Generation Dead -- Daniel Waters

Odd cover art.  I don't remember any of the differently biotic girls being a cheerleader -- one of the boys goes out for football, but...  well, that's probably just me being too literal minded.  It's eye-catching, regardless, and I like how it wraps around.

Throughout the United States, the dead aren't staying dead.  It's only a recent phenomenon, it only happens to teens, it only (so far) has happened in the U.S., and it doesn't happen to every teen who dies.  There is, so far, no explanation.  The politically correct terms are "living impaired" and "differently biotic".  The less sensitive throw around words like "corpsicle" and (of course) "zombie".

Phoebe realizes that her goth look has taken on a whole new meaning, but she likes it and she's stuck with it.  At her high school, Tommy Williams, a living impaired student, goes out for the football team.  Phoebe finds herself fascinated by him, maybe even attracted to him.  Her best friend, football player and karate student Adam, is secretly in love with her, and he'll do what he can to make her happy -- including support her in this new friendship-that-may-become-more.  But not everyone feels the same way.

Generation Dead has a really fun premise.  I mean, c'mon -- ZOMBIES IN HIGH SCHOOL!  But while I loved the idea behind it, the book itself didn't really work for me.  The story felt (this is going to sound weird, because, HELLO, ZOMBIES IN HIGH SCHOOL) flat and long.     

There were brief moments when I felt the characters become real people -- the scene between Karen and Pete in the woods is the one that immediately comes to mind, because in that moment I suddenly realized how she had died, though the author didn't let me know for sure until quite a bit later -- but for the most part, not so much.  I felt very little chemistry between the characters (except between, oddly, Tommy Williams and Pete, the (possibly literally) psychotic football player and between Adam and Karen), and I was told again and again that Adam was in love with Phoebe but I never felt it.  It's interesting that the most successful, believable interactions in the book were between the living impaired and the living.

Of course, the differently biotic kids can easily be read as a metaphor for any minority group.  It's a story about prejudice, about breaking boundaries and about pretty much any sort of -ism you care to mention.  I do think that will appeal to a lot of readers.  To me, it felt obvious and a little preachy.  I appreciated the attempt to show different kinds of and reasons for prejudice, but because the characters never felt real to me, they all felt like representations of different views rather than, you know, people.  Overall, lots of it was very clever -- the Skip Slydell Transforming The Culture Through Commercialism scene was especially good -- but I didn't feel much heart.

The most interesting storyline in the book (to me) was the one surrounding the (very possibly sketchy) Hunter Foundation, but there were only hints.  That makes me suspect that there may be a sequel in the works.  I also wouldn't be surprised to see it get turned into a movie.  I'll be interested to see how this one goes over.  While it wasn't my cuppa, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it gain a decent following -- it's had decent reviews elsewhere and at the moment, there are three 5-star ratings at Amazon.