Zombie Blondes

Hannah and her dad have moved around a lot. Her dad was a cop then lost his job badly, now he goes from town to town looking for work, taking Hannah with him. She's 15 and doesn't like the next new town. Everyone acts like zombies and worship the blond shiny eyed high school cheerleaders and the football games. And there is something wrong with them. A nice twist to the YA zombie story, more a drama about the agonies of trying to belong to a clique in high school, with the undead being the equivalent of the "popular group". Hannah has one sensible friend in the strange town, who constantly warns her about them, yet she still has that desire to belong to something bigger than herself; the popular clique. A lot of forewarning and quirky show more moments that push the story and the reader along, kind of like a Twilight Zone episode. Yeah, you know they are zombies already, but as you inch along with Hannah you wonder when she will come to realize it. So it's not a blood n guts mayhem zombie story, but peaks well enough. A fast and fairly entertaining read. show less

Zombie Blondes builds the suspense with glee. Although I knew that inevitably these cheerleaders had to be zombies, I wondered how long it would take Hannah to come to this realization. Furthermore, how she would deal with this upon finding out. A town ruled by zombie cheerleaders and football players does not seem like an easy problem to fix, especially when the entire town has either ran away or dead. What makes it even creepier is not knowing who else (beyond the cheerleaders and football team) were zombies. Like Hannah, I did not know who to trust. Were those blue eyes simply blue - or were they zombie-blue?

I would have liked more explanation about how the zombie-making process works. It seemed like a complicated mess of initiation show more to fully-zombiefied. Why blue eyes? Why blonde? Apparently these zombies appeared pretty normal, maybe scarily perfect All-American, butnormal nonetheless. If the small town became depleted of "fresh meat", would that mean some branching out into other towns for food? Most likely yes, but who knows.

Hannah was a rather interesting character, never really making up her mind until it was nearly too late. Denial is a pretty strong force of nature, and I am sure that if I were in her shoes, I probably would ignore the loner boy crying zombie.

The ending - partly predictable, but partly not. I am not entirely sure what to make of it, but if I had to bet some money on anything, I would say that Hannah may have won the battle, but zombies will win the war! show less

Stepford cheerleaders meet Revenge of the Zombies. Hannah and her father are always on the move and for once she wishes they would settle down. Being the new kid at school doesn't get off to a great start. Only one lonely boy Lukas befriends her and he warns her away from the impossibly, perfectly beautiful, popular lookalike cheerleaders. But Hannah yearns to belong and have friends and despite a disastrous tryout, she ends up on the squad. It's not long before she realizes Lukas was right. I didn't find this story particularly scary or suspenseful; it lacked tension and the inconclusive ending was anticlimactic. Still, young readers developing a taste for horror and science fiction could do far worse than this.

Come on! What is up with YA authors wimping out on the true strength of Zombies? What has happened to the good old zombies needing to feed? The constant craving they have to devour human flesh? The fact that zombies are supposed to be the risen dead?!!

The cover should have been my first warning that this book was not going to go the logical and traditional route of zombies. Don't get me wrong, I think the cover is brilliantly done and definitely drew me in, but what you see on the cover is the exact way the zombies look. No rotting flesh, no dirt and blood covered skin. Just pretty, blond girls.

So, I get that the author is trying to say something about society's need to follow the leader, especially in high school, but it just seemed show more over done. What non-popular kid in high school hasn't thought of or joked about the popular kids being zombies, or clones of each other? There was potential with the story, but James couldn't pull it off. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he has no idea how teenage girls think.

Hannah starts fairly likable. She's obviously had a rough time constantly moving around the country with her father, and she's like most teens, wanting to fit in, to be popular. That is where I see the similarities ending. Hannah is obsessed, which could have been humorous, if the novel had been going in that direction, and if Hannah hadn't been such a self-absorbed, selfish, and downright rude character. Despite being constantly snubbed by the popular blond girls (zombies) she keeps going back for more, complaining about not having friends, then being a complete b***h to the few students who do try to befriend her. She was stupid and frankly I wish she had died at the end (sorry for the spoiler, but I'm just to angry to not put it in!).

