Undead

Though it is a commonly knowledge fact that Johnathan Maberry's "Rot and Ruin" series are the best YA zombie books out there, "Undead" by Kirsty McKay begs to differ.
     Life could not get worse for Bobby.  Not only was she forced to attend a class skiing trip with a class that hates her, a twist of fate leaves her sequestered in the school bus with the class bad boy, Smitty.  So, cue the teenage hormones and romance or the blood, guts, gore, maggots, carrot men, explosions, and . . . zombies? Joined by the pasty-faced albino nerd (Pete) and the head cheerleader (Alice aka Malice), the teenagers face down horrors such as surveillance cameras, vegetable juice, shrink-wrapped sandwiches, and the undead armed with ski equipment and their own ingenuity.  The only thing that would have been worse was if they'd gotten off the bus in the first place . .
.

I say that this is better than "Rot and Ruin" any day. No, I never did a review of "Rot and Ruin" though, yes, it is generally considered the best zombie book out there--every other zombie book gets compared to it. And, yes, Tom Imura might possibly be the most sympathetic zombie-hunter out there, but halfway through "Dust and Decay," the second book, I fell asleep. So, obviously, Tom Imura, his bratty little brother, that--girl-who-wants-revenge-but-was-basically-brought-along-for-kicks, the-kid-who-didn't-want-to-be-there-and-kept-getting-into-trouble, and the girl who was mysterious-and-oh-so-hot couldn't hold my interest for all that long.  (Oh, and I might have given away the whole plot line for the first two books.  Sorry.)
     Smitty, on the other hand, is very interesting. Possibly that could be because he is insane, unlike the Imuras who are reasonable and posses the power of forethought 50% of the time.  I highly doubt that Tom Imura would chop a zombie's head off with a snowboard.
      Anyway, and now I'll stop with the "Rot and Ruin" references, this book is my sort of book.  Plenty of guts and gore without the prominent and exaggerated battle scene towards the end, because the battle is all through out the book.  Also, there is plenty of inanity.  The whole plot is insane.  The characters are insane. The whole thing's fantastic.
      I did know what was causing people to rise again before the characters did, but that didn't ruin the plot too much.  I also figured out who was behind the whole thing, because it was a bit typical, but it didn't ruin any of the fun.  The last paragraph, though, has a twist that annoys me so much . . . My teeth clench up just thinking about it. Why do people do such things to me!?!
      My favorite character is Bobby.  At first, you get the sense that she's a reasonable heroine, the type you usually get. Yes, she is a reasonable heroine, I do agree with that, but her reasonable isn't what most people would consider reasonable. The things that seem practical to her wouldn't necessarily seem practical to me, or most normal people, in the same situation. She isn't like a lot of modern-day heroines, though, becoming despondent when something isn't working out her way (Miss Everdeen?  No, we weren't just talking about you, were we?). There is almost no one else I would rather be stuck in a truck stop with during the zombie apocalypse.
      Her supporting cast is also amazing.  Smitty, as I've already mentioned. A bad-boy to rival Ronan Lynch, (though Ronan would come out on top because Ronan's amazing).  Pete is an amazing nerd.  I classify myself among their number, and I feel that though he does not represent the majority he is definitely amazing, and that is the only word I have. What dude could not notice that they have a piece of metal shelving sticking out of his head?  His madness knows no bounds of genius.  And, of course, Alice, nicknamed Malice by Smitty.  A cheerleader with an attitude.  She's not your stereotypical ditz, but she does think she is better than the other characters.  Since they out number her 3:1, though, that does get interesting quickly.
      "Undead" came out in the United States this spring, I think.  I picked it up over the summer and read it twice within the space of a month and half, which says something to the quality because usually I have to wait six months before I can re-read something.  "Unfed," the sequal, just came out on this side of the pond, and I wanted to order it from England earlier, but my mother was taking too long so I'll probably just go over to Barnes and Noble this weekend and get it because seriously, I cannot live with not knowing what happens next any longer.  I'll pull all of my hair out of my head if I'm am forced into waiting.
       So, anyways, it's a comedy and a disaster and a train wreck that you can't stop watching.  Turn around.  Run away. Save yourself.  And beware carrots bearing gifts.

