The Musings of ALMYBNENR

Every Other Day

Kali D’Angelo is a sixteen-year-old who goes to high school and tries to blend into the background. She cannot afford to make friends because every other day, she is not a normal girl. She may not even be human.

Every twenty-four hours, Kali becomes a predator with the insatiable urge to hunt and kill all supernatural creatures: zombies, hellhounds, basilisks…you name it. She has been this way since she was twelve and she has no idea why.

But when she notices a mark on popular cheerleader Bethany’s lower back, she knows Bethany has been bitten by a chupacabra and has a death sentence hanging over her head. Kali has a plan to try and save Bethany, but she has to do it as a human.

The characters and the story of Every Other Day are phenomenal. Kali is sarcastic, snarky, and bad-ass when she is human and not-so-human. She is a great, strong main character. As a predator, she has great endurance, heightened senses, and she does not feel pain. She heals quickly, she does not have to eat, and her blood is poison to the supernatural creatures she hunts.

The side characters were as strong and three-dimensional as Kali, which I loved. Skylar Hayden is Kali’s first friend because the decides to befriend her and refuses to take no for an answer. She is extremely perky and optimistic in a cute way and my favorite character from the book.

On the surface, Bethany is a mean girl who had a part in tarnishing Skylar’s high school reputation. She seems like the typical spoiled, bitchy, popular girl. But she has a lot more depth than that. Because Kali has a superhero complex, she cannot just let Bethany die from the chupacabra bite. This one event draws three very different people into an unlikely alliance and friendship that ends up working well in a way that feels organic.

I was blown away by Every Other Day. It was absolutely one of the best books of 2011 and I look forward to reading Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ other books.

Recommended for YA and paranormal lovers sixteen and up. It is really good!

—-

Jennifer Lynn Barnes has been a cheerleader, athlete, comic book geek, and a teen model - all things she can draw from for her novels. She has been writing for most of her life but only finished her first full book in high school. She graduated from Yale with a degree in cognitive science and conducted research at the University of Cambridge. She is currently working on her PhD. Her other books include Raised by Wolves, Trial by Fire, Tattoo, Fate, The Squad series, Golden, and Platinum.

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Bad Taste in Boys

Kate Grable is a halfway reformed geek, retaining her brains and glasses, but otherwise emerging from her shell and standing up to others. That is why when, as the high school varsity football team’s manager, she finds out the coach has given the team steroids, she decides to do something about it - especially when she learns that a side effect of the steroids turns the athletes into zombies. No one Kate is close to is safe and she is on a mission to find a cure before it is too late.

I have been looking forward to Bad Taste in Boys for a long time and I was excited about all of the book blog and author press it was receiving. By the time I read this book, I had built it up so much in my head that it had to be amazing. Plus the cover is just awesome. Unfortunately for me, I found it to be closer to okay. It is a fast read and the zombie problem and its resolution are tied up in a nice, neat little package that turned out not to be all that interesting.

I did find it cool that Kate was so knowledgeable about science and medicine even though it was a bit unrealistic for a high school student (yeah, she is described by others as a genius, but she stumbled upon most of her discoveries through sheer luck). She was able to perform simple exams and identify symptoms to form her own diagnosis. Still, I did not relate to her or the other characters.

Bad Taste in Boys is a fast, okay read that is too neat and clean for a zombie story - zombie lite.

For those fourteen and older. Read if you must, but I suggest reading other books on your list first.

Carrie Harris was born in Chicago but raised in Ohio. She is a self-proclaimed geek who has a degree in English Literature and random past jobs that include autopsy coordinator/statistician. After her kids were born, she decided to take a stab at writing, something she had longed to do. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband and three children. Her next book featuring Kate Grable is Bad Hair Day, set to be released in November 2012.

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Hollowmen

Disclaimer: No spoilers from Hollowmen, but read with caution if you have not read Hollowland.

Six months have passed since Remy King and her fellow survivors made it to the quarantine and things have been worse than she expected since she switched places with her little brother. Zombies dominated Hollowland and are still significant in Hollowmen, but Remy and the others have even worse enemies to deal with…their own kind.

