yet he’s so strong, noble, honest, kind – and all of those qualities shine brighter for the fact that they’re contained in this strange vessel – that she falls for him regardless. He’s everything she’s ever wanted, and she’s not one to quibble over packaging. Nora’s unique in that way – she’s been through a lot, she knows not to take things for granted. Meanwhile, Bram has a solid understanding of what he is. He accepts it. So the fact that this understanding, kick-ass, amazing girl actually likes him back – it blows his mind. And he has a deep respect for her because of it. Bram couldn’t love a girl he couldn’t respect.
SS: Why did you decide to set the story of DEARLY, DEPARTED in the far future? What did that allow you to do that couldn’t be done set in our past’s Victorian age?
LH: I think I probably could have gone the “reimagined history” route – I think the story would’ve been just as effective. I just really love the cyber-Victorian aesthetic, and I think the problems that such a society brings up are challenging and fun to deal with. And such a setting does offer me a lot of wiggle room. For instance, in a reimagined Victorian setting, I probably would have put a lot more emphasis on manners, social rules, etc – in a future setting I can bend those somewhat, as these are people that are modeling themselves on a past society after centuries of previous social upheaval. I can actually get my teens out of the house and together because of this. I can make observations about both the Victorian age and the “modern” age because of this. It’s great.
SS: You are making your way through all zombie movies ever made right now. Got a favorite?
LH: I really love Fido for its sympathetic treatment of zombies, and Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things for, again, the zombie who prevails in the end (I don’t want to spoil it!). And Boy Eats Girl, an Irish film that’s absolutely hilarious, even if it has one of the most convoluted zombie genesis ideas I’ve ever run across. (Irish Catholic/voodoo/bite model wha?)
SS: Will there be a follow-up to DEARLY, DEPARTED? Or more importantly, what are you working on now?
LH: There’s a sequel I’m working on right now, Dearly, Beloved. After that, who knows! I’d love to write more books in the series – I think five or six to really complete it the way I want. I’m also working on some unsolicited novel-length stuff at the moment, just to amuse myself – I do my best work when I’m just creating for myself or my friends. Neither of these projects contain zombies, but they are focused on monsters.
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel is in fine bookstores today! If you love zombies, give it a purchase.
You won’t regret it!