"Beautiful Creatures" Novels

The "Beautiful Creatures" quartet by Kami Garcia and Margret Stohlr can be beautifully intricate . . . or beautifully confusing.
    Beautiful Creatures:  Ethan Wate has wanted to escape Gatlin since he could remember.  To be free, not to be cooped up with in the predictable parameters of small-town Southern life.  Before he gets a chance to make good on his dreams, a girl in a hearse pulls up in the school parking lot, and his life changes forever.  Soon, Ethan has stopped asking how he can get out of Gatlin, but how he can get in to the secrets that the old town holds.
    Beautiful Darkness:  Lena Duchannes blew Gatlin away, almost quiet literally, on her sixteenth birthday.  She put off the decision of her lifetime--Should she become Dark or Light?--  for another year, but the guilt at causing her uncle's death has ravaged her mind.  Already she's pulling away from Ethan and showing Dark tendencies, such as running away with a strange Caster boy.  Concerned and worried Ethan hits the charts with a new friend and finds that the extent to which Lena's mother will go to make Lena Dark is beyond imagination--even in a world where anything is possible.
    Beautiful Chaos: With Lena finally Claimed, life in Gatlin should finally be going back to sweet, sweet normalcy.  But plagues of grasshoppers, drought, and scorching heat are ravaging the land, even though it's the middle of December.  The high-society ladies of Gatlin have decided that it must be the End of Days, but the Casters know better.  Lean broke the Order when she was claimed, and now Mortal and Caster worlds alike must suffer.  Ethan is the only one who has all of the pieces of the puzzle in his hand, and when he puts them together he arrives at a sickening conclusion:  For the world to survive, one of them must die.
    Beautiful Redemption:  The sacrifice has been made, but down in Gatlin no one is willing to let matters be with one of their own buried in the ground.  They must bend Heaven and Earth, putting themselves at risk for death themselves at the hands of their old enemy.  The peril on the other side of the veil is great as well as Ethan risks it all to return to the place he once fought to escape.

My two favorite books in this series are "Beautiful Creatures" and "Beautiful Chaos."  "Beautiful Redemption is pretty decent, while my reaction to "Beautiful Darkness" was 'Wha . . .?  That was random."  But, more on that later.
     Yeah, I know that this is a romance story, okay?  Deal with it.  They also fight evil-demon thingies and evil relatives.  And such.  So, yeah.  And Lena is strange and writes long skirts and funky necklaces and writes depressing poetry, so that makes everything okay.  Anyway . . .
    It's very interesting that these books are written from the perspective of a male. They're obviously aimed towards girls (though, I know a guy who likes them), but they're written by two women. I say kudos to them for being able to pull it off.  No offense to you, males, if you're reading this, but it is very hard to write from your perspectives, I not being one of you. And, most books aimed at girls have girl main characters.  Easier to relate to and all that.  Ethan, though, is very easy to relate too.  Which propels the book to its status.  If you couldn't relate to Ethan, at least, then the second book is too difficult to even attempt to pursue. 
      That leads me to my special rant, written out specifically for you on "Beautiful Darkness."  Wow.  Okay, when you write/read fantasy, you generally come to accept that each fantasy world you enter comes with a certain set of rules.  In "Eragon" by Christopher Paloni, it is accepted that using magic saps some of your energy.  In one book, Eragon gets exhausted from causing rocks to hail down on someone. If, in the next book, he was able to lift an entire mountain using magic without any extra reserves of magic, then everyone would be outraged because he just violated the rules of the world Christopher Paloni created for him.  Does that make any sense?  In the book, the characters operate by the rules which are set down, much like we must operate by the rules of physics and all that.  Because flying isn't possible.  You would look twice at someone who started flying right in the middle of the street, right?  Because that violates the 'rules' of this world.  So, why in the name of all that is did Kathy Garcia and Margret Stohl make Sarafine pull the ---- out of ----!?  That made no sense!  They never said that they couldn't do it, yeah, but they never explained why she could!  Very random.  I was very outraged.  And what was the deal with that place that ---- ----- took Lena?  It was hardly mentioned in the rest of the books.  It was just this random place that they needed to make their story work.  But a story only works if it works within the parameters that's already set out for it.
        Anyway.  Sorry, I've been planning that rant for some time.
        One of the best things about these books are the characters.  We've already established that Ethan is pretty darn awesome. So is Lena.  There are a bunch others, though, that all deserve and honorable mention;  Link, Liv, Ridley, John, Amma, Macon, the Sisters.  They are all fantastically quirky.  Hardly any cookie-cutter in them at all, which is fantastic and keep the whole thing very interesting to read.  I think that you start reading these books for the cool titles they have (Oh, come on, admit it."Beautiful Creatures" is one cool title.) and keep reading for the characters.  They're the sort that stay with you long after the last cover of the last book has been shut.
       One thing that I don't get, though; a bunch of people have names that begin with 'L' and are four or less letters long.  That makes it pretty hard when you speed read.  All during "Beautiful Darkness" I kept tripping up.  "Wait, isn't Lena supposed to be--Oh, wait, that word was Liv."  Yeah.  That might just be an issue for me, but, you know . . .
       Even though some of the books don't follow all of the 'rules' and though they are very mushy and romantic, for each of their bad qualities they have details and twists that redeem them.  And, believe me, the result is very beautiful.