Hollowland was the first zombie book I ever read and it was absolutely amazing. It opened my mind to the zombie world and I have since read and loved other zombie novels. Unfortunately, Hollowmen fell short for me. It did not live up to Hollowland or the other zombie books I have read, which really saddened me because I expected it to be as awesome as its predecessor.

That said, Hollowmen was not horrible. It was still okay and interesting enough for me to finish it. To be fair, the story picked up in the last fifty to seventy-five pages - I just wish the whole book had been at that pace. Also, there were a lot of typographical errors throughout that I did not expect to see after all of Amanda Hocking’s increased success.

Hollowmen is an okay zombie read, but not as amazing as its predecessor, Hollowland.

If you are looking to continue the Hollowland series or add another book to your zombie reading challenge, this one is for you, as long as your are at least sixteen years old because of sexual content, language, and violence.

Amanda Hocking writes Young Adult paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. She is a writing machine with four books plus a novella available from the My Blood Approves series and the Trylle Trilogy. St. Martin’s and Pan Macmillan have acquired have her new young adult Watersong series and Dynamite is adapting the Hollows series into graphic novels. She lives in Minnesota with friend and assistant Eric, dog, two cats, two fish, and turtle.

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Hollowland

Dearly, Departed

It is the year 2195 and the world has been through much: long and hard winters, storms that wiped out whole countries and influenza that wiped out the rest, a second American Civil War, and the eruption of the super volcano under Yellowstone.

Pushing south to the more moderate climates closer to the Equator, survivors fell into various tribes, the largest being the New Victorians and the Punks.

Nora Dearly is a New Victorian girl who rejects the idea of fashion and calling on neighbors. She is much more concerned with military history and political unrest, as well as her greedy, overbearing aunt.

But when an army of corpses comes to kidnap Nora, all of her usual problems become trivial. Nora is thrust into a world of zombies and everything she thought she knew was a lie. To make matters even more complicated, she finds herself falling for one of the undead.

I cannot tell all of you enough about how much I loved Dearly, Departed! It is definitely on my mental list of best books of 2011. Dearly, Departed is a mixture of so many components that I love. It is an amalgamation of post-apocalyptic, dystopian, currently apocalyptic, steampunk, and it is paranormally zombified. When you read Dearly, Departed, you will understand!

The world building in Dearly, Departed was fabulous. I loved learning the history of what had happened to the world since our present time. After all of the natural and man-made disasters, the people who became the New Victorians hearkened back to Victorian fashion, etiquette, and principles, which was really interesting except it seemed females had lost some rights that were gained centuries before. The cool thing was that though the people looked and acted Victorian, their technology was anything but. They had a lot of holographic and digital technology that came in Victorian packaging.

I feel that the Punks’ reaction to the New Victorians was what added the dystopian element to the novel. The New Victorians felt they had reached a new Golden Age while the Punks felt that they were making the same mistakes that every previous society ever made, like creating a new aristocracy and trusting computers. The Punks were more about equality and the power of the human mind, which was why Punk technology was based on clockworks and steam, hence the steampunk element.

That is just the world though.

The characters were amazing as well. Nora Dearly was a strong female character who was stubborn, brave, and able to see the bigger picture. I felt very comfortable identifying with her.

Bram and his fellow zombies were strong as well, but in quite a different way, having an unconventional yet second chance at life and having little to lose. Some zombies lost their humanity - it depended on how quickly they awoke after death - but others like Bram and his friends were absolutely logical and intelligent. A lot of people thought of them as monsters and they had to work hard to prove their humanity.

Nora’s best friend, Pamela Roe, was a nice sidekick sort of character and greatly complemented Nora’s personality. Pamela was much more of a lady than Nora, but when her situation became dire, she was able to pull through at the most intense moments.

Of course, with its mix of genres, the story was fabulous. Dearly, Departed is a story of love, friendship, loyalty, overcoming prejudice, and humanity as well as an action-packed zombie story. The love story within was tender, sweet, and not at all sexual. With five first person points-of-view (though mostly Nora’s and Bram’s), Dearly, Departed is action-packed and full of twists, turns, and revelations that will have you jumping up and down in your seat!

