Zombie in the times of the People’s Republic of Poland – review of the book “Zombie Fest”

Room 101

The music festival in Trupieszów seems to be the perfect place to listen to good music, make new friends and experience the first love of love. Truth? Not necessarily, in the times of the Polish People’s Republic, the state apparatus looks at everyone’s hands, and it is very difficult for young musicians to get decent-sounding instruments. Nevertheless, many young performers appear at the festival. It is in these circumstances that we meet the members of the punk band Pokój 101, i.e. Janek, Arsen, Mikre and Fryderyk, who will soon be joined by Jolka and Anka. The waiting time for the guys’ concert goes by carelessly. Soon there is their moment of entering the stage. The show, however, is abruptly interrupted by an attack by the living dead. Zombies bite and consume festival attendees at an alarming rate, increasing their population. Something, what was supposed to be a springboard from the hopelessness of life in the times of the people’s rule, becomes a fight for life. It quickly turns out that it will not be easy. Even armed ZOMO cordons are unable to contain the threat. Will the heroes manage to escape the city unscathed?

Horror and comedy 

The author managed to create a macabre and bloody story, in which there was a large dose of black humor accompanying the confrontation of the heroes with the living dead. The realities of the People’s Republic of Poland were presented in a way that exposed the absurdities of those times. The main characters are very diverse, they come from different backgrounds, and the situation in which they find themselves makes us subconsciously cheer for them. At the end of each chapter, we read the statements of the witnesses of the attack. Each person has an opinion about the appearance of zombies, some do not believe that it happened at all. The then authorities did everything to ensure that the events in Trupieszewo never came to light. It was only after many years that people decided to talk about the 1985 attack. For some it has become a chance for a new and better life, others consider it the cause of their later failures.

Summary

In Zombie Fest , Dariusz Dusza shows what a zombie apocalypse could look like in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. The author also credibly describes the socio-economic situation of that period, and thanks to the statements of witnesses who survived these events, we get to know it from many different perspectives. Despite the macabre and grotesque scenes, the book also contains a lot of black humor and shows the absurdities of the realities of the time. While reading it, I was tense, and at the same time a wide smile appeared on my face very often.