Living With the Dead by Joshua Guess is a serialized story told in the format of blog posts. It was written in "real time," one blog per day, for a year. I bought and read the entire year (Living With the Dead: Year One #1-12), Kindle version. I greatly enjoyed the story, and stayed up late several nights to read it. The first person daily blog format made it more immediate and accessible to me than a standard book format. It was like reading someone's diary, and felt raw, unpolished and real -- a bit like the Blair Witch Project.

It starts with Josh (just a normal, somewhat nerdy American who likes gaming, movies and science fiction) innocently posting something along the lines of "wow, weird flu going around" and shows his gradually building concern that the flu is either masking or causing a zombie outbreak. Josh knows he's read too many horror books & movies, and people make fun of him for his concerns, but he goes out and stocks up on supplies, boards up his house, and prepares himself for the zombies as much as he can.

The blog posts follow him through one year, which includes his preparations, the arrival of the zombies, him gathering up his friends and family, the compound they build to keep the zombies at bay and themselves safe, and the fights they have to protect themselves, their food and their possessions from the zombies & other, less peace-loving, survivors. The descriptions of each day involve a great amount of detail of the work that would be required just to survive in such a situation, as well as much philosophizing about the sanctity and meaning of life. Josh has some sympathies for the zombies, who he considers people like him who just got sick. He has to make some tough decisions, which cause him to consider the nature of good and evil -- and all the shades in between.

I felt greatly involved in the lives of Josh and his friends/family, and was sorry when the book ended. It was a good, thought-provoking ride through a scary world that felt all to real and believable. ( )