Daniel Waters has a lot going on in this book - the undead (zombies, living impaired, differently biotic - take your pick), the prejudices they face, the lack of civil rights for the undead teens, the impact of parental abandonment on the recently reanimated, a shadowy group of white vans re-killing zombies, organizations with questionable motives and those looking to turn a profit on the current undead culture craze..

Oh - and the story of a zombie boy looking for a traditional girl to love.

Waters manages to pull off an engaging story even with all of this involved in the story line. Not everything is resolved in this first book, but neither are most of the issues he's touching on in real life. Along the way, Waters tosses in plenty of red herrings along the way and resists simple explanations for behaviors - not even the characters are wholly aware of why they do the things that they do. A small detail for sure, but lazier authors often like to have wholly white and black-hatted characters who always seem sure of their actions with a few minor hiccups. Admittedly, he does make being a zombie a relatively simple thing - there are no needs to consume brains or any questions about why there are no needs to adhere to zombie legends of old - but with everything else that's thrown in, it's an easy thing to forgive. ( )

I read Generation Dead despite my mother's upraised eyebrow at the cover and content matter. The book is more than just a book about zombies. It is about high school, peer pressure, and standing up for your rights against the prejudices of those around you. I enjoyed the book a great deal. I will be honest and say I cried. Yes I cried. That to me gives a book an instant 5 star. At least until you have time to truly think the book content over. After thinking it over I still give it a 5 star. I really like the cover art too. I will say though, at first glance I had my doubts, but then reading the book made the cover more appealing to me. I can't wait to read Kiss of Life!!!! If you haven't read Generation Dead, go get it right now! ( )

As many other bloggers have noted, the cover threw me off as well. Along with the description on the back of the book, I pictured Phoebe to be a cheerleader who falls in love with a zombie, when in fact, she's goth. Perfectly fine by me, just wasn't what I was expecting. Also, Waters' writing has been described in various arenas as a mix of Stephenie Meyer, John Green, and Joss Whedon and I do agree to a point. I think that Waters voice is his own, just reminiscent of these great writers.

Overall, I found the characters to be well developed and, as far as teenage personalities go, spot on. I found it very interesting that, like the living, no two zombies were alike. They learned at a different pace, walked, talked, and motioned differently. I also appreciated the message of acceptance and equality in the book. Waters wrote some very moving words in the form of a speech delivered in the gymnasium, and also words directly from Tommy's blog. You read that right folks, Tommy has a blog.

I thoroughly enjoyed Generation Dead and am eager to begin Kiss of Life, the second book in the series. If you haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend it! ( )

Despite picking this up with the assumption that it would be a sweet, easy read with few redeeming qualities, I found it to be a much more rewarding high school drama then I was used to. It was socially conscious and showed purpose, which is a desirable trait amongst the scads of unmemorable drivel written for teenagers recently. Unlike many other YA novels, the romance isn't the key here: overcoming prejudice and changing societal views was the author's theme.

The idea here is that American teenagers have started to rise from their graves, becoming the undead, or to be more politically correct "differently biotic". Waters' discussion of what call the newly risen is telling: at first everyone calls them "living impaired" thinking it's PC, but that is determined to have a negative connotation and it's changed. The undead "take back" the title of zombie, similar to other groups in our society feeling alright using racist terms within their ranks.

A living teenage girl, Phoebe, becomes friends with the undead, then involved with their charismatic leader, Tommy. Unbeknown to Phoebe, her longtime best friend, Adam, has been harboring a crush on her and a group of boys from their school is out to get the undead and their friends. While a relatively simple, and classic, story, the zombie twist updates it and made it an entertaining read.

There are many interesting issues here to explore. One complaint is that Waters didn't fully explore any of them. While leaving a reader with some questions is fine, not coming to any conclusions seemed like a cop out. Also, certain characters are brought in and summarily booted out of the narrative without reason leading to many loose ends. I could definitely see this having a sequel, which is a pet peeve. Sequels are fine, but books should stand alone as well! ( )

Oakvale High has got a new type of student: dead. Well, actually, "living impaired" or "differently biotic" are the technical terms.

The phenomenon of the living impaired is sweeping the nation and nobody can quite explain why it is happening. Teenage Americans are rising from the dead just like nothing happened. Except for the fact that none of their organs are functioning any more.

Technically, the teenagers are still dead. They all have death certificates and the government refuses to issue rebirth certificates. Because of this, none of the living impaired teens have any rights and aren't even considered citizens anymore.

As with any group of people who vary from the typical, the living impaired are targets of many hate crimes including violent acts such as burning at the stake and being re-terminated. And the worst part is, they can't do anything about it.

Most people at Oakvale are terrified of the living impaired. All except Phoebe Kendall. Phoebe doesn't know why but she is inexplicably drawn to the leader of the living impaired, Tommy Williams. Even her best friends don't understand what is going on with her. Her best friend, Margi, has her own personal issues involving the living impaired and doesn't know why Phoebe would want to be with one of them. Her other best friend, Adam, has only just realized his true feelings for Phoebe but only wants her to be happy.

When the Hunter Foundation creates a living impaired class for both live and dead students, all three decide to sign up and face their myriad of fears. Little did they know, they had much more to fear than the dead, they had to fear the living. Because someone doesn't want the living impaired to be acclimated into society and they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.

Will Phoebe and Tommy be able to overcome the prejudices of others and have a true relationship? Will Margi get over her fear of the dead? Will Adam ever admit his true feelings to Phoebe? And most important, will they be able to catch the killer before he catches them?

As soon as I started reading, I knew this book would become one of my favorites. Daniel Waters manged to tell an age-old story about prejudices while incorporating a very new subject, zombies. With so many vampire and werewolf books out there now, it was nice to read a book about a different paranormal subject. ( )