Zombie Blondes -- Brian James

Hannah Saunders and her dad never stay in one town for too long.  She knows it, and underneath it all, he knows it, though he always puts on an optimistic face.  But eventually, he'll lose his job and the bill collectors will start calling.  Or people from the past will track them down.  And one day, when Hannah comes home from school, she'll find all of their possessions packed up and the car running.  It's a familiar, frustrating routine, and she's always angry when, yet again, her dad decides to pick up and leave.

Until they move to Maplecrest, Vermont.  From the moment they arrive, Hannah wants to leave.  Maybe it's because she doesn't want to get attached, because she's tired of doing this again and again and again.  Or because Maplecrest looks so tiny and insular.  Or because it seems like a ghost town, quiet and half-empty, with more For Sale signs than occupied houses.  Whatever the reason, she has a bad feeling about the place.

And she'd be right to go with her instincts.  At first, she doesn't believe the story weirdo Lukas tells her in the lunchroom:  that Maplecrest is a zombie town.  At first.

I've been looking forward to this one.  A big part of the reason is rather shallow -- it's due to the gorgeous design I've come to expect from Feiwel and Friends* -- but the rest of the reason is that I'm still waiting to find a pop zombie book that I really love.  I don't count Forest of Hands and Teeth because that one was Serious and Post-Apocalyptic.  And I don't count Generation Dead because I didn't love it.  So I'm still looking.  Because as much as I love the idea behind Zombie Blondes and the pretty, pretty cover, the book itself never brought me beyond feeling, well, meh.

There are some spoilers below, so if you're planning on reading this one, you might want to skip the rest.

I never believed in the characters as people.  The zombies, I could understand, because they're, you know, zombies -- but I felt that they actually had more spark than Hannah and Lukas did.  Which, now that I think about it, could have been deliberate in a what-does-being-alive-and-living-life-really-mean way, but because of the way that the storyline goes, I don't really think that's an accurate reading.  But an argument could be made, I guess.  And it could have been deliberate in a the-beginning-of-Shaun-of-the-Dead way, that some people go through life like zombies, which is... almost exactly what what I just said, so I'll move on.

I didn't understand why the zombies allowed Lukas to live.  Once he became friends with Hannah, I guess I get it, but before that?  It just didn't make sense to me.  He knew their secret.  Why not Get Rid Of Him?  Even if he hadn't been a threat, he might be eventually.

I thought that Hannah's struggle with popularity was well done -- that she wanted it, but didn't want to want it, wanted the acceptance of people she knew she shouldn't care about.  There was a lot of imagery that I liked -- the adults always seemed to be wearing glasses that caught the light just right, not allowing Hannah to look them in the eye.  That was effective.  And I loved the author photo.  Unlike some readers, I liked the ending -- I thought it was in keeping with the zombie genre, and while it's certainly possible to interpret it in a few different ways, I didn't feel that it was nearly as open-ended as some people did.  Zombies are zombies, and it might take a while, but they're going to get you in the end. 

But, as I said before, ultimately, and most importantly (for me), I never connected emotionally, in any direction**, with anyone in the book.  So despite the positives, I didn't leave the world of Hannah Sanders and Maplecrest with any desire to re-visit or re-read.

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*They put out books that make me want to stroke them and say, "Pretty, pretty". Which sounds a little dirty, but really, it isn't. 

**I don't have to like 'em, either.  Even despising a character is better than a complete lack of emotion on my part.  See:  Inexcusable.  Although 'despise' is too simple for my feelings about Keir.  I was fascinated by him, wanted to peel his layers of denial back to understand what he really felt and thought -- but that's it, right there.  I'm talking about him like he's a real person.  That's what I need in a book.  And what I felt was missing in this one.