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untonugganI thought I'd try recommending a few of the books I've been reading. So without further ado, a review of "My life as a white trash zombie" by Diana Rowland.
Although I quibble about the title (I really think the phrase "white trash" should be abolished from the English language along with other classist/other-ist slurs), I actually really enjoyed this book. I'm going to put the title down to "grab the reader's attention" and leave it at that.
Angel is a high school drop-out, unemployed, and living with her alcoholic/abusive father. Then she wakes up in the ER remembering a horrible car crash to find out that she overdosed on pills and was found naked on the side of the road. A mysterious stranger tells her to report for a job as a driver at the coroner's office the next day, or else her probation officer will be informed about the overdose. The stranger also leaves a nice cooler of smoothies...with little pink chunks at the bottom.
I appreciate that I was able to eat while reading this book without getting nauseous. As in, while there are discussions of dead bodies and autopsies and stuff, none of it was so vivid that I wanted to puke. Oh, and Rowland gets extra points because she has actually worked at a coroner's office, so she knows what goes on there.
It is slightly irritating how long it takes Angel to figure out that she is, in fact, a zombie, but not like the mindless ones in the movies. I mean, we know it, it's right there in the title! However, it is much more believable for Angel to take awhile to figure it out. (If I got hungry during an autopsy, I wouldn't automatically think, "OMG I must be a zombie!")
I won't go into too many details about the ending, but suffice it to say that Rowland succeeds in making what could be a cutesy zombie story into a character story. Because really it's not all about the brains and violence and such, it's about Angel figuring out what the hell she wants to do with her life. Er, undeath.
Although I quibble about the title (I really think the phrase "white trash" should be abolished from the English language along with other classist/other-ist slurs), I actually really enjoyed this book. I'm going to put the title down to "grab the reader's attention" and leave it at that.
Angel is a high school drop-out, unemployed, and living with her alcoholic/abusive father. Then she wakes up in the ER remembering a horrible car crash to find out that she overdosed on pills and was found naked on the side of the road. A mysterious stranger tells her to report for a job as a driver at the coroner's office the next day, or else her probation officer will be informed about the overdose. The stranger also leaves a nice cooler of smoothies...with little pink chunks at the bottom.
I appreciate that I was able to eat while reading this book without getting nauseous. As in, while there are discussions of dead bodies and autopsies and stuff, none of it was so vivid that I wanted to puke. Oh, and Rowland gets extra points because she has actually worked at a coroner's office, so she knows what goes on there.
It is slightly irritating how long it takes Angel to figure out that she is, in fact, a zombie, but not like the mindless ones in the movies. I mean, we know it, it's right there in the title! However, it is much more believable for Angel to take awhile to figure it out. (If I got hungry during an autopsy, I wouldn't automatically think, "OMG I must be a zombie!")
I won't go into too many details about the ending, but suffice it to say that Rowland succeeds in making what could be a cutesy zombie story into a character story. Because really it's not all about the brains and violence and such, it's about Angel figuring out what the hell she wants to do with her life. Er, undeath.
