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. . . .
I think the author pulled off really well Hannah's self-consciousness and self-doubt - to me, the zombie-cheerleaders plotline was secondary to the story being told of Hannah moving to a new school and dealing with all those issues that you face there - starting over, making friends, being ostracised, trying to figure out your place, etc. She was so clueless about the zombies and perhaps a bit boring in parts (Lukas was a lot livelier), but I think most teenage girls will find something relatable in her.
I don't think you should expect when reading this novel there to be a huge zombie element because I don't think it really is what the entire book is centralized around (and it took a while to warm up to the zombie plotline); moreso it was about Hannah's personal journey. Though the ending was classic. It's not a novel that really makes you think too hard, and it's certainly easy reading.
This novel had a similar feel to Generation Dead by Daniel Waters - the whole zombies in high school thing, but without the zombie-prejudice. I think this novel will appeal to teenage girls (maybe 12-15) who like novels with that very traditional teen novel plot (new girl at new school, clashes with popular girls...) and will really really appreciate the zombie twist (it's kind of like the monster mash, but it's different. There's more brains. The zombie twist...).
Anyone want to recommend other great zombie books? (I hear they're so hot right now, which is great, because I love zombies.)
