In 1978, on the heels of The Night of the Living Dead, George Romero returned with an eye-popping sequel, Dawn of the Dead, which tore its way onto movie screens across the country and terrified an entire generation. Shortly thereafter, Romero, along with author Susanna Sparrow, wrote a novel based on the movie, which extended the undeads’ reach even further.

In 2004, acclaimed director Zack Snyder released a riveting remake of Dawn of the Dead, taking George Romero’s breathtaking concept and reinventing it for the twenty-first century.

Now the 1978 novel returns for the first time in over three decades.

This is one of the original stories of a zombie apocalypse. In it, a handful of survivors find refuge at a local mall, barricading themselves in. After a while, they realize that a mall is the perfect place to sit out the end of the world. They even start to enjoy themselves, but before long, the zombies begin to find their way in.

Dawn of the Dead is an intense combination of scares and social commentary, and its re-publication further cements George Romero’s status as a stunning visionary.