Beware of minor flesh-eating zombie content and gruesome appearances; and, in general, minor violence. Recommended for those sixteen years of age and older who love zombie, steampunk, dystopian, and/or post-apocalyptic books.

Lia Habel developed affection for horror movie monsters at an early age. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from SUNY Buffalo before moving to the UK to attend the University of Leicester and earning her M.A. in Museum Studies. Unable to obtain long-term work in her chosen field, she held various jobs to support herself and wrote Dearly, Departed during one of her many stints of unemployment. She currently lives in Jamestown, New York with three cats. The publication date for her next book, Dearly, Beloved has yet to be determined.

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Cold Kiss

Seventeen-year-old Wren has a great boyfriend and two great best friends and she is able to balance them all spectacularly. She is most definitely not one of those girls who ditches her friends to spend all of her time with her boyfriend. But Danny Greer is her first love and when he and his friend are involved in a terrible car accident that proves fatal for Danny, Wren uses her love and her grief and a little something extra to bring him back to her.

Cold Kiss is not your typical zombie story. No infection or science experiment gone wrong brings Danny Greer back from the dead. His very alive girlfriend, Wren, does with the powers all of the women in her family possess. Danny does not crave brains or any other form of sustenance and he may be pale and cold but he is certainly not rotten.

Danny was Wren’s first love and losing first love tragically makes it harder to let go. Wren only allows herself a few days of grief before setting about to bring Danny back. She committed an incredibly selfish act, but I think a lot of readers will identify with Wren and her actions because her selfishness stems from a broken heart and overwhelming grief. I certainly felt for her.

The main plot of Cold Kiss involved undead Danny and how Wren is going to deal with him. When the reader meets Wren, she has already brought Danny back and has hidden him for three months. He is a shadow of her Danny; he craves all of Wren’s attention, becomes possessive of her, and gets anxious when she is gone for long stretches of time. They share past memories with no chance of creating new, happy memories because of Danny’s half life. Wren has a harder time of leaving Danny and she begins losing him all over again when the memories of what killed him begin to return.

The subplot focuses on Wren’s magic, as well as that of her family. Her mother is secretive about their magic and the extent of it, tolerating the slips Wren and her younger sister make without any explanation of what it is or where it comes from. Wren knows it has something to do with their separation fro her aunt and with why her dad left them. Unfortunately, this subplot is never resolved. Wren’s magic is never really explained and neither is her dad’s absence. This incomplete story line is disappointing, unless signs point to a sequel.

Gabriel, the new guy at school, is the link between the two plots. He has a special ability too, which not only helps him sense the magic in Wren, but also helps him find out about Danny. Gabriel obviously likes Wren, but he complicates things for her practically and emotionally. She does not want anyone to know about Danny and she does not want to like Gabriel, especially when she still loves Danny and has to deal with his undeadness. It feels too much like betrayal.

Cold Kiss is a seamless mix of fantasy and paranormal fiction with an unique take on zombies (the zombie, in this case). It is a story of loss and grief and how to let go.

Side character you will love: Gabriel’s older sister, Olivia.

Cold Kiss contains minor language (a few F-bombs here and there) and one instance of a hint of sexual content. Recommended for those fourteen and older who enjoy their YA with magic, paranormal romance, and zombies, even if the one in this book does not moan or eat brains.

Amy Garvey has worked as a movie theater ticket taker, a nanny, and a camp counselor. She has been a lifelong reader. She is now a wife, mother, and writer. She began with romance novels and is now writing her favorite, young adult fiction.

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My Life as a White Trash Zombie

Angel Crawford is not perfect. She is young, addicted to various pills, and living with her alcoholic father in a crappy house in southern Louisiana. She is also a high school dropout with a criminal record. Angel has very little going for her until she is involved in a deadly car accident. Between her injuries and her earlier alcohol and pill binge, she should have been dead. Instead, she wakes up in the hospital recovering from an overdose and completely uninjured. Her memory is fuzzy and she wonders if she hallucinated the whole thing. But then stranger things happen.

Someone leaves Angel an anonymous note along with clothing and some odd drinks at the hospital. The note tells her to show up at the morgue and that there will be a job waiting for her there. She must work there for exactly one month and drink whatever is in the bottles every other day or else the person who left the note will let her probation officer know she overdosed. If that happens Angel will go to jail, where, the anonymous benefactor writes, she will die within a few days.

