'Maternal Instinct' - Robert Bloch

I'll be honest with you... I'm back at work tomorrow and I suspect there's going to be a lot to catch up with, there usually is after a week off work :o( With that in mind then, there'll be at least a couple of 'recycled reviews' on the blog as I get caught up with the day job. I'll make sure they're good ones though, promise! ;o) 

All of which leads us to a post of mine, originally from 2013, about Robert Bloch's 'Maternal Instinct' (the name of the story, not his actual... you know what I mean). I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this short story is pretty much an essential read if you like zombie fiction (or if you just like well written short stories). I found 'Maternal Instinct' in the collection 'Zombies: A Compendium of the Living Dead', I couldn't tell you where else it may be found but that shouldn't stop you looking. With that said...

'And so it was Jill's dearest and most secret wish came true. She was having a baby with the president.'

The introduction to 'Maternal Instinct', as read in Otto Penzler's 'Zombies' compendium, notes that Bloch 'commonly created a short story by inventing a good pun for the last line, then writing a story to accompany it.' Having read this, I immediately jumped to the last line (of course) but didn't get the joke at all. Then I read 'Maternal Instincts' all the way through and that ending takes on a whole new meaning which left me gasping. I reckon you'd feel the same way.

'Maternal Instinct' charts a debate on how to combat a zombie epidemic but becomes a lot more when said epidemic casts light on a group hiding behind the epidemic and using it for their own ends. I'm trying my hardest not to give too much away here as you should give 'Maternal Instinct' a read and experience that final line for yourself...
To be honest, that little spin really saved the story for me as Jill's introduction and the debate itself came across as a little too dry and rather uninteresting (although Jill's introduction does set up that final line nicely). I don't know if this was done deliberately or not but there was a point where it was only the promise of zombies that kept me going.

I'm glad I did. Bloch offers a nice little spin on the zombie apocalypse and caps it all off with a killer ending that is a lot more graphic when placed in context. Like I said at the top, it's an essential read as far as I'm concerned.

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