Even though these are popular books, I can't find an official site on it.  But, as half the world knows, there is a movie out (heh heh heh), so here's the link to the IMDb trailer of that.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559547/   I would advise you to watch the featurette (is that what it's called?) of Ridley meeting Ethan and Link because it is very amusing.  Also, I want it for the record that no one in the movie looks like they do in the book, and in the book they look better.  And that the dude who plays Ethan is not extraordinarily good looking.  Just saying.

Chaos Walking Trilogy

The "Chaos Walking" Trilogy by Patrick Ness is a commentary on our society, even though it's set lightyears away.
      Todd is the only boy in a town of only men.  All of the women died of a native plague on this new planet just after Todd was born, they died of the plague that can broadcasts all men's thoughts to everyone else.  Their collective thoughts create the Noise, and through the Noise, nearly all secrets are revealed.  But when Todd finds a pocket of silence in the swamps, he has to rethink what he knows of his town and himself.  Because when you've been lied to all your life, there's only one way to find out the truth, and fighting back against the convention could have bigger implications than you could ever guess.  Especially when your tap is all that's needed to set the dominoes cascading down.

So, a bunch of settlers come to a planet, and find that they can all hear each other's thoughts.  They also find an alien species who have hardly any way to communicate with them.  What's the next obvious thing that these settlers do.  Oh, I don't know, maybe they ought to start a war?
       Hmm.  Well, you know, we're starving, we're hungry, and we're 60-something years away from any help.  We're going to have to live with this alien species for the rest of our lives, and our great-great-great grandchildren are going to have to live with them too.  So, heck, why not go for it and start blowing their brains out?  Yeah . . . What's the worst that can happen?   I love the human thought process.  Especially when it's in books, and I don't have to live with the repercussions.
        These books, well, about half of the time, these books are written by an illiterate boy.  Todd, pretty obvious, right?  It isn't as bad as "Blood Red Road," Moira Young, but he spells thing phonetically.  I don't have a problem with that, I actually sort of like it, because I'm awful with the spelling part of things, but it might not be your cup'o'tea.
         The characters are very strong.  Very strong.  Each person is unique, painfully so, and they all have their own motives.  Some of them are very easy to predict, such as Todd and Viola, but others are more of a wild card.  Everyone does things that are morally disgusting, such as committing murder, initiating planet-wide-war, and infecting innocent people with fatal diseases, but it's their reaction after the deed and the motives that drove them that you have to judge them on.  Otherwise, you'd wind up hating everyone in the books.
        The Land, and you won't know what I'm talking about until you've read the third book, confuses me.  It's sort of a peaceful part of the book, except for the fact that the Return is basically baying for blood, but I can't pick out individuals.  I couldn't even tell you if the Return is a male or a female.  The Return seems male for the most time, but other times it seems female . . . It adds to the overall effect of the story, but it can also subtract from it a bit.
        Another thing that subtracts from the story is the obvious bloodlust.  It sort of repulses me how many people in this book want war.  The Return can't stop begging to stick a knife in the Knife, Todd blatantly harms the captured ones in New Prentisstown, Mistress Coyle goes around blowing up things left and right and smiling while she does it, and the Mayor decides to start a war, just so he can rule.  What is with these people?  Most of the semi-prominent characters adore violence, and the main characters take part in it just to please the semi-prominent characters.  It is repulsive, but enthralling.  And it is completely rateable to today.  How many bullies hurt others, just because it gives them power?  It's a theme you see repeated here, but on a much grander scale.
        The New World in itself is intriguing.  The fact that everyone can hear the thoughts of everyone else (except for . . . but I won't ruin it), that animals can talk, and that you can hear the thoughts of the animals is really quite an interesting concept.  It is said in the book that it's all about information:  How much you have, how you can control it, and, of course, how often you get it.  Patrick Ness said, in his biography in the back of the first book, that he got the idea from today's society, and how we're always hooked up to information.  Computers, television, even radios and newspapers.  You name it, we're getting information from it.  Again, another theme that applies to today, and today's life.
         There are three books, this being a trilogy.  The first is "The Knife of Never Letting Go," followed by "The Ask and the Answer," and "Monsters of Men"  (because war makes monsters of men . . . ).  You might just want to check out all three at once, because both "The Knife" and "The Ask" end on major cliff hangers. Like, major.  Major, as in in-your-face, you are going to die if you don't read the next book as soon as humanly possible major.  I mean, "Monsters of Men," has a major cliff-hanger too, but you can't do really anything about that one.
         And even though all Viola and Todd want is to be safe, they forget that when you spit into the wind you get a convoy of 40 spaceships, the arrows of an alien species, and the hostilities of your own people coming right back at you. I hope you don't.

