Married With Zombies

"I never would have guessed that killing zombies would save my relationship."

Sarah and David's marriage is in trouble, but then Dr. Kelly, their marriage counselor, tries to eat them and their relationship problems suddenly seem small compared to the zombie infection rapidly spreading throughout the city. If they want to survive, they'll have to stick together.

Who knew a book about a zombie apocalypse could be so funny? Or that in the middle of bashing in zombie brains, two people could reconnect and fall back in love? There's a lot of bad zombie fiction out there, but this book made me laugh. Even the chapter headings--a clever mash-up of relationship and zombie-survival advice--are funny. One of my favorites? Put the small stuff into perspective. It's better to be wrong and alive than right but eating brains.  Here's another good one: Build mutual friendships. Just be ready to end them when your friends start trying to eat you.  I also liked Sarah' narrative voice; she's a great character:  sassy, smart, and surprisingly good with a shotgun. And she's got her husband's back, even if he forgets and leaves the toilet seat up. Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen is a fast, fun read. I really enjoyed it. (Just try to overlook her overuse of the f-word.)

Happy Reading!

Don't Judge a Book by Its Zombies...

"My father was right. Monsters walk among us."

In Alice in Zombieland, Gena Showalter has written a fast-paced and fun teen read where everything is heightened and intense--the fight scenes, high school, the romance between Alice and tall, dark and dangerous Cole Holland, and, of course, the zombies. Showalter's zombies are not your typical zombies; her zombies are infected evil spirits that have risen from the grave rather than mere flesh and blood, and only a few humans can see them. As for fighting them? Well, that's where it gets challenging. Luckily, Alice has Cole and his gang of  friends to help her figure it out.

It was the title that made me reach for this book, I admit; I just couldn't resist a book called Alice in Zombieland. (Although there's not a lot of Wonderland in this book.) I did like that Showalter brought a new and unique take on the usually formulaic zombie genre. I also thought she captured the angst and drama and language of high school. (Although some of her choices made me wince.) As for her Alice? I'll let you decide that for yourself:

     Had anyone told me that my entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, I would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please.

     But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything I knew and loved was gone. 

     My name is Alice Bell, and on the night of my sixteenth birthday I lost the mother I loved, the sister I adored and the father I never understood until it was too late. Until that heartbeat when my entire world collapsed and a new one took shape around me.

The BEST zombie book I've read:

     World War Z by Max Brooks

World War Z by Max Brooks

     "The boy's skin was as cold and gray as the cement on which he lay.  I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.  His eyes were wild, wide and sunken back in their sockets.  They remained locked on my like a predatory beast."

 At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like this book because it's written as a series of interviews rather than a regular fictional story, but I quickly got caught up in each of the personal narratives.  It starts with the first outbreak in China and continues on with the rapid spread of "a new viral outbreak that first eliminated its victim, then reanimated his corpse into some kind of homicidal berzerker."  Each firsthand account gives you another piece of the larger puzzle:  the spreading contagion, the failed attempts to contain it, the growing panic, the military strikes, the stories of those who survived and those who died, the successes and failures, and what's left of the world at the end of the Zombie War.

 World War Z is a uniquely-told and compelling read.  I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading it, but I'm glad I finally did.  The movie version of World War Z comes out this June.  And while I can't quite picture how they're going to turn this book into a movie, I can't wait to see how they do it.