Angel has no idea what to make of all of this, but she follows the instructions. She has no desire to go to jail and end up like her mother. Stranger still, all of her old habits do nothing for her anymore. Take a pill to go to sleep? Nothing. Take a hit of marijuana? No high. It does not take long after Angel shows up at the morgue for her new job to realize what her new addiction is…she can smell it as soon as they open her first autopsy’s skull.

I am really amazed by this book. It definitely exceeded my expectations. I could tell that I would like it and that it would be a fun read, but it was so much more than that, even. I am not a zombie virgin anymore, but I still have not read a ton of zombie books. Actually, let me think…this would be my…sixth zombie book. But, My Life as a White Trash Zombie is the first zombie book I have read that is from the point-of-view of the zombie. In all of the other books, zombies were the dead, nasty, bad guys who you wanted to avoid at all costs. In My Life as a White Trash Zombie, Angel actually becomes more human after she becomes a zombie. She was failing as a human being, poisoning her mind and body. After she became a zombie, she was able to get her life together for the first time.

I bet you are wondering if zombie Angel is nasty. Nope! No one would be able to tell Angel is a zombie by looking at her, as long as she has had brains. It is only after a couple of days without brains that a zombie in this world will begin to smell like death and decay and another day after that when body parts begin falling off and the person starts looking like the classic zombie. As long as Angel has access to brains, she can live a relatively normal life. I found that to be very unique about this book.

This brings me to Angel’s new profession. Whoever left her the anonymous note clearly knew what she had become…maybe even changed her. That person knew that Angel would need access to brains. What better place than a morgue? Anonymous person put a good deal of thought into this whole thing and provided Angel with a steady supply of brains.

I actually really loved Angel. Deep down, she is a good, genuine person and because of her living situation, she has always felt she had to make such bad choices with her own life. It is sad that on her own, Angel admits that she never would have gotten clean, but becoming a zombie was like instant rehab. Once she began to understand what she was and stopped fighting it so much, she was able to really become Angel for the first time in her life. She was sober and much happier with her life. She learned to love her job and to make connections with her coworkers and make a good bit of money to clean up her life even more. The only things she still could not control were her father and his behavior. Angel is a really likable character and I just loved the way her mind works.

The other characters include the people Angel works with at the morgue, people she meets on scene when she picks up a body, and two other zombies whose names will not be mentioned to prevent spoilers. Marcus, a police detective whom Angel meets on scene, is a really great guy and a nice side character. He is a really caring guy once you get to know him (Angel met him before under circumstances that had her on the wrong side of the law) and I am sure there will be more Marcus in the sequel.

I love the mixture of the mystery Angel tries to solve throughout the book (the mystery of who turned her and the mystery of who is decapitating people), the humor, and the theme of redemption. This book was just stellar all around. I do want to caution readers with weak stomachs: in my opinion, things do not get too graphic in here, but there are some pretty creative descriptions of dead bodies and brain-eating. Still, give it a chance despite your stomach if you can. I just cannot say enough good things about My Life as a White Trash Zombie! I highly recommend it to zombie lovers and I suggest that it is age appropriate for those sixteen and older.

One more thing! The cover: how awesome is it? It is PINK! The zombie chick looks super cool and did you see her tattoo? It is a brain and it says, “I love brains”!

—-

Diana Rowland has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Tech and has held many amazing jobs. It is easy to see where her inspiration comes from. She has worked as a bartender, blackjack dealer, pit boss, street cop, detective, computer forensics specialist, crime scene investigator, and morgue assistant. She even has a black belt in Hapkido. She is superwoman! She also writes the Kara Gillian books. There will be a sequel to My Life as a White Trash Zombie but there is no further information on that at the moment. Diana lives in southern Louisiana with her husband and daughter.