Through Her Eyes

"Through Her Eyes," Jennifer Archer, is a surprisingly good romantic ghost story.
     Tansy Piper wishes that she could live anywhere, be anyone else.  Her life, the pathetic thing that it is, is in shambles after her move from California, the deception of her ex-best friend, her grandfather's dementia, her mother's determination to hide from the past, and the grapevine of her new small Texas town.  Tansy gets her wish after she begins to see strange, black and white photos through the lens of her camera.  She finds that she can travel through these pictures and back into the past, becoming "Bell" Martin, the sweet girl who was in love with Henry, whom Tansy knows will commit suicide before he's done with Bell, and best friends with Tansy's grandfather.  As Bell's world becomes more vibrant, and Tansy's fades to gray, Tansy must choose which she wants to inhabit -- and she'll decided with the help of the town dreamboat, the local Shakespearean nerd, and the most popular cheerleader on the squad.

This was a really good book.  I even shed a few tears at the end.  See?  So, it's a sappy horror novel.  You really don't get too many of those. Or, at least, I don't.
      The plot of the story is very interesting.  In most books, people are like "Oh, I'm being possessed by a ghost!"  But here, it's very subtle, which is a nice touch.  Tansy denies it to the end, as well.  Which, fits in perfectly with Tansy's character (our next topic, but let me ramble on here for a little while).  The reason for the haunting is quite stereotypical, but, really, can anyone think of a better reason?
     There are pretty much two main characters here:  Tansy and Henry.  Tansy is a shy girl who wants to hide and nurse her wounds, at least in the beginning of the book.  She doesn't want to go out and make friends, she doesn't want to be there, but she winds up meeting people due to circumstance and a bit of guilt. Henry is the same way, nearly the exact same character, save that he's a male.  He doesn't like people, he doesn't want to talk to anyone, but he met Bell because they're neighbors, and he talks to Danny because he feels that he's responsible for them.  To me, this is interesting because in another "romantic horror" novel that I love, the main character and the ghost have conflicting personalities and goals.  Tansy and Henry have the same personalities, and pretty much the same goals.
      You could also see it in a way that would put Henry as Tansy's darker side.  Because sometimes he turns violent and abusive to those around him, while she wants to but never gives into it.  It could be considered as half a moral to us, and half a warning to Tansy not to become what Henry became.  There is also a strong sense of irony throughout the book, because even though Henry only wants to help himself, not caring whether he hurts Tansy in the process he winds up helping her.  Oh, sorry, *SPOILER.*
      Bethyl Ann, the cheerleader girl, and the dreamboat guy (I've forgotten their names) are complex characters as well.  Actual, every character is.  Time was evidently put into each character to make them unique and well-rounded.  Nearly every one is dynamic as well, which is interesting.  Not a lot of them change dramatically, but they change within their personalities, which makes more sense and a better story than if they'd changed dramatically.  Actually, none one, not even Tansy, changes in too dramatically.  It's more about her finding who she really is.
     I already warned you that this was a bit of a sappy book.
    Another strong point of this book was the poetry.  Tansy finds a book of poems that were written by Henry, and, well, you know, sort of obsesses of them.  I would obsess of them too, if I'd found that book, because the poems were good.  Two parts creepy, two parts depressing, and all parts truth.  In my opinion, at least.  I'm a  person that is full of angst as well.
      At first, though, I thought that Henry fell off his roof.  He didn't, just so you know.  And why would it be snowing in Texas?  Was it one of those crazy whether years?  Maybe I don't know my geography well enough to answer that question.  Also, no one really explains what was going on in Henry's mind, which would've been nice to know.  There is hardly any transition between Tansy's world being colorful, and then it being gray.  The best friend from California is dropped with only a few glances back.  Some things could've been explained more, and others could've been smoother.
     It's a good ghost story, though, and a nice fall back when I'm in need of a campfire tale.  Even though I can't remember all of the character's names, Tansy's story will continue to haunt me even as my world fades to gray.

