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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I think Dan has a parking talent fairy. Mine involves breaking myself.

How to Ditch Your Fairy Justine Larbalestier

Charlie has the worst fairy ever-- a parking talent fairy. Sure, it sounds great, but when everyone wants you to sit in their car while they go to the grocery store just so they can get a good spot? Stupid. It gets worse when the star water polo player starts kidnapping her for good parking. Charlie needs a new fairy, and pronto. Her best friend Rochelle has a shopping talent fairy--amazing clothes at low prices. Her crush Steffi has a never-get-in-trouble fairy. Sadly, the world's biggest fairy experts are the parents of Fiorenze Stupid-Name, possessor of the every-boy-likes-you fairy (so unfair!). Charlie's not going down that road for help, but she does need to get rid of her fairy. Disaster and hilarity ensue.

Lots of fun and a good read, but what really strikes me Larbalestier's world building. Fairly close to ours, but you know, with fairies. Beyond that though, the concept of a magnet high school for sports, where you study PR and statistics along with your chosen athletic areas. But Larbalestier has seriously thought this through to the point where they are examined medically on a regular basis and have their nutrition closely monitored. Building further out, race seems ambiguous, with everyone being a shade of brown (and it only comes up when doing a complete physical description as is standard when talking about how hotttt someone is) and sexual preference is no big deal, but plenty of students are gay or bi. It's just a matter of who you have a crush on. It's not a thing. And, you have the conceit of those who live in New Avalon and think their city is the center of the universe and how they look down on the rest of the world. But, this world building never gets in the way of the story. It's there seamlessly. When you can do that much world building in a light frothy story? Sweet.

Book Provided by... my local library

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