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Shambling with the Stars: A Living with the Dead Short Story

The zombie epidemic has already begun in Seattle and Hollywood’s stars are responding in the only way they know how: a celebrity telethon! Avery Andrews is a television director in Los Angeles. She and her production team are behind the scenes during the telethon to raise proceeds to find a solution for “the outbreak”. Avery’s only worries are making sure she has the correct coffee and that she is capturing the telethon with the perfect camera angles. That is, until her host Blake learns the symptoms of the virus from the doctor he is talking to, realizes that he was just recently infected, and proceeds to attack the doctor. All hell breaks loose in the studio while Avery and her coworkers watch helplessly on the television screens from the sound proof room they are now trapped in.

Jesse Petersen’s zombie stories continue to reel me in. At 7,100 words, Shambling with the Stars, is succinct yet it has all of the elements of a larger story. In some ways, this glimpse into Avery’s story is more desperate and dangerous than Sarah’s and David’s stories. She and her coworkers are stuck in the production room in the studio while celebrities are being attacked and turning into zombies right before their eyes…and the world’s. They attempt to save a few more coworkers by letting them into the soundproof room, but it turns out to be a huge mistake. The emotions run high in this one. Jesse Petersen could easily turn Shambling with the Stars into a full-length novel. I would love to read more of Avery’s story through the zombie apocalypse.

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Jesse Petersen majored and obtained a degree in Psychology at the University of Washington. She is a full-time writer and volunteers at her local zoo. She currently lives in central Illinois with her husband and two cats. Jesse’s next project, In the Dead: Volume 1 is a set of nine short stories from the perspectives of different survivors after the zombie outbreak and was originally set to be available on 1 August 2011 but it was actually published early…TODAY (18 July 2011)!

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Married with Zombies

Flip this Zombie

Eat Slay Love

Eat Slay Love

Sarah and David have made it a long way through the zombie apocalypse. They have survived flesh-eating marriage counselors, crazy cults, bionic zombies, and even a zombie bite. Now they are headed further East, to the Midwestern Wall, where safety hopefully awaits them. The only problem is that no one they have met along the way can confirm the existence of a Wall.

In this third installment in the Living with the Dead series, readers meet two new characters: stalkerazzi television journalist Nicole and drug-addled former British rockstar Colin McCray. Nicole adds some tension to the story with her beauty and cunning, but Sarah grudgingly likes her despite how much she wants to hate her. McCray, is the eighth wonder of the world. It is amazing how he has survived the apocalypse so long while drugged up on anything he can find, but he has his moments of lucidity and usefulness that make the reader unsure if he is as really out of it as he seems or if it is a mere coping mechanism.

Is David really cured? Will the four survivors really find a Midwest Wall and cross it? I cannot divulge what happens, but I will say that I have highly enjoyed this series. And yes, I will call it a series because even though the publisher is no longer interested (which is why Petersen is exploring a bit of self-publishing), there is a chance that there will be further stories. Although there is no cliffhanger at the end of Eat Slay Love, there is definitely room for a continuation of the story. I sincerely hope that Sarah’s and David’s story continues. The Living with the Dead series is sarcastic, witty, grotesque, and romantic and it has convinced me that zombie stories can mix horror with fun. Jesse Petersen has made a zombie fan out of me!

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Jesse Petersen majored and obtained a degree in Psychology at the University of Washington. She is a full-time writer and volunteers at her local zoo. She currently lives in central Illinois with her husband and two cats. Eat Slay Love and Shambling with the Stars, a short story set in the same apocalyptic world, are available now. Jesse’s next project, In the Dead: Volume 1 is a set of nine short stories from the perspectives of different survivors after the zombie outbreak and will be available on 1 August 2011.

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Married with Zombies

Flip this Zombie

Flip This Zombie

Flip This Zombie by Jesse Petersen

How I got my hands on this book: Borrowed from the library

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Humor

First Sentence:

When the zombie plague struck, I was just an office schlub.

Sarah and David return in this follow-up in the Living with the Dead series. They have survived the zombie apocalypse for approximately three months and they have become relatively comfortable with killing zombies. This deadly couple has gotten into such a rhythm that they have built a business, Zombiebusters Extermination, Inc., and they have have gotten a bit complacent. Sarah and David figure that if they have to live like this, they might as well take out as many gross zombies as they can.

But then the game changes in more ways than one. Survivors are talking about special zombies who are not like the others. And a mysterious note is posted at the nearby survivor camp requesting Sarah’s and David’s assistance.