Thirteen Days to Midnight

Thirteen Days to Midnight is another one by Patrick Carmen. 
       Jacob Fielding's adoptive parent, Mr. Fielding has just died in a car crash.  The last words he ever said to Jacob were 'You are indestructable'.  And then he died.  Jacob must shove aside his guilt, though, his guilt of something he hopes to never tell anyone, and go to school, acting like everything is normal.  And then he meets a girl, Ophelia James, or Oh, a girl who likes to do crazy and dangerous things.  On the cast she received from falling down on her longboard, he writes the words Mr. Fielding told him 'You are indestructable'.  It seems an appropriate thing to tell a good-looking girl who has just broken their arms--reassuring and philosophical. And maybe cool. 
       But a few minutes later, Oh gets into a crash that should've ruined her life.  Miraculously she gets up, unharmed.  But what is this strange phenomenon?  What is the secret of the power Jacob, Oh, and their friend Milo, will come to call the diamond? And how far will the two boys go to save the life of a girl they met only thirteen days ago -- are they willing to kill her? 

I have to admit, Thirteen Days to Midnight isn't as good as I was hoping.  In other words, it wasn't as disturbing as Dark Eden.  It does not give me the chills every time I think about it.  (But maybe that's because I flipped to the end. I don't know.) 
     Really, I don't know what Jacob sees in Oh.  He only knew her for, like, forty-eight hours, if that, before she became possessed.  But, I guess she has a good heart, until the end. Then she sort of gets . . . creepy.  Never mind, I do get chills.   Also, sometimes I had to go back and look at the sentences again.  I read very quickly, so sometimes I read "Oh, said she'd meet me there,"  when it really said, "Oh said she'd meet me there."  But Patrick Carmen tried to make her seem multi-layered, maybe a seven-layer girl with plenty of secrets, but I can only find three layers and secrets that aren't so secret.
      Jacob, well, I sort of figured out his guilt trip before he said it, because a lot of clues are dropped.(And no, I did not figure it out by reading ahead.)  Also, you only learn just enough about his life before and with Mr. Fielding to make him seem human, something with a past.  He does seem to be many-layered, only if the view is first person and there is always that niggling suspicion that he isn't admitting everything, even to himself.
      Milo is the one character who is as sturdy as a block.  You don't really learn too much about him either.  He was the second-best-thought-out character, in my opinion, behind Jacob.  Oh is just there to be a pretty girl and provide conflict, but even though Milo can seem to be an afterthought sometimes he is still always there and there is something . . . good about that.  Because even though the plot twists violently, there is always someone who is only slightly changed by the ordeal.
      As I said, the plot twists violently, but it is a well-thought out plot.  Sure, the diamond thing doesn't make too much sense to me, but who am I to judge?  Anyway, it is a dark enough power to threaten our heroes and their heroine, and it does it's job well.  It doesn't throw me into a panic, though, only them.  Does that make any sense?  Ok, let's put it this way:  You don't feel the danger as the characters do because you saw it coming from a mile off.  So, what if you're an avid fantasy reader and can see every twist and turn coming around the corner?  It still ruins the surprise. 
     Patrick Carmen might not have gone to great lengths to make the world of Jacob Fielding vibrant, but he succeeds.  The back story of Holy Crosses seems real, and the descriptions of the retired priests and the 'normal' teachers, the teachers who have other lives, really hit me in the gut.  Their rivalry with the opposing high school seems real too, like something you would read about in the newspaper. 
       All in all, I thought the book was pretty good. Sure, there were some things that could've been made better, but maybe I was reading it too fast.  It was a pretty fast paced book.  And if you're into science-fiction/alternative heroes this is the thing for you.