Zombies vs. Unicorns

Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Which is better, zombies or unicorns? Black (team unicorn) and Larbalestier (team zombie) have picked their teams of all-star YA authors and are battling it out.

At it's surface, it is a strong collection of short stories about zombies or unicorns. Stand-outs include Alaya Dawn Johnson's zombie entry "Love with Tear Us Apart" about what happens when zombies love humans, Carrie Ryan's "Bougainvillea" a zombie story set in the same world as Forest of Hands and Teeth, Margo Lanagan's deeply disturbing unicorn story "A Thousand Flowers", Scott Westerfeld's "Inoculata" about teens flirting with zombie-ism the same way today's teens flirt with pot, Meg Cabot's hysterical "Princess Prettypants" about a girl who's pretty pissed off she's getting a farting unicorn instead of a car for her birthday, and Libba Bray's "Prom Night" about teenagers trying to hold it together when the adults all turned to zombies.

Despite the fact that the I have more favorite zombie stories than unicorn ones, I'm firmly TEAM UNICORN. I wasn't before I read it. Before I read it, I thought "seriously? Zombies versus Unicorns? What kind of contest is that? Zombies! Duh!" but these stories made me see unicorns in an entirely different light. Even when their farts smell like flowers and sound like windchimes and they have stupid names like Princess Prettypants, unicorns kick a lot of ass. There's also a much greater variety in types of unicorns. Zombies are... zombies. They get boring after awhile. With the exception of "Love Will Tear us Apart" we didn't meet that many zombies in the zombie stories. We met people dealing with zombies, living a life of fear in a zombie-filled world. The zombies don't have the same personality and skills that the unicorns do.

TEAM UNICORN.

And, even though this book is mostly great stories, but favorite parts were the between the stories, when Black and Larbalestier debate the unicorn/zombie question in the story introductions. Hilarious.


ARC Provided by... publisher, at ALA

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Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin Jonathan Maberry

Benny Imura couldn't hold a job, so he took to killing.

How's that for a kicker of a first sentence?

When you turn 15, you have to find a job, of your get cut down to half-rations. Benny tries everything, but nothing fits so he reluctantly takes his brother up on the offer to be his apprentice as bounty hunter.

Benny will never forgive his brother, Tom, for what happened on First Night. Benny remembers his mother screaming from the window as Tom took Benny and ran while their father, already turned, attacked her from behind. Everyone thinks Tom is brave and fearless, a hero, but Benny knows. Benny knows Tom is nothing but a coward.

But as Benny journeys into the Rot and Ruin with Tom, he soon realizes that everything he thought he knew-- about who were the heroes and who were the monsters is completely wrong.

I'm over zombies. Really, another zombie book? Is that really necessary?

In this case, HELLS YES.

I've never been one for horror or zombies, but this is just so much more.

While there is certainly a lot of zombie action, at the core it's a coming-of-age story as Benny realizes there is more to the world and the people in it than he realized. As he realizes that maybe it's not the zombies that are the real monsters.

I loved the tension between the Benny and his generation and the adults. Benny was two on First Night. He remembers flashes from that night, but not life before. The adults remember that First Night wasn't a single night, what life used to be like before the dead rose and started biting. They don't like to talk about it much, want to save the younger ones from the horror of what happened, which means that the teens don't necessarily respect what's going on. I think it's something that often happens as communities try to move on from societal tragedy and Maberry explores this really, really well.

I loved how much this was more about the people in the community rather than us vs. zombies.

While the zombies are definitely important, this is a much meatier, deeper book than it appears on the surface.

There's a reason why it's a Cybils winner!

Also, bonus multicultural points-- Tom is Japanese-American and Benny is half-Japanese, half-Irish. It's not a huge deal in the series but for everyone looking for a hotttt Asian male in teen lit? TOM IS YOUR GUY. Swoony.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Poetry Friday: Brains for Lunch

Brains For Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku?! K. A. Holt, illus. Gahan Wilson

Hallway

Eye poked out again
Bottom lockers really suck
"Hey Mags! Wait for me!"

"This Zs gotta pee."
"So you ARE talking to me?"
Another eye roll

Catch it, hand it back
"What did I do this time, Mags?"
A withering look

She doesn't scare me
Her wither's worse than her roll
"She's married, you know."

