The critical success of the first Apocalypse Z book encouraged author Manel Laureiro to produce a sequel. That sequel, Apocalypse Z: Dark Days, picks up on the story and takes readers deeper into the zombie culture that has come to dominate society. While the first book showed a young lawyer learning about himself in the fight against the undead, this book takes that conflict up a few notches. Now, the young attorney is fighting against those zombies and warring political factions. Part of the book’s message is that human beings can prove just as dangerous as the zombies that are often seen as being deadly. In painting this picture, the author elicits wisdom from Carl Jung, whose “shadow” theory opines that there is a dark, unconscious side to human beings that many do not recognize.
The first book painted our young lawyer as being a reluctant participant in the apocalypse. He was essentially forced into it by his circumstances, and in that, he learned something significant about himself. This book does not change this central feature of the lawyer’s personality. He is still a reluctant participant, though this time, he is reluctant to get involved in some of the political in-fighting that has become the norm for people trying to stave off the end of days. As zombies overrun the earth, the situation turns international, and all order is essentially broken down. As humans are prone to doing, they did not simply allow society to go on without order. Rather, loosely organized and affiliated political factions began to take over to some extent, and they controlled the movements and actions of even those people who were not ready to engage in that kind of gamesmanship.
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"Apocalypse Z: Dark Days Review".
At the heart of this book is the concept of scarcity. In the first book, the young lawyer is simply finding his way in the fight to survive. In this book, more challenges pop up. There are fewer places to run, with the undead cutting off many of the routes that a person might use to escape. More than that, the undead have provoked a strange social phenomenon between human beings. In Spain, for instance, the people come very close to civil war. It is well-known that there is no enough space to provide safe haven for all people who want to escape the zombies, so the people naturally fight to determine who is going to get to survive.
Jung’s shadow theory opines that a large part of what people are and what people do is sub-conscious (Jung). He remarks that there is, in essence, an entire identity that most people do not even know that they have. The young lawyer previously saw himself as noble, even as he was fighting the zombies in the first installment. He did not see himself as trained or particularly well-prepared, but he did see some nobility in staying alive. The situation reveals the shadow that this man lives with, though. Necessity brings out that shadow, as suddenly, the once-noble lawyer is engaged in blackmailing, political back-handedness, and a host of other societal ills. He is caught between various groups that are all vying for people, and he finds within himself the capacity to do whatever it takes to keep himself alive. There is a tremendous amount of deceit and other dirty pool in this book, but in a society where order has been broken down, the only real rule is that a person must survive. Our protagonist engages the duality of himself by allowing his desire to survive overrun his desire to remain above the fray.
This book embraces many aspects of our current zombie culture. Zombie culture often opines that in a true zombie apocalypse, order and structure will be overrun (Bishop). This is why so many people stock up on guns, canned guns, and a host of other sustainable materials. They believe that under any circumstance where zombies take over, it will be on every man to take care of himself. This book plays into that feeling. People are looking to get to specific islands where they can be safe from the virus-infected zombies that are making their lives difficult. To get there, though, they have to fight more than just the undead. They have to fight each other, both in a violent manner and in a strategic manner. This, too, is a part of the zombie culture that has been so often propagated. Strategy and the ability to think on one’s feet are the ultimate tools for individuals who are trying to outwit those around them. This book shows the importance of strategy by tracing the author’s development and his active mind throughout the ordeal.
Ultimately, this book presents a complex picture of humankind and what it will do in order to survive. It offers an interesting critique on the concept of structure and the rule of law. It notes, of course, that real structure can only exist when the circumstances in society are such that people have a reason to respect the law. When the proverbial wolf is at a person’s door, respect for the law is overwhelmed by the desire to stay alive. This is where Jung’s shadow comes into play, as most people do not believe that they are capable of things until circumstances put so much pressure on those people that they are forced to engage in acts – like being blackmailed, murder, or deceit – that they would normally find detestable.
- Bishop, Kyle William. American zombie gothic: the rise and fall (and rise) of the walking dead in popular culture. McFarland, 2010.
- Jung, Carl Gustav. “The fight with the shadow.” Listener 7.7 (1946).
