Have you ever been so obsessed with something that even your best efforts to explain why it's so great end with "It's just so good okay!"?
I have. Plenty of times. Last time I went through such a phase was when The Hunger Games movies were in theatres. I thought I'd grown out of my obsessive personality. Until I came across Endzeit, by Olivia Vieweg. Now I'm back to that fangirling, rambling, nonsensical state of mind, ready to tell you all about my latest obsession. Because Endzeit is just that good okay!

I first came across Endzeit on my 22nd birthday, in a bookstore in Düsseldorf. The vivid colors on the cover of this graphic novel immediately caught my eye and I was sold the second I read the blurb. Endzeit is a zombie apocalypse story set in my own dear old Europe, in Germany to be exact. Thuringia, to be even more exact. Just that small fact got me all intrigued and excited. Almost all zombie content I've come across in my life was set in the US, which means that every character has at least one gun and bullets fly continuously through the air, along with zombie body parts. Not exactly relatable to a European audience. And let's be honest: a zombie apocalypse story is so much more interesting when the easy solution of a bullet through the head isn't readily available. Do you see the potential that a European setting adds to zombie stories? I just had to see it for myself. Just a few minutes after I'd first laid eyes on it, Endzeit was mine.

That night I started reading as soon as I was back at the hotel. The plot seemed basic, but swept me off my feet immediately. Like in most zombie apocalypse stories, a small group of people is still out there, trying to survive in a world full of zombies. In this case, the cities of Weimar and Jena managed to put up fences to keep the zombies out. The cities are connected by an automatic train. Riding the train is strictly forbidden. However, our protagonists Eva and Vivi do ride the train to Jena, both for their own reasons (which I won't spoil, don't worry). The train never makes it. It breaks down and Eva and Vivi decide to continue their way to Jena by foot. Simple plot, right? Don't be fooled though, because there's so much more to this story than meets the eye.

Long before Eva and Vivi start walking through zombie-infested Thuringia, we're confronted with much darker themes such as suicide and serious mental illnesses. Vivi actually starts the story locked away in a mental facility. I love how the story doesn't shy away from serious topics like these. They're definitely handled in a realistic and respectful manner. One small theme stood out to me especially, probably because it was just briefly mentioned once, in a very German way: even Germany's nazi-past is acknowledged in Endzeit when Eva mentions how lucky they are that the dead bodies buried around death camp Buchenwald didn't return as zombies. No American author would ever own up to such a dark part of the past in such a bad-ass way. In fact, I think Endzeit does a lot of things better than the average American zombie story. My problem with most of those it that they're so busy staging confrontations between zombies and humans that there's no time to show what an apocalypse would do to the human mind. We do get a sense of that in Endzeit, as we learn that Vivi's issues stem from traumatic experiences she went through when the apocalypse started (again, I'm not spoiling anything). She and Eva discuss what happened to them in those first days and it makes you question what you would have done in their place. Would you've saved yourself? Would you have sacrificed yourself to save others? What's right and wrong under such extreme circumstances as a zombie apocalypse anyway?


The beautiful thing about the psychological damage in Endzeit is that it even affects the two-dimensional characters. Some barely speak, but still show how the apocalypse affected them. It's awesome to see flat characters that somehow still have a lot of dept, but Eva and Vivi are the ones who steal the show in every possible way. That's not just because they're the protagonists (which is an obvious reason if I ever saw any), but mostly because of the way they are portrayed. Between the two of them, just about every characteristic I like to see in a female lead is represented. Especially Eva is a strong person, quick to do whatever's necessary to survive or save a real friend (yes, this saving business totally include battling zombies without batting an eye). Back in Weimar, she had a huge responsibility as leader of a team the repaired the fence around the city. Stranded between the two cities, she's the one who takes the lead.
Vivi, on the other hand, is more childlike, one of the sweetest characters I've come across in a long time. She's strong in her own way, incredibly brave for continuously fighting the demons in her own mind. She does whatever she can to adjust to the harsh circumstances outside the fence and I admire Vivi so much for that. But my favorite thing about her is her caring nature. She can be seen swapping food even though that means her meal will be less tasty, or watering plants with so much love that you want to go off and hug a plant yourself.


Eva and Vivi aren't flawless though, which is exactly what makes them such memorable characters. Vivi is riddled with guilt and frequently loses touch with reality. Her judgment is clouded by hallucinations and being too nice is a huge problem when zombies have taken over the world. Eva compensates Vivi's endless kindness by being harsh. She doesn't seem to care about much and it takes a while for her to reveal her softer side. Eva's guard is way up, which makes her intimidating at first. So both she and Vivi are far from perfect. Just like everyone out here in the real world. It makes them perfect protagonists.

Of course I wouldn't be gushing as much about Endzeit as I am now if the art weren't awesome too. It looks slightly different from the comics and manga I usually read: it's much cuter. Especially Vivi looks very huggable. But what truly sets the art apart from that on other graphic novels is how expressionist it looks. You can see expressionist touch in most of the backgrounds. The vivid colors and how all the shapes look almost fluent on the page reminds me of The Scream (so yes, I added that little screaming guy to a few pages when I was bored one day).


Sometimes I find myself randomly flicking through the pages to look at some of the most colorful pages. The way the colors and shapes work together helps the story so much: you can almost feel the summer heat come of the page, you can almost see the sun sink behind the horizon. You become so emerged in the story that it's a shock to return to reality once it's over.

The full art pages make the reading experience even better. Of course they're beautiful, but they're also expertly used to create suspense and change the pace of the story. Art and storytelling came together so perfectly in Endzeit that it blew my mind.


I honestly can't get enough of this book. It's got everything I love: A great story, realistic characters, stunning art, and a post-apocalyptic society. I'd recommend this book to anyone, especially if you've just started to learn German. The language used in Endzeit is fairly easy, and you always have the images to makes more sense of what you're reading. Seriously, I'd let my students read this if I were still teaching German. But if you don't speak German at all, there's an English translation available online. So what are you waiting for? Go read my favorite graphic novel of all times! I need more people with whom I can fangirl about Endzeit. Because it's just that good okay!