Living With The Dead by Jesse Petersen (series: books #1-3)[/caption]Living With The Dead #1-3 by Jesse Petersen
Overall Rating: [rating=8]
Add this to my guilty pleasures list.
Somewhere between the novel version of a campy B horror movie and AMC's The Walking Dead exists Jesse Peterson’s Living With The Dead series (containing three books – Married with Zombies, Flip This Zombie and Eat Slay Love – and I swear I saw another one coming out but now I can’t. Pants are sad.).
Married, bickering Seattleites Sarah and David are heading for the big “D.” Six months of counseling has done nothing to bring them together – aside from co-snarking about the suspiciously perfect couple (The "Wonderful Wilsons") with the appointment before Sarah and David. That is, until they walk in on their counselor dining on the Wilsons and must put the bickering aside and bash in their counselor's skull before they become dessert.
Before all news and outside communication cease, Sarah and David learn an experiment-gone-wrong at the University of Washington (WSU fans, feel free to gloat) unleashed a plague turning people into mindless beings with an insatiable craving for human flesh. For lack of an official term (which is hard to find when everyone involved has been infected), they’re zombies.
To stay alive, Sarah and David must bury their problems and fight off the creatures before they, too, become the walking dead. Really, the plot wasn’t so much about about their rekindled relationship as it was about figuring out how to survive the zombie apocalypse. They just sort of became one kick@$$ zombie-fighting team in the process.
The books also throw in some unusual characters to shake things up: a mad scientist, a TMZ-style reporter and a drug-addicted rockstar.
Of course there are problems with the plot: How did the zombie-itus spread so ridiculously fast when it’s only communicable through bites? Why weren’t more people fighting the zombies? If unprepared office workers Sarah and David did it, surely there would be a greater number of people doing just as well. They kept referring to the zombies eating “BRAAAAIIIINS,” but it seemed the zombies were more likely to chow on an arm or a leg than go for grey matter. Also, how much did zombies need to eat? If everyone became a zombie, they wouldn’t have any food (since they don’t eat one another). But I guess it’s hard to starve to death when you’re already undead. Hm.
Since this isn’t the Encyclopedia of Zombies, I can forgive. Plus, it’s not like I can criticize the plausibility of a plot in a book of this genre. Really. Zombies.
In a book that’s basically about blood, goo, “mung” (as Sarah puts it) and bashing in zombie skulls, it’s light, funny and overall pretty upbeat. Instead of being victims of the situation, they turn the task of zombie killing into an art and entertainment. I mean, it would be just a little cool to spend your days fashioning cool zombie-killing weapons and going all kung-fu on the bad guys. At one point they even get a rocket launcher thing. Sah-weet! And screw going to the gym! Exterminating the undead burns those calories much better than hours on the stairmaster.
When it comes to strong female characters, Sarah takes the BRAAAIIINS. She’s smart, witty and keeps her composure when cornered by bionic zombies. She brought out that wanna-be comic-book type superheroine in me –kind of like a Wonder Woman or...one of those other female superheroes (I blame a sexist society for not being able to name any others).
Plus, she uses the phrase “!@#$ an elf” which I may, at some point, use and try to take credit for.
To sum it up: this is totally a silly series, but it’s entertaining and had me wanting to shout out “Oh hellz yaz!” Which, thankfully, I read at night while Hubby is sleeping and had to hold back screaming anything dumb like “hellz yaz.”
Recommended For: Bad@$$ chicks who think slaying zombies would be freaking awesome.
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