In this thread, this novel came up, and I was wondering if anyone else had read it–I hadn’t heard of it till just recently. It’s based on the JonBenet ramsey murder (here, she’s a six year old figure skater named Bliss Rampike, but is also depicted wearing provocative clothing, and so forth). It’s narrated by her (now twenty year old) brother, Skyler Rampike.
I read it myself over the past couple weeks. I liked it overall, even though it’s terribly indulgent–footnotes, footnotes to the footnotes, super angsty in places. Overall, it seems to be less about the murder itself and more an indictment of the parents for their values–using their daughter as a way of securing social standing for the mother, for the father, womanizing at the expense of his family and so on. It does provide a neat little answer for what happens, but it’s less about the murder and more about utterly evil her parents seem.
I liked it, but I agree that the footnotes were a little tiresome. I had to take a bread from JCO because I read “Zombie” just before…too much disturbia all at once! She scares me quite a bit! Her male sociopathic characters are so believable that it’s chilling.
BTW, the cover art was done by Martin Mull…yes, THAT Martin Mull.
Seriously? Martin Mull? I didn’t know he did art as well as acting. Random, but awesome.
I just requested “Zombie” at my local library and it apparently just came in. I’m kind of jonesing for some more disturbing fiction, so it should be an interesting weekend.
What did you think of the ending? (I’ll spoiler it.)
That the mother was responsible. It felt a bit gross to be reading that, what with the new DNA evidence/conclusion that the Ramseys weren’t responsible. I know, I know–disclaimer, you can write whatever you want legally…it just felt kind of creepy.
I also wonder, is Burke Ramsey going to be reading this any time soon? Would I want to if I were him? It’s probably smarter to avoid this kind of thing just in general, but I suppose I might be super curious at the same time.
He has both his BFA and MFA from RISD - both in Painting, I believe. This was back in the sixties, before my time, but my friend of recent memory, Rice the Model was his roommate.
Sorry to continue the hijack (I’d never heard of this particular book of her’s before, but now I’ll be sure to check it out), but I’d been trying to decide if Zombie was worth the read or not, considering how macabre I usually like my stuff. So can anyone tell me if it’s really as disturbing as all that? I mean, I wasn’t even remotely put off by say, Poppy Z. Brite, so I’m not sure if this would really be that twisted (for lack of a better word).
Just picked up a copy of “Zombie” from the library, so I’ll let you know. I’d never really thought of Oates as macabre myself before now (I enjoyed one other book before “My Sister, My Love,” entitled “We Were the Mulvaneys”–very well written, but just not in the macabre genre).
