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Reviewed by Afifa Raisa for Readers' Favorite
Heartbeat by Lori R. Lopez is a short story that features a young man born at a time when humanity is grappling with threats imposed by zombies following an apocalypse. When it comes to the zombie issue, the world is divided into three - the zombies, the zombie hunters, and the zombie sympathizers, with the protagonist and his friends belonging to the third group. They dream of a world where the living and the undead co-exist in peace, and they are ready to go to great lengths to help the latter fit in a place that is constantly trying to hunt them down. Their plan is practical: habituate the zombies to feed on corpses rather than living people. However, when the life of the protagonist’s mother is at stake, he finds himself in a position where he may have to loosen his grip on his principles.
Lori R. Lopez’s Heartbeat is an absolutely beautiful story with an ending that broke and warmed my heart at the same time. I love the way Lori portrayed the relationship between the mother and the son; the depth and purity of their affection toward each other truly make the story a marvelous one. Another thing worth mentioning is the idea of questioning common attitudes. Even though the protagonist and his friends were raised in a society that instilled certain beliefs in them, they were bold enough to utilize their own judgment and develop different ideas upon reaching maturity. Of course, some of us can question their practices as well, but I feel Lori's intention, in this case, is simply to encourage the use of our conscience without blindly accepting everything society tells us. I would recommend the story to young adults as well as older readers.
