Friday, March 29, 2013

Might As Well Go Eat Brains


Published:  July 3rd, 2012
Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues (White Trash Zombie # 2)
By: Diana Rowland
DAW
ISBN-13:  9780756407506

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right—the zombie mafia.

Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower—and maybe a brain smoothie as well—in order to get through it without falling apart.


Review
 
     The first book in this series, My Life As a White Trash Zombie, was one of my favorites of 2011.  I thought it was smart, had great characters and more emotion than a lot of other books I'd read - and that's saying a lot seeing as how I usually avoid books with zombies in them!  So when I realized that the sequel had been released, I definitely wanted to read it and see how our favorite white trash, zombie felon, Angel Crawford, was doing.  The book starts off a little bit slow, with Angel still adjusting to her Dad's attempts at getting sober, her own steady work at the morgue and dating her cop boyfriend - oh yeah, and being a zombie who eats brain smoothies for a snack!  Just when she thinks her life can't get any more complicated, Angel is forced by the terms of her probation to get her GED within a certain time-frame...or else.  And then a body is stolen from the morgue at gunpoint and on Angel's watch no less.  Determined to find out what's going on, Angel is led down a trail involving the zombie mafia, men who die twice and odd government experiments on the living dead.  Add in the fights with her boyfriend and there's never a dull moment for Angel.  But can she make it away from a truly psychotic and dangerous enemy with her undead life intact?  Or will she end up rotting away for good? 
    I liked how confident Angel became over the course of this book.  In the first book she basically values herself at '0' and it's pretty obvious she thinks she's dumb, trailer trash.  In this one, the first thing I noticed was when her boyfriend Marcus began coddling her and ignoring Angel's opinions completely, she called him on his shit and told him it was going to over if he didn't change.  The idea of Angel solving crimes was interesting, but I felt like where the first book was mostly uncharted territory, this one fell into a cozy mystery mold - only with triple the swearing, violence and sex due to the zombie presence.  My favorite scene in the book was after Angel and Marcus separated, and she was sitting in the dinner eating comfort food.  The plot about the experimentation and dead man who died twice was definitely confusing, but in a good way.  It kept me guessing the entire time as to what was really going on.  Overall, it wasn't as funny or innovative to me as the first book but for a second series book, it held up extremely well and I'd highly recommend it to fans of the first.  I'd recommend this to anyone who is hesitant about zombie tropes and wants something interesting and very different! :)
 
VERDICT:  4/5  Stars
 
**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

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