Things Undone

By Shane White
N B M Publishing Company, $12.95, 80 pages

Things Undone is billed as dark comedy, and there’s definitely more dark than comedy. Rick, the protagonist, is a video game artist struggling to find a place where his creativity can flourish, only to find himself hopping from one loony employer to another. Rick also attempts to work through relationship insecurities with his beguiling, amorous, and slightly psycho girlfriend. His odd and difficult coworkers add extra elements of tension to the adequately engrossing plot. Rick’s feelings of hollowness and simmering anger multiply as his professional and personal life deteriorate. Some of Rick’s problems result from his poor decisions, though he seems oblivious to this reality.

“And there’s a phantom feeling of what used to be there but isn’t.”

White gradually transforms Rick into a zombie so readers have a visual perspective of what’s going on inside Rick as his life crumbles.  Zombies, you may recall from horror flicks, are folks who died and were reanimated, and White uses a clever twist on this attribute at the climax. The color scheme of black, white, and orange does little to help the story at the beginning but enhances the slide into the dark and gloomy at the end. Though a bit trite and not appropriate for children, it will keep you reading to learn Rick’s fate.

Reviewed by Grady Jones