Nonfiction: Science | Hopkins Press Books, April 15, 2025
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Zombies are all around us, and are closer than you think.
Movies, comics, television, games and even Disney musicals fuel the mythology of zombies and speak to our longstanding fascination with “undead” monsters. But while pop culture’s zombies are undeniably horrific, zombification in the natural world is far more gruesome and disturbing. It’s also more common than you might expect. Zombifying parasites have existed for millions of years, and Rise of the Zombie Bugs will introduce you to some of the tiny but notorious puppetmasters that manipulate bug host behaviors in varied and ghastly ways.
You may recognize some of these manipulators, such as the so-called zombie-ant fungus Ophiocordyceps, popularized in HBO’s The Last of Us. Others may be less familiar, like the wasp larvae that zombify caterpillar hosts and then devour them from the inside out. If you’ve ever questioned whether zombification was grounded in science—or if a zombie apocalypse is scientifically possible—this book is for you.
Horror movie zombies are frightening and fun to contemplate. But imaginary zombies pale to blandness when you meet the real zombies: the in-the-wild, virus-driven, six-or-more-legged (and sometimes winged!) zombies that Mindy Weisberger so lovingly, appreciatively affixed to these pages.
Marc Abrahams, cofounder/editor, Annals of Improbable Research
As Mindy Weisberger’s fascinating book Rise of the Zombie Bugs demonstrates, we’ve been looking for zombies in all the wrong places. And her successful quest to find the tiny real-life versions is a testament to how wonderfully complicated—and totally weird—life on this planet really is.
Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Deeply researched, deeply disturbing, and deeply fascinating. The world of real-life parasitic behavior-altering organisms that Weisberger leads us through is captivating, and well worth filling your brain with… while it’s still yours to control.
Ryan North, author of How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain
Rise of the Zombie Bugs is an excellent—and terrifying—read. Weisberger’s extensively researched science writing is complemented by her command of zombie films in pop culture. This book will forever change your perspective on what it means to be ‘successful’ in the natural world. Parasites are the original zombie maker—and it’s fantastic to see them so well represented!
Carin Bondar, author of Wild Moms: Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom