Inexplicably, the dead begin to rise. These ghouls have an insatiable appetite for the flesh of humans and each person bitten in turn shall rise. A small group of uninfected people try to work together to survive until help arrives.

What a bleak and unforgiving novel! The characters are a bit flat and two dimensional but the plot is intense and the fundamental idea behind it is ingenious. Cleverly, the government are unable to explain what has happened and, although some causes are hinted at, the origin of the living dead is left wholly to the reader's imagination.

I know this is a novelisation of the classic film and am ashamed to admit I have never seen any of Romero's work. Reading the book on its own merits makes for an interesting experience and a desire to see the source film.

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.”

-Johnny

A classic! I remember watching the remake as a kid and it scared the living shit out of me like no other horror film. 5 stars all the way!

If you like the movie, this is perfect. It really helped me understand a few things about Barbara and made me like her a bit more than I originally did. This movie is a classic and the book is a great companion piece.

I did not expect a lot from this novel, but as a NOTLD fan, I got more than I thought I would.

The story here is a bit more expanded, delving deeper into things than the movie did. It doesn't change the movie in any significant way, but it adds elements that round out the story. Chiefly in the form of some of the characters' backstory, the news broadcasts, and the group of men who are hunting the zombies in rural PA.

Horror fans know this story, as do zombie lovers. This tale isn't the first to be told, but it is perhaps the most influential, and it deserves to be read.

The Night of the Living Dead novel resembles the film in many ways. Though the beginning contains an odd introspective introduction that is not included in the film and the ending is changed ever so slightly. Other than that it plays out the exact same way, often including many of the same lines, though sometimes improving them for a less clumsy read.

Russo is a rather adept author, after a somewhat bumpy intro he hits his stride and the novel begins to flow. Like the film the suspense rises as tension builds in the house, and features a fantastic finale just like the film. Though it does feature some great gory gutmunching descriptions it does not rely on this as a gimmick.

This book is to zombie literature, as it's movie predecessor is to zombie films, it checked all the boxes on the list and provided everything the genre needed to guide it on it's way. Like George Romero was a success as a first time film maker, John Russo is a success as a first time novelist.

10 out of 10
Although credit is equally due the screenplay

John Russo coauthored the original screenplay of the film Night of the Living Dead, but I had no idea he also novelized it until I stumbled over a copy. This is actually quite well written. I could not really find it frightening as for me there was no suspense-I know how this story ends. But points are certainly to be awarded-this novel is an unrelenting read. On to the sequel!

Radio Play version - great version with all different actors and sound effects plus narration. I don't know if this is the full version because it was only about 53min long but I enjoyed it :) 3.5/5

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John Russo's Night of the Living Dead is a fairly bog standard novelization of the original film. It adds a couple of new scenes and passages that give context to the sheriff and his posse, but otherwise it brings nothing groundbreaking to the story.

Actually, it succeeds in making the entire cast even less likable than they are in the Romero original. Ben and Barbara suffer from this the worst, given that they're the characters who get the most screen time in the original film.

It's worth reading/listening to if you need to kill some time, but otherwise you might as well just stick with the film.

I wasn't aware going into the book that it was just the 1968 movie in book form. I listened to it on audio and the longer I listened the more I telling myself this is just a rip off of the movie almost verbatim. So I looked it up and it said that it "closely follows the storyline" of the movie. I stopped listening at 58% because I know the story and wasn't the biggest fan of the movie anyways.

Een boek versie van de klassieke film, dit verhaal laat een kant zien van de personages die je in de film niet ziet. Het blijft een spannend verhaal waar het tempo inzit.