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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally! YA Humor with none of those sadsack vampires, February 20, 2010
Ah...high school. Remember those days? Best friends, rock concerts, parties, the prom, a boyfriend who's kind, sweet, stunning, and smells of formaldehyde? Yes, I said it. This is one of those hilarious books that are being born in the world of YA publishing that's getting more popular by the moment; the world of vamps, tramps, and dead guys who go bump in the night.
Our main character is an eighteen-year-old senior by the name of Algonquin. Some of her friends call her Alley the Ice Queen of the Vicious Circle. The Ice Queen title comes from the fact that she can't stand most people. She is living in a small town in Iowa and is literally chomping at the bit to get the heck out of her small, boring town and head to college in Seattle. The Vicious Circle is the table that she and her friends sit at during lunchtime at school. They run the school's online newspaper, and they are always willing to give their views on the "creepy" spooks that they have to share their world with. Vamps are the major thing in town. Vamps (probably because of Meyer's darling Edward) are the end all and be all for high school girls. Chicks not only want to date them, they want to sign a contract so that when they turn eighteen they can become the vamp's blood-thirsty girlfriend for life. Now, why are these "otherworldly" beings living in the public eye and going to school? Because a huge corporation called Megamart (think, Walmart) was using zombie slave labor to run their department stores across the country. They were used as stockroom slaves, and the vamps got upset, went to Congress about the shoddy treatment, and won the right for all beings such as zombies and vamps to live unthreatened among the "real, live" people. In fact, there is a vamp named Will who prides himself on being a hero. He will also do anything to make Alley his lifetime companion because of her extremely rare blood type.
One evening, Alley and her friends go to a local club. Alley is doing a review for the paper about how completely horrible the live band is going to be that night. The vamps have no beat and no style, but halfway through the show a tall, quiet young man reaches for the microphone and belts out a Cole Porter tune. Now, Cole Porter is Alley's absolute favorite, so her skin begins to tingle as she listens to his breathy voice sing the song just for her. His name is Doug, and when he belts out the sultry tune, Alley can hear the birds fly, the angels sing, and screams out Holy Shlabotnick! inside her own brain. Now, THIS is the man that has been missing all her young life. Finally, for the first time, Alley is truly head over heels in love.
After a few wonderful dates with Doug, Alley begins to hear the whispers all around her; the popular people who used to find her brutal sarcasm mean and heartless are now smiling at her in the hallway and patting her on the back. Soon the information gets to her. Doug's skin is a pasty grey for a reason. There is also a very important reason as to why he has to take medicine every four hours, and can only sing one or two songs a night before he is at death's door. Of course, as the title states, the poor guy is already past death's door and trying with all his might to live a few precious moments that were taken from him by a brutal accident.
The sarcasm and wit in every sentence of this book is truly remarkable. I was laughing right along with all the characters AND learning some lesser known facts such as: Lutherans take longer to become zombies than other religious denominations; marrying a post-human and converting is a great way to deal with issues of birth control and teen drinking; and, the difference between dating a zombie and a vamp is much like dating a dentist versus a doctor. Alley is the girl who won Doug's decomposed heart, and it is truly a great comic ride to watch her come to terms with her future.
Amy Lignor, [...] Reviewer
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wait, wait, this is actually... good?, June 23, 2010
Adam Selzer, I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It (Delacorte, 2010)
Man, this book had two and a half strikes against it before I even picked it up. It's obviously titled to capitalize on the success of Katy Perry's song "I Kissed a Girl" as well as the current undead-teen-novel craze (which brings up the question in my head of whether Katy Perry is actually alive, but we won't go there right now). But it hit my TBR list nonetheless, and on the same day, my wife picked it up at random at the library for the kid to read. Providence, right? So I got stuck waiting around for something and it was the only handy book in the car, and it looked short, so I picked it up and started reading. And there I was laughing out loud, something I rarely do when reading, by the end of page one. A couple of hours later, I'd finished the silly thing, and what do you know? It was miles better than I expected it to be, though Selzer did tone down the comedy a good deal after the first fifty pages or so. That wasn't the best possible idea, but by then, I was hooked.
Alley Rhodes is one of the snarky girls on her high school's newspaper, a clique known as the Vicious Circle. She spends her days coming up with one-liners and avoiding getting emotionally entangled with anyone. Until, that is, she gets an assignment to review an awful high school band and falls for their part-time lead singer. He seems attracted to her, too, and everything's going great until she discovers (this isn't a spoiler, given the title) that he's actually a zombie. She's got to decide what to do about interspecies dating. Worse, one of the school's hottest vampires is chasing after her. Why her, when he could have any girl in school with a glance?
Yes, there's a lot of cliché to be found here, and Alley is just a little too hip-cynical (not to mention way too self-aware) for someone her age. (I have been resisting the urge to use the phrase Juno of the Living Dead. Obviously, I just failed.) And I know I should hate everything there is to hate about this book. But I couldn't help myself. I fell for its dubious charms, and I fell hard enough that I can almost literally say I couldn't put it down. (I had to, because if I try to read in a moving car I get carsick, and the family would not sit in the parking lot waiting for me for another hour). Recommended, and I'm as surprised by me saying that as you are. *** ½
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Made Me Believe in Zombie Romance, May 15, 2010
I'll admit that I often judge books by their covers... and titles. So, this book made my list even before I read the back of it. When I got it, I was about to leave on vacation and decided it would be my reading material. I hadn't anticipated how many people would crouch in front of me in airports and in public in order to check out the front. I opened the book... KNOWING that it couldn't live up to my expectations. It was a zombie romance. Uhhh gross, right? No. Really. Alley's voice is strong and true. The author is on Twitter and well worth following for the humor in his Tweets, but I'm impressed at how well he managed a female perspective. Not only was there self-depreciating humor in her tone (which I liked)... but there was the angst of a first-love that you wouldn't think a "guy" writer could capture. Her voice was just very accurate... so accurate that I'm curious if Adam Selzer has grown ovaries.
It definitely met my high expectations.
Others have given a plot description... and I suck at that anyway, but the tone of this book is very similar to Christopher Moore's style of humor. For those concerned with language and content... this book passed my rigid standards for books I feel comfortable passing on to a young teen. The swearing was mild. There was drinking, but it wasn't portrayed as being "cool" at all. Any sexual behavior was mild and not graphic. All in all... I'm picky and I immediately recommended this to everyone without worrying if they'd be offended or not like it.
I apologize to the author for cutting him some sales by passing the book to everyone I know... but that's his fault for writing such a good book.
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