Southern Gothic literature has been a pleasure of mine for many a year now. The way the words roll off the page and into the heart and soul of a man is a beautiful thing to experience. In many of my graduate studies, I was confronted by such prose regularly. The likes of Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Harper Lee, and Cormac McCarthy come to mind. To this list of masters I would add one name: Alden Bell. The name even seems to fit the description. Bell is the author of The Reapers are the Angels . This novel is southern Gothic through and through. It also happens to be about zombies and the apocalyptic world that such things bring about. This is a beautiful work that deserves the highest praise possible. Even though I enjoy all forms of literature, the zombie novel is generally delegated to the bottom of the pile when considering serious prose. They are generally formulaic and redundant. Such stories can only take a reader so far. However, The Reapers are the Angels manages to