The Shopping Mall Massacre

Bastian (the narrating character) is a closeted young man whose previous attempts to explore his sexuality led to violence against him. Oliver is an easy-going drama club guy whose touchy-feely manner of friendship sends Bastian's heart aflutter. They meet through the college lacrosse team and soon become pals, but given that they live in Florida - not known for being very progressive - and Bas is afraid of admitting he's gay, there's a small hurdle to cross before any notion of romance can be met. Oh, and also? They've managed to stumble into the zombie apocalypse. So, y'know, there's that.

He was a year older, and I???d only known him for a couple of months, but he was one of those people who gets along with everyone.

He slung his arm around me as he frequently did, and started making a silly joke about a farmer, a goose and a hedgehog. I never got to hear the punch line because as we got on the escalator to reach the downstairs rendezvous, a horde of people stormed the doors and started attacking shoppers with sick, manic frenzy.

I witnessed right there that real-life zombies??? or crazies??? didn???t stop to eat the fallen; they kept on killing whomever they could reach. Their goal didn???t seem to be to feed, but to satiate some primal urge to maim and destroy everything that moved.

je ne sais quois

Zombieland

Shaun of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead

per se

* Filler

* Format

no

* Eew

* Female Characters

and then gets brutally murdered by one of the male survivors because she has a fever

insists on sending another survivor to his death

repeatedly

* Crazies

double

deafness

* Disease Prevention

oh no what if STDs

* Daddy Issues

didn't want to pass it down to Bastian

had an affair with his male best friend, but his wife knew and was cool with it, because he came out to her before they even got married

the final chapter

Bastian braces for fear of him or Oliver being shot by his dad for being gay

off

I absolutely adore the dynamic between Bastian and Oliver