My Life as a White Trash Zombie (White Trash Zombie, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Mar 24, 2013 S H A R O N rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2013, horror, paranormal, mysterious, urban-paranormal, vaginal-fantasy-bookclub, 2018, sword-and-laser-fantasy-challenge

[I also reviewed this title on my blog: Ishari's Bookshelf]

I really like the back cover blurb for this book, so here it is:

"Angel Crawford is a loser.

Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.

That is, until the day she w [I also reviewed this title on my blog: Ishari's Bookshelf]

I really like the back cover blurb for this book, so here it is:

"Angel Crawford is a loser.

Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.

That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue -- and that's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.

Before she knows it she's dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addition: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey -- just when she's hungriest!

Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat.

Literally."

This was such a fun, fun read! This book has some fun cover art - after seeing the cover and reading the back blurb, you know you are in for a treat. Is it funny? Well, I guess that depends on your sense of humor. Obviously, with a protagonist who eats brains like she used to pop pills, the humor is going to be very dark. And a lot of the dark humor was (brain?) sandwiched or included in some pretty gross (brain?) matter. With a lead character who throws out lines like: "Why did I have the urge to grab a handful of that pink and grey mass and shove it into my mouth like movie popcorn?" you know you are in for a treat. Well, I think so at any rate. If you don't have a dark sense of humor and/or if you get pretty queasy when it comes to some graphic descriptions of brains/rot/etc...well, then you may want to pass.

If you are up for the challenge, however, you may find (like I did) that the book featured a fun, light mystery (who's the serial killer and why is he/she taking all the heads and depriving Angel of her yummy brains?) with a touch of zombified romance. White Trash Zombie was a lot of fun - largely because it's different than the bulk of its genre. I didn't feel like I was reading the same story with different characters...this story felt fresh and fun.

Oh, and I read it on the pool deck of a cruise ship with one (or two?) mojitos in hand so that may have contributed to my enjoyment of it as well.

Still...whether or not you have a mojito in your mouth and Caribbean music in the background, check this one out. It's an undead gem. ...more

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Sep 06, 2015 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-audio-books, books-read-2016

3.5 Stars

Here’s the thing. I’m a sucker for covers! I’m especially a sucker for Daniel Dos Santos artwork and because of that, I’ve owned a few books in this series for YEARS! But it wasn’t until recently that Darynda Jones was talking about reading this series and loving it that I decided to take the plunge and finally take a listen to this audiobook that’s been sitting on my to-be-listened shelf collecting dust. And on first impressions, I adored the simplicity of this story and I immediat 3.5 Stars

Here’s the thing. I’m a sucker for covers! I’m especially a sucker for Daniel Dos Santos artwork and because of that, I’ve owned a few books in this series for YEARS! But it wasn’t until recently that Darynda Jones was talking about reading this series and loving it that I decided to take the plunge and finally take a listen to this audiobook that’s been sitting on my to-be-listened shelf collecting dust. And on first impressions, I adored the simplicity of this story and I immediately found the quirky heroine endearing.

Angel wakes up in an ER, finds herself alive after a painkiller overdose and a car crash. It can’t get much worst from here … but it does. She gets a job at the local morgue, and when she starts working there, she realizes something has changed. She now needs to feed on brains or she starts decomposing. While she’s dealing with the changes in herself and how she can handle her feeding without raising suspicions, the town is dealing with a serial killer that tends to decapitate the victims.

If I had to compare the feel of this series to another one, I would say it’s similar to Sookie Stackhouse. And I think that is the main reason why I found it so endearing. There is something sweet in the innocence of the heroine as she’s trying to figure out this supernatural world, and her own needs as a zombie now. To navigate through this community that comes with a whole new set of rules for her. Especially coming from someone who wasn’t necessarily already stellar at life (let’s face it, she was pretty much sucking big time). So this is like her second chance at doing it better. And all that wrapped up in a cute small town package. I’m sold, I’m a sucker for this type of story, setting and characters.

However, I do think this book may suffer just a tad from first book syndrome. The storyline, while interesting in setting up how this all works and what’s happened to our heroine and how she ended up as a zombie, kind of flatlined for me a bit. It was good but it didn’t keep me anxious to turn the pages and know what came next, as much as I did find it entertaining. Also, I kept having this mental block about how easily this woman who wakes up with a strange and unnatural craving for brains just accepts it as part of her daily life and starts making brain smoothies to keep in the fridge. I would’ve expected a little more of an internal struggle with the idea. But that’s just me.

There is a love interest, although that doesn’t take center stage in this book, and I am interested to see what happens next, now that I think it’ll be a different scenario for the next story. The beginning and the setting up should be behind us. MY LIFE AS A WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE has charm and humor, and a heroine you’re left rooting for. That’s all I need to dive into the next one.

Favorite Quote:

“It reminds me of an old joke: What did the Zombie say to the whore?”
I looked at him blankly. “Um….what?”
He winked. “Keep the tip.” ...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Cat rated it really liked it

Totally different. I really liked it and loved the characters. I liked the forensic/ medical part of it and found it interesting. The eating brains part was pretty gross but became easier for the reader along with the character at the same time so it was cool as well. I liked the development of the main character and am looking forward to another in the series. I will check it out for sure.

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