Zombies Gonna Eat Yer BRAIN!

It’s The Stepford Wives meets Mean Girls in Brian James's Zombie Blondes, a new book about the high price of popularity. Hannah, a newcomer to tiny Maplecrest, feels drawn to the perfect posse of blonde, blue-eyed cheerleaders who rule her local high school. But Lukas, the only boy in town who will talk to Hannah, warns her that the cheerleaders aren’t what they seem. In fact, Lukas claims, those It Girls are zombies. Flesh-eaters. The reanimated walking dead. Hannah finds this hard to believe (as one would expect) and decides to try out for the cheerleading squad anyway. Amusingly, the teacher who holds the tryouts is named Mrs. Donner. (Nod to cannibalistic pioneers noted and appreciated!) So, what’s the deal? Are the cheerleaders really flesh-eating monsters? I certainly won’t spoil Zombie Blondes by telling. I will say I liked the book although I got pretty impatient with the main character—she shows little backbone, turns on the one, albeit weird, guy who befriends her, and embraces the pettiness and cruelty of the local popular girls because she's riding high on the idea of finally fitting in somewhere. I really liked the Lukas character much better than the Hannah character and found it a little hard to be sympathetic to Hannah. Still, a fun read.

Zombie teenagers seems to be a popular subject these days. Case in point: Generation Dead by Dan Waters. In this book, dead teens start coming back to life, and Phoebe, a goth girl, falls in love with one of the "living challenged" guys. I haven't read this one yet, but it sounds amusing, plus I love the cover. One of my teenage co-workers recently read this one and liked it very much. I have it on my to-be-read list, but I think I need a small break from zombies. Ironically, the next book I plan to blog is entitled Living Dead Girl, but that's actually a metaphor and has absolutely nothing to do with brain-chomping zombies.