Mags cut to the chase
It sure took her long enough
"Who, Mrs. Fincher?"

"Who else, you moron?"
I'm putrefying again
"The way you flirt. Barf."

So incredulous
"You think she thinks that I think--"
"You're such a tool, Loeb."

"And there you have it,
Loeb's idiocy exposed,
His heart is laid bare."

"I'll lay you bare, Matt."
It's my turn to roll eyes.
Carl. "Stupid Chupo."

"Don't be a racist."
"Don't be a weird goat sucker."
Making it worse, Loeb.

K. A. Holt has taken zombie haiku and combined it with the verse novel. So, it's a story, a novel in verse, but the verse is all haiku. And the story is about zombies. And chupacabres. And lifers (like you and me, unless Biblio File has a large paranormal following that I am unaware of, although that would be pretty cool.)

The plot is pretty simple-- Loeb is a zombie boy in junior high teases and gets teased by his zombie friends. He has a crush on a life girl, but even though the school is supposed to be desegregated, the zombies and lifers stick to their own. The Chupos do, too, but intermingle more with the zombies. With the help of a lifer librarian (Mrs. Fischer) Loeb starts to think that maybe he is smart enough to join the school's poetry showcase, which tends to be lifer-only.

As you can see from the text above, it's pretty funny and gross, but the brevity of the haiku novel can make some things a little hard to understand. Luckily, Gahan Wilson has illustrated the book, to give a little more context. The above excerpt has 2 pictures. One is of Loeb talking to Mags, with his eye dangling out of his face. The other is of Loeb, Mags, Matt, and Carl, which is a very useful visual clue that there are multiple people in the conversation, which makes it make more sense.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's geared towards middle grade, rather than YA, which is nice. I'm so glad to have solid middle grade titles about YA trends, because the trends trickle down in terms of reader interest, but the books don't always do so...

I think my favorite bits were the small touches-- that Loeb is named Loeb,that they use Durian fruit as a quick substitute for brains because zombies think they smell good (HA!) and a when someone gives you the finger, it's only polite to give it back.


Today's round-up is over at The Blog with the Cleverly Shocking Title. Go check it out!

ARC Provided by... the publisher at ALA

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Dead-Tossed Waves

The Dead-Tossed Waves

Initially I didn't want to read this. The Forest of Hands and Teeth didn't need a sequel and why is EVERYTHING being turned into a series these days?

Then, I read a bunch of reviews here in bloggy land and learned that it's not a direct sequel, but rather the story of Mary's daughter. A related story in the same world? Now that I can handle. And crave. Like the Mudo crave to infect...*

Gabry has grown up in the lighthouse with her mother, helping her rid the beach of the Mudo after high tide. But one night, she sneaks outside the barriers of town, to the ruins of the old amusement park. Disaster strikes. Gabry gets away, but her friends that survive are severely punished. She goes back to look for Catcher, who is one of the missing, and what happens pushes Gabry, her mother, and others back into the Forest, running from the Recruiters, who help keep the Mudo at bay...

Did you like the first one? It has that same suspense and horror with a romantic subplot feeling. It's gripping. I'm not really one for horror-filled zombie stories, but I love the world that Ryan has built. I loved learning more about it, how the Return spread, how people survive, what's been happening elsewhere, outside of the forest, and off the beach. (We do get a few unresolved questions from Forest of Hands and Teeth answered.)

I could have done without the constant Elias vs. Catcher drama. THERE ARE ZOMBIES AFTER YOU! WHO CARES? But I did love Gabry's changing relationship with her best friend. And, I have to admit, I CANNOT WAIT until March, when we get The Dark and Hollow Places, which is Annah's** story. So, another related book, but not a direct sequel, which I really like.

*Yes, I am a book zombie. Like you didn't know that already. It's all about MY braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains.

**If you don't know who that is, I'm not going to spoil it for you.

Book Provided by... my local library

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I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It

I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It Adam Selzer

Zombies of Des Moines!

Alley is known as the Ice Queen of the viscous circle-- the cynical sarcastic kids who write the school paper and will actually leave their Des Moines suburb once they're done with high school.

It all changes when she goes to review a band for the paper. The band itself is awful, but they guy they get to sing a few songs? Alley's immediately smitten and her Ice Queen heart melts all over her laptop.

