a zombie is a zombie is a zombie

If you write a whole book about zombies, but never use the words zombie, is it still a zombie book?  Or is it just a book about a lot people who get sick and want to eat brains?

Is it a (techno/bio)thriller or a horror story?

I guess the point of that is: I know people are getting sick of vampires... which means they're going to be feeling a little blah about werewolves and zombies and demon possession, too, I'd bet.  

So, does that mean they're going to be feeling blah about little old werewolf and zombie and demon possession-obsessed little old me?

In other news, I'm reading Shirley Jackson's The House on Haunted Hill.  It's REALLY fantastic.  Simple, but dreadful- and impossible to put down.

How does she hook you so hard with a story where nothing really happens?

I read that tension comes from people being forced to make moral choices.  Her characters must be making choices ALL the damn time, then, because this book has PHENOMENAL tension.  Well, I guess they are.  They constantly have to choose to stay in the creepiest house in the world, they constantly have to choose how they present themselves to each-other (hiding and showing fear is a *big deal* to these characters) and they constantly have to decide who to trust and how much.

This is the kind of book I read and wish to GOD I'd written.  Does reading a book like that make you feel good (because it's so beautiful) or bad (because you didn't write it)?  Now that I'm getting better, it makes me feel good- I don't line-edit the damn thing the whole time I'm reading, I just enjoy it and learn from it where I can.