Book Review: Zombie Blondes

Title: Zombie Blondes.
Author: Brian James.
Series: No.
Pages: 232.
Source: Purchased.
Publisher: Feivvel And Friends.
Published Date: June 24, 2008.
Links:
Goodreads.
Barnes and Noble.

Summary:

"From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.
     A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders—the most popular girls in school.
     The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.
     But Hannah wants desperately to fit in—regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: if she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead—just like all the other zombies in this town. . . ."

My Thoughts:

I purchased Zombie Blondes during a Half Price Book Warehouse Sale last summer, and pick it up for only a dollar. A dollar for this amazing looking book, and it's about zombies?!?! Whaat?

I know, I can't believe it either.

Hannah Sanders is used to moving around. She's used to coming home, and seeing her dad and all her stuff packed up in the car ready to head somewhere new. Hannah knows when they arrive at the new house that it isn't home, and that there is no need to try and make it feel like it, because they'll be packing up again soon, and going somewhere else.

Hannah and her dad have been doing this for a while now; ever since her dad (who was working as a cop) ratted out some of his fellow police men, for doing something they shouldn't be. Their past and the collection calls are what keeps the two moving. Hannah doesn't like they way their life is going right now, but she knows that they only have each other, and her dad does what he thinks is best.

When the two of them move to a small town in Vermont, called Maplecrest, Hannah has a strange feeling about the place. Something just doesn't seem right about this town, when Hannah sees all the "For Sale" signs on almost every property.

She's never been part of the popular group, not in any of the schools she's ever gone to. Most schools are the same, with the same type of groups and the same type of people. But with a town so empty like Maplecrest, Hannah has a little hope to make friends here.

...but once again, things are exactly the same.

The popular kids are the football player jocks, and the extremely skinny and blonde cheerleaders. Hannah doesn't make any friends the first day in school, but she is approached by a weird kid named Lukas, who believes the entire school is full of zombies. He spends a lot of time during Zombie Blondes trying to convince Hannah of his suspicion.

Cheer leading tryout are soon and Hannah pounces on the first chance to become one of them. After joining the squad she starts to realize small odd things about the girls, and about the football players, but decides to ignore and push those thoughts to the side. She even starts seeing a very cute football player, who has the most wonderful looking eyes.

When this book was only a dollar, and "zombies" was in the title, I had no option but to buy it. I usually don't like books about girls and their need to become popular or cool, simply because I feel that they're usually cheesy and anyone who feels like they need to be popular is usually just wasting their time. High school is only four years, after that no one cares about being popular. Before starting Zombie Blondes that was my biggest worry.

After reading only a few chapters Zombie Blondes veered away from that, and seemed more down to earth. Hannah didn't necessarily want to become popular, but instead wanted to accepted.

I had never heard of Brian James, until purchasing Zombie Blondes, but now I'm completely fascinated by his writing. It flows so smooth, and the story never had a slow moment. It took me only a few hours to get through this one, and I felt satisfied by the end.

There were a few things that I thought I should mention in my review (both good and..not so good), but I couldn't think of any other way to include it other that a simple list.

Characters: I usually like feeling a connection to the characters in any story, but I didn't find this in Zombie Blondes, with anyone but Hannah; I liked it. I'm from a military family and I know what it's like to constantly be moving and trying to make new friends, at new schools. And on the other hand, not connecting to the other characters, I loved it. I shouldn't be able to connect with zombies...they're zombies..duh!

Lukas: Lukas knew about the town and the secrets that were kept in it. He even tried warning the newest girl in school (Hannah) about all that was going on. Why would the Zombies keep him around? They killed all the other people in town, but they never got rid of Lukas, who knew what they were doing and trying to spread the word?

Zombies: This was the part I was looking forward to the most. But Zombie Blondes didn't really feel like a zombie book to me. Yes. The cheerleaders and football players were zombies, but I just didn't feel like my need for zombies was fulfilled, I just needed more.

Overall I enjoyed Zombie Blondes. Brian James's writing was easy to read, and quick. While I had high hopes for this book to be filled to the brim with zombies, it wasn't. And I think that disappointment was more on my end than the book or author's. I just interpreted the title wrong. Hannah wasn't cheesy or over obsessed with becoming popular, which I'm SO happy about.

The final verdict is that I enjoyed Zombie Blondes, but if you're looking for something completely revolving zombies, this isn't really that book. But if you're looking for a high school story, or a girl who just wants to be accepted by her peers, with a zombie twist, this is the book for you. I hope to discover and pick up more books by Brian James soon!