What she doesn't realize is that Doug is one of the zombies that Megamart created a few years ago to cut labor costs. Once the world discovered the zombies, the vampires also "came out of the coffin" and it's now a post-human world. Only Alley's guidance counselor (vampire) doesn't like the living dating the dead and demands Alley convert on her birthday or dump Doug. Doug can't leave Des Moines-- can Alley leave him? Or should she stay? And what's with all these new zombies roaming around demanding brains?

A few minor points made me really like this--

1. It takes place in Des Moines. While all Alley wants is to leave it, the Des Moines she lives in is not a stupid caractature of "small midwestern hicksville." Des Moines has surburbs, and is very much... Des Moines. Selzer grew up there and it shows.

2. Alley (and her best friend Sadie) are Jewish, but it's not a major part of the book (except that matzoh balls are things zombies can eat. Also, Des Moines has more zombies than Jews, which is just funny.)

Selzer captures well the heady feeling of first love and the willingness the change everything for a relationship before you start to actually think things through. While Alley was this really strong character who was willing to change EVERYTHING for a guy, the way Selzer wrote it made it totally believable and not weak and insipid. I think it's because she thought through her decisions and her parents and friends kept trying to drum some sense into her.

Either way, a light fun book about dating the undead.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Dawn of the Dreadfuls Steve Hockensmith

So, I liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I tried Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and didn't get more than 30 pages into it* and overall, I'm more than a little burned out on all of these mashups. The joke's old and it really only worked as a novelty.

But... this isn't a mashup, it's the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and, dare I say it, even better.

Because Hockensmith isn't shoehorning an alternate plot into an exsisting literary work, he's not constrained by one and so it just works so much better than the mashups..

We start at the church, for a funeral, only the corpse doesn't stay dead for the entire service. Mr. Bennett, one of the only people in Meryton to understand what this means, starts training his daughters in the ways of the warrior. Mrs. Bennett is just concerned about their marriage prospects if they engage in such unladylike behavoirs.

Jane is being foisted onto the lecherous Lord Lumpley. Elizabeth is torn between her martial arts instructor and the scientist who comes to study the zombies.

The zed word gets thrown about rather frequently, unlike in PPZ, and sometimes I disagreed with a character action (not so much of a 'no! don't do that!' but more of a 'dude, Jane would NEVER! Even if there were zombies all over the place!') BUT, overall, I really like what he did the characters and his thoughts about what they'd be like several years younger. I also loved the background information we got-- not only on the previous zombie wars and information about the zombies and how England reacted and what was going on there, but also about the original story. If you ever wondered why all five Bennett girls were out at once or why Netherfield was empty in the first place... well... here's one possible explanation.

Overall, super fun.

*Although that may have been my mood at the time instead of the book.

Book Provided by... my local library

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When Cheerleader Zombies Aren't Just a Metaphor

Zombie Blondes Brian James

Hannah and her father are always on the run, but their new town seems different. The popular girls, the cheerleaders, are all a little too perfect and too matching. The weird kid, Lukas, says it's because they're really all part of a zombie cult and that Hannah should stay away. Lukas says it's the zombies, not the economy, that's killing the town and are responsible for all of the empty houses that are for sale. But then Hannah's given a chance to join the squad...

Excellent concept, poor execution. Most of the book is aiming for mystery "are they really zombies or aren't they" but I couldn't bring myself to really care. The entire story is Hannah's narration, there isn't a lot of dialogue and it's lots of tell, no show. Frankly, until the final climax, it's just... boring.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Scary Zombies!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Carrie Ryan

The Return happened generations ago and now Mary's village is isolated, with its fortified fences and ruling Sisters. Mary has always known that no one believes her mother's stories of the ocean, passed from generation to generation, because to venture beyond the village is death. They are the only survivors.

Mary has questions and dreams that extend beyond what she knows, but the Unconsecrated (that means ZOMBIES) keep her at bay. She will marry a man she does not love, she will do what the Sisters tell her to do. She will believe in her mother's ocean and buildings so tall they touch the sky.

Then, when the fences break, she and her friends are forced to run through the forest and confront what they have been told and what they have dreamed of.

