Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
Union Square & Co. (September 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
What a gift it turned out to be when George A. Romero’s estate allowed Daniel Kraus (recently of Whalefall fame) to complete Romero’s novel The Living Dead, released back in 2020. Kraus worked his way through tons of notes and ideas and chapters to put together what would have been Romero’s final, masterful word on the zombie genre. In my review, I called it “… a crowning achievement, serving as the fond farewell that George Romero deserves.”
Not so fast, my friend.
While working his way through Romero’s archive, Kraus discovered the manuscript for a half-finished novel few knew he’d been working on. Kraus went to work completing the book, a savage twist on the Pied Piper myth set in a hot, fetid Louisiana swamp town called Alligator Point.
Pay the Piper reveals more of the depth and breadth of Romero’s imagination and talent. There’s not a zombie in sight — instead, we get vengeful, archaic ocean gods wreaking havoc on the ancestors of a nasty band of pirates and slavers. We get a shapeshifter luring children into the swamps for grisly deaths. We get a demon in a bottle. We get a resilient young girl armed with a notebook, a pencil, a sharp mind and a sharper mouth. We get a set of fully-realized characters who find themselves paying the price for something they didn’t do, and fighting their fate with the last ounces of blood and grit in their bodies.
The writing is lush and vivid — you’ll feel the oppressive heat wringing the sweat from your body, you’ll feel the mud sucking the boots off your feet, and you’ll feel the terror grip your heart. Don’t even try to find the seams here; as he did with The Living Dead, Kraus blends his voice with Romero’s so completely that it feels like one artist at work.
I don’t know what else Kraus will find in Romero’s archives, but I hope there’s more in there for him to bring to light. Of course, we have plenty of Kraus’s solo work to look forward to, but these collaborations with Romero have been special, serving the duel purpose of providing more work from a beloved, fallen master while assuring us the future of horror remains bright.
Pay the Piper is a wonderful treat, delivered with impeccable timing as the shadows lengthen and our thoughts turn to Halloween.
