TITLE: Janitors vs. The Living Dead
AUTHOR: Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason
PUBLISHER: Death's Head Press
PUBLISHING DATE: April 1, 2025
PAGES: 284
SOURCE: ARC
FROM GOODREADS: In the pristine landscape of Serenity Canyon Country Club, situated in the majestic red rocks just outside of Sedona, Arizona, there is little leniency for anything grotesque. The staff ensures constant tranquility, their priorities glued to maintaining this slice of paradise on Earth in their gated community with private pools, a golf course and a members-only club. But when member Dr. Reinart becomes obsessed with his newest experimentations however, this facade begins to crumble. He unknowingly carries a parasitic virus into the neighborhood and his wife unleashes it when she decides to end their marriage swiftly and violently. Chaos envelopes the community as the virus spreads throughout. Once high-class ruling members of society shift into bumbling monsters covered in bile and decaying flesh. Their only salvation? The lowly janitors they dedicated their living days to belittling.
MY THOUGHTS: My thoughts after reading the first chapter or so was that this book was one of my first forays into extreme horror, but the note at the end leads me to believe it is actually more splatterpunk. Not exactly sure of the difference but whatever it is, this was a wild ride I won't soon forget.
Stephi and her jerk husband Teddy live in an elite, closed-gated community outside Sedona. Teddy is a lying, cheating jerk but he is also a scientist who is working a secretive government experiment. One night he comes home but unbeknownst to him, he is carrying a lethal parasite. Something happens to Teddy which sets the parasite free and before you know it, the trusty janitors, along with a couple of governmental officials with guns and grenades, are left to clean up Serenity Canyon before it's too late. In the meanwhile, Teddy's coworkers are back at the lab trying to find a cure before the whole world goes to hell.
This book is action-packed from the first chapter and never slows down. It wasn't really a book which encourages the reader to form any emotional attachments to any of the characters, but I will say the janitorial crew really stole my heart. Speaking of hearts, this book is not for the faint of heart. There is blood, gore, feces covered zombies, body fluids being spewed everywhere and as well as limbs and other various body parts.
This book was a fun romp. I know no other real way to explain it but I think the action-lover horror fans out could really find this to be a hidden gem. My only complaint was the extremely long chapters which seemed to make the story lag just a bit, despite all the action. I will definitely look to read more from these authors in the future.
MY RATING: 4 PAWS
This book is almost 100% action.