Gripping and chilling. It alternates between being a love story, a survival story in this post-apocalyptic landscape, and straight-up horror. Mary (and so, the reader) never fully learn all of the Sisterhoods secrets or reasons. I also like how you're not overly sure which religion the Sisters and the villagers practice (or even if it's one we'll recognize in our pre-zombie world). The name Sister implies nuns, but there is a spot on the outer doorways that Mary always touches that has religious significance, something that made me think of a Jewish muzuzah.

The end of the story is a little abrupt, but overall, I liked it, and I don't like horror or survival stories!

Why are there so few serious zombie books being published for teens? Everything I see is of the lighter variety.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hour 45

Hours read 16.25
Books read 7.5
Pages read 1749

Zombie Queen of Newbury High Amanda Ashby

Geeky Mia has never been entirely sure why Rob the football god, has started dating her. What she does know is that Queen Bee Samantha wants Rob to herself, and Rob seems to be turning. So, led by her hypochondriac best friend, Mia casts a love spell on Rob. A love spell that goes horribly, horribly wrong and turns the entire senior class into a zombie and Mia into their queen. Mia is puzzled and flattered by her new-found popularity until the new kid, Chase, tells her that Zombie Queen just means she's the first to be eaten. Now Mia and Chase have limited time to reverse the spell and save the prom.

Seriously, was my high school the only one in the US where the football players were not total gods of the school? Some of them were really popular yes, but so were some of the band people. Football player = super hot big man on campus is getting a little stale.

Anyway, a super-fun book and a really quick read. I loved how all of Mia's crazy cures and vitamins and supplements actually helped in keeping some of the zombie effects at bay.

Hour 28.5

Hours read 14.25
Books read 6.5
Pages read 1550

Well, I am now in Wisconsin! I made my connecting flight (which was a miracle) and even cooler, ran into someone from high school!

I had to board shortly after my last post, but got 4 more hours of reading in while in the air. Things are now even more confusing because I've switched timezones. So, I have to add an hour to what all the clocks tell me to keep my hour count correct for how many hours into the challenge I am. Ai yai yai. After I landed, I hung out with my parents for the rest of the night, because dude, they're my parents! And I don't get to see them all that often. But now it's bedtime, so they've headed off to bed and I'm doing a post before I'm off to bed as well (although I'll read a bit before actually sleeping!)

Anyway, I read two more books.

You Are So Undead to Me Stacey Jay

Megan thought that after the zombie attack 5 years ago, her Settler powers had left her. No such luck. On the night of her date with the hottest guy in school, right before he's supposed to pick her up, someone else shows up at her door. An undead someone.

In the world Jay creates, there are things we left undone or unsaid when we die that can follow us, even after we are buried. If such things are pressing enough to the dead person, they will leave their grave and find a Settler. The Settler takes their information and promises to pass on the message, fix the wrong, and then sends the dead to a peaceful afterlife. Being a Settler has an uncanny knack to completely mess up Megan's social life. Then, there are the Reanimated Corpses, or actual Zombies-- people brought back to "life" to kill other people at the behest of those who practice the dark arts.

It's bad enough the undead are seeking Megan out, but there are a lot more Zombies trying to kill her. Someone is after her, and it's time to face up to her awesome powers and get beyond what happened. After all, how else is she going to get to Homecoming? Unless that's the evil plan, to keep her from homecoming so no one can stop the massive zombie attack.

Part mystery, part zombie novel, part romance, this is more action packed than some of the lighter zombie novels we've seen lately, but still heavy on the "does he like me, does he not, is the head cheerleader evil as in try to kill me? or just evil as in a total head cheerleader B----?" sort of thing. It's a fun read.

Mob Princess: For Money and Love Todd Strasser

Kate's life has fallen apart on Christmas Eve. After her boyfriend dumps her for not putting out, Kate thought the night would suck, but then she walked into her house and found a whole host of worse problems waiting for her. Her mother was moving out. Her father's girlfriend was pregnant (although it seems to the reader that there's much more going on than just that) and her dad needs her to be the brains of his business with her mother gone. His mob business.

There's mean girls, a possible turf war with a rival family, and two guys to choose from. Lots of fun and I want to read more, although just when the plot really got good, the book ended. In a frustrating way, not "well, that was a satisfying conclusion with enough open ends to keep me waiting for more adventures" way, but in a "WAIT? WHERE IS THE REST OF THIS BOOK?!" sort of way. So, you know, you might want to check out multiple volumes at once. I know I'll be hunting down the rest!