I'm going to skip all of the abusive friendship and romantic relationship stuff because I would simply rant about it forever.

The plot is left with huge dangling threads. There's an almost constant reminder (every single chapter mentions it at least once) that her father was once a police officer, but is now on the run, and yet at the end nothing. We never find out what he did. There's no closure to this story, just a big cop out by James, maybe he was hoping for a series. I sincerely hope not.

The actual writing style has its downfalls as well. James has a habit of dropping the subjects of his sentences. This can work occasionally. Occasionally. Here are some examples I randomly pulled:

(p40) We take a few steps over the grass together before Diana tells me she's got to go the other way. Says good-bye but doesn't walk away.

(p58) He adjusts the tape that wraps around the remote to hold in the batteries. Taps it gently against the palm of his hand...

(p.82) I snatch my backpack up off the ground. Start to stomp up the driveway toward our dilapidated brown house with...

There's just so many I wonder if an editor even read through it. What scares me the most is that one of my 3rd grade students just read one of his children's books and I'd hate for her to think he utilized the same style and she though it was an example of good writing.

As sad as I am to say this. Skip it. show less

Hannah and her father are always one step ahead of the bill collectors, moving from town to town. At every school, she tries to fit in but is usually the odd man out even though she is pretty and smart. When they hit their new town, she is determined to be popular, no matter what the cost. Despite the weirdness of her new school and schoolmates, she ignores all the warnings and warning signs and tries out for cheerleader. Will she survive???

I like this book way more than I thought I would. I really got caught up in Hannah's desire to fit in. In her case it is not just superficial, she is so rootless that I could understand the need in her. The pace is good and Hannah is very believable.

Title: Zombie Blondes Author: Brian James Publisher: Feiwel & Friends Number Of Pages: 232


Summary From Jacket Flap: 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 their 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…


Review: I show more got this book at the library because of the title. I hadn’t even read the summary. It turned out to be very good. My problem with it though is that Hannah’s love interest in the story fell in love with her when he was walking her home and they suddenly just kissed like they had been dating for a while even though they had just met. The book ended on a bad note and I wonder if Brian James is writing a second book because I would really like to know what happens next.


I recommend this book if you like zombies, young adult novels, and blondes that are beautiful. show less

I bought this book because I needed a book that started with Z for my A to Z Challenge. This was the first one I ran across and actually, I enjoyed it.

Hannah’s dad has had trouble ever since he turned in some dirty cops. Now he and Hannah move around every 1 to 6 months to stay away from bill collectors and harassment for his past.

Their newest town? Maplecrest. It seems like a ghost town driving in. Houses are For Sale everywhere.

Hannah makes a new friend at school, but he’s not the most desirable. He’s a bit of a freak, to put it nicely. And within the first day, Lukas is warning Hannah of the “it girls”.

They are the popular girls. They are the cheerleaders. They are beautiful. Super skinny. Electric blue eyes. Ghost white show more skin. And all of their names start with M.

Hannah would do anything to be one of the popular girls, but as her dream starts to come true, she realizes it may be more of a nightmare.

The title pretty much gives the point of the story away, but that didn’t ruin the book for me.

It was very well written and quite the page turner. And although the plot is obviously not realistic, I imagine most teenage girls could relate. High school is all about popularity and to be popular, there aren’t many boundaries.

One thing that I didn’t like about this book – even though it was a pretty big part – was all the girls names start with M. I understand the concept, but throughout the book, I never knew who anyone was. I know Morgan is the mean one. Meredith is the nice one and Maggie is the leader, but it took me until the end of the book to figure it out.

I’m very much a “series book” kind of girl. I liked the ending of this book because it left it open for a series if James would ever want to write one. And he left it with a lot to work with.

I enjoyed this book and although I’ve heard it hasn’t gotten many good reviews, I’m going to give it 4 bookmarks. show less