Publisher's Blurb: In the sleepy small town of Barracuda Bay, Maddy Swift leads the life of a fairly typical teenager, but while attending a party one night, Maddy is struck by lightning and awakens to realize she has been reanimated and turned into a zombie. While becoming acquainted with her new "lifestyle," Maddy stumbles upon two unexpected undead chaperones, fellow students Dane and Chloe, who begin to teach her the ways of zombie life, including defending the populace from Zerkers—the bad zombies. Together, on prom night, the three teens must ultimately defend Barracuda Bay High from an all-out zombie Armageddon.
Review: This was a surprisingly original take on the zombie genre. Told from the perspective of Maddy, a quiet teenager with a popular best friend, a coroner father, a gravestone-rubbing hobby, and a big crush on the handsome new football player, Stamp (really - STAMP?!). Luckily for our Maddy, Stamp likes her right back and asks her to a party. But on the way there she's struck by lightning and when she wakes up a couple of hours later - after her actual death - she's a zombie. I loved reading the author's theories on zombies, electrical charges, animation, and death - he's really thought about this. And creating a zombie political structure, and a lesser species of violent zombies called Zerkers, made for a fun read as well.
Maddy is the narrator, and she is engaging, likeable and relateable. She is practical and realistic, and doesn't dwell on things very much, taking events in stride, to include her death and zombie-fication.
The weakness of this story is that the action drives the plot, rather than the story. After Maddy wakes as a zombie, she learns that she must report to the Zombie Elders, who are protected by the militant zombie guards called the Sentinels. Supposedly the Elders make all decisions concerning zombie citizens. But when Barracuda Bay is being overrun with Zerkers, and a huge fight to the (final) death is planned at the Fall Formal Dance, the Elders are nowhere to be seen or even mentioned. Why didn't Dane and Chloe report the Zerkers to the Elders? Why weren't the Sentinels called in? Where are the adults in this book as Maddy is screaming in the street, or laying dead for hours in a puddle? Why is there no fuss when students in this small town start dying in large numbers and their corpses are missing brains. Additional zombie information and trivia is also tossed in willy-nilly to justify the action sequences. For instance, as our heroes are dressing for the Fall Formal Dance and zombie showdown, Maddy is told that Zerkers are distracted by cherry bombs and hurt by graveyard dirt, but Zombies are not.
The fast-moving pace of the plot, as secondary characters are introduced, die, wake up as zombies, and sometimes die again, creates a story that moves like an amusement park ride. This speed and nonstop action covers up the inconsistencies in the story, and creates a fast, enjoyable read that is quickly forgotten. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like a fun action movie, the reader's willingness to suspend belief in order to stay in the flow/mood of the story allows for an entertaining time, with no emotional "hangover" lingering after the past page.
For more information visit the author's website at http://zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com/.
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