Lulu Pangloss, a small seventeen-year-old, has traveled the country with her mother most of her life, never really settling down. Her mother's latest plan is to track down Lulu's alleged father, Fred Cowper, in Rhode Island to collect child support. But with Fred Cowper in sight, all hell breaks loose in the form of a virus that turns menstruating women into blue-skinned zombies who then pass the disease along to men through an engulfing kiss. These xombies prove incredibly difficult to kill. Lulu has a pre- existing condition that gives her immunity, but she's shaken to the core when she loses her mother, dysfunctional lifestyle notwithstanding--to the virus. She turns to Fred for help as he's the only live person she knows.

Fred, Lulu and a group of men & boys from the military facility with which Fred used to work manage to escape on a submarine. Used to the solitary traveling life with her mother that she knows finds it difficult to be the only female in the company of more than a hundred men and boys who blame her for the virus because of her gender. Likely, most of it stems from fear and insecurity, but Lulu will have to somehow find her place in this male madhouse to survive. The trials, tribulations and ventures of the submarine journey comprise the bulk of the novel, and there's plenty of action, drama, squabbling and general turmoil aplenty.

Walter Greatshell combines science fiction and classic horror in this apocalyptic tale that will appeal to fans of "Night of the Living Dead" as well as those who read Stephen King and Clive Barker. Greatshell touches on broad concepts like survival of the fittest and the ever-elusive mortality cure as well as dissecting relationships such as between Lulu and Fred Cowper and Lulu and a potential love interest. He includes vivid descriptions that bring the people and their surroundings to life and incorporates enough chase and fight scenes to please any action fan. Greatshell accomplishes a lot in XOMBIES: APOCALYPSE BLUES by giving readers a novel that is both an action-packed horror story and a poignant coming-of-age tale. I look forward to the sequel XOMBIES: APOCOLYPTICON.

Book Summary

Lulu Pangloss has problems. She has no friends, her mom is difficult, and her absentee father is a deadbeat. Things can hardly get any worse...or so she thinks.

Then the world comes to an end.

It starts with Agent X, a plague that turns women into raving, demonic predators--Xombies--who then hunt down and infect anyone they can catch. Guns are useless; armies are helpless.

With civilization collapsing all around her, Lulu hitches a ride with a crew of wary male refugees, and together they flee for the last place on Earth rumored to be safe. But what they find is as unexpected, and as terrifying, as the hell they've left behind.

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