I started this an age ago and put it down. The combination of silly fluff and gross out didn't appeal to me. Still, I kept hearing good things and I do love Team Seattle so I gave it another try.Amanda Feral is a zombie which means a diet of alcohol and flesh and a serious skin care regime if she is going to keep her looks. When her friend disappears and Amanda receives a text saying "help" she sets out to find out what happened.
It jumps around a little bit to start and takes some time to settle in and start to come together, but the scattered feel dissipates and Amanda has an interesting voice, kind of Zombie meets Valley Girl but less vacuous and far more snarky. She's a strong and entertaining heroine, like movie Buffy, you know the one, before we ever heard of Sarah Michelle Geller, although lighter of the pointy sticks. At any rate Amanda would hate to be anything short of unique and interesting (and a bitch) and she achieves that easily.
The plot is a little silly, but the book doesn't pretend to be anything else and it's no more silly than plenty of thriller plots, which don't realise they are daft. Mark touches on the old themes of consumerism zombies (me, i'm a slave to Starbucks) and talks openly about the zombiefying effect of being a wage slave. There are even some good old fashioned shamblers in there for those who don't like their zombies to have personality (normally i'd agree, but this is so entertaining I totally forgive it).
The other characters are entertaining and the book becomes progressively exciting and entertaining as Mark hits his stride and becomes more familiar with his characters. The side notes, insets and footnotes add to the overall charm and humour of the book. I would expect the series and Mark's writing to become stronger and exert a more instant pull as time goes on.
Try it, and give it a little time to draw you in because once you are in it it's a hugely entertaining and frivolous read that could almost make you not mind turning, although I won't be eating anything that could stick between my teeth for a while.
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4 comments:
Never heard of Mark Henry before and you make this book sound okey. I will have a little nosey around the blogosphere if anyone else had read this book and see if it is worth buying now or bookmark it to be bought later. Thanks for sharing your views Hagelrat!
he's part of the league of reluctant adults and it's a lot of fun. :)
Liked this one better than Road Trip, but have to admit that the footnotes annoyed me. Mark is a very talented writer and a funny guy though!
Alexia, I liked the footnotes but i wondered if everyone would.
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