Theme Of Love In Jonah Brickley's Zombie Crush

Those who thirst for power will often imitate love. In Jonah Brickley's novel, Zombie Crush, the protagonist, Judy, was introduced as one the most radiant teenage girls, her intellect and effortless beauty was envied by all. However, her allure and everything that made her deteriorated as a reaction to her parent’s tragic death. She was immediately quartered by her aunt and uncle. In their close proximity, the relationship between her and her older cousin, Danny, escalated. Jonah Brickley showed us how the absence of love consumed and destroyed our protagonist.

In Zombie Crush, we were shown how the absence of love obliterated the protagonist as she allowed it to weary her awareness. Judy’s aunt and uncle, Marta and Luis, worked two jobs

After returning to college for 3 months, Danny arrives home. However, he arrived accompanied, “Judy stared into the perfectly symmetrical and sculpted face of her. She was consumed not by anger, but by agony. Lonesomeness knocked on the walls of her heart and it felt all too familiar”(Brickley 89). Judy suppressed everything she felt, never confronting Danny. She played it all off, avoiding the drama she might cause. It was after a week of living with the man she most desired and his girlfriend that she finally decided she could bear it no longer. Danny and his girlfriend were setting up the table for dinner as they called for Judy to come join them. When moments passed with no answer from her, Danny entered Judy’s room, “Her desk chair had been pulled out and right above it she swayed, hung to the ceiling. On her desk, in big red letters she wrote, ‘The world didn’t hold enough love for me too’”(Brickley 91). Judy allowed herself to become so addicted and dependent for love, she found herself adrift without Danny. He was the only one who could fill her with meaning and purpose. The emptiness she felt when her parents departed left her vulnerable and itching for someone else. When Danny’s manipulation dawned on her, she let it all go. Her heart was too fragile for two