There are two new significant characters in play this time around: Dr. Kevin Barnes and Robbie “the Kid”. Dr. Barnes is testing out a few scientific theories and seems to have a thing for Sarah which obviously does not sit well with Dave. Eleven-year-old Robbie turns out to be quite useful in Sarah’s and David’s endeavors, despite how annoying and smug he can be.

I did notice there is not as much foresight in this book as there was in Married with Zombies. Actually, there might not have been any at all, even though Sarah is again telling the story in retrospect. It makes things a little more exciting, although I still cannot really decided if it is better this way or if it is better to be prepared for when something bad is going to happen.

What I loved, absolutely loved, were the big twists in this book. Sarah and David speculated about one of the twists throughout the book, but the other twist completely blindsided me. I was not expecting it at all and I really love when an author can do that. The stakes have risen, folks! I enjoyed Married with Zombies but I enjoyed Flip this Zombie even more! You need to check out this series if you love zombies!

Line that made me laugh out loud:

‘I know exactly who the enemy is,’ Dave growled behind me. ‘Mr. Comic Book Villain here. All you need is a thought bubble, asshole.’ (167)

Jesse Petersen majored and obtained a degree in Psychology at the University of Washington. She is a full-time writer and volunteers at her local zoo. She currently lives in central Illinois with her husband and two cats. The third book in the Living with the Dead series, Eat, Slay, Love will be available in June 2011.

Read Chapter 1 of Flip This Zombie!

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Married with Zombies

Married with Zombies

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

How I got my hands on this book: Borrowed from the library

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Humor

First Sentence:

David and I became warriors in the zombie plague on the first day, but don’t think that means we were front line soldiers or something.

Sarah and David thought that nothing could be worse than their failing marriage until they showed up for their weekly marriage counseling appointment only to find their therapist devouring the couple who has the appointment before them. There really is nothing like a zombie apocalypse to put life’s problems in perspective. Sarah and David begin the long road to saving their marriage and surviving the end of the world as they know it.

Married with Zombies is officially classified as a romance, but I disagree. I am sure I am not the only one who is confused about genres these days. With all of the crossover genres and sub-genres these days, classifying books is more complicated and in my opinion (haha), more subjective. When I think romance, I think bodice-rippers, for lack of a better term. And this ain’t it. It is SO much more! It is adventurous, humorous, and horrific and has a few romantic moments, but is nothing like what I envision a romance novel to be.

Anyway…enough with the genre stuff.

The story is told in retrospect, so while the reader can take comfort in that the narrator (Sarah) is going to make it until the end of the book, it also means that the reader has a pretty good idea every time that something bad is going to happen. I found that to actually be more stressful and terrifying than the bad things just happening without any warning, which makes the whole retrospect device more effective when I think about it. I feel compelled to provide a couple of examples:

When I think about it now, I remember that she hesitated. But at the time I was so freaked out by the fact that we’d just fought off a full zombie horde and then Dave and I said the ‘d’ word we’d been avoiding for months….I guess i didn’t recognize it. (109)

I should have listened to my gut, which was telling me to make a run for it and get back in the car. (148)

Still, I could have done without the hints and warnings. I am already out of my comfort zone reading about zombies and I did not need the extra anxiety! On the other hand, I guess it was good to be prepared and the warnings did keep me reading. It is impossible to stop reading when something big is about to happen and you know it!

Married with Zombies is the first book in what promises to be a very funny take on the zombie apocalypse. Sarah’s and David’s witty bantering adds the much needed lighter side to an otherwise scary and bleak situation. I really enjoyed it and I continue to be amazed at how much I am liking the subject of zombies. Married with Zombies is a really fun read and I have already started reading the second book in the series. If you like your zombie books with comedic flair, check it out! What are you waiting for? The zombie apocalypse?!

Jesse Petersen majored and obtained a degree in Psychology at the University of Washington. She is a full-time writer and volunteers at her local zoo. She currently lives in central Illinois with her husband and two cats. The second book in the Living with the Dead series, Flip This Zombie is currently available and the third installment, Eat, Slay, Love will be available in June 2011.

Read Chapter 1 of Married with Zombies!