I read "I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It" and I liked it!

Let me start off by saying that I don’t do “reviews” and I stalk follow Adam Selzer on Twitter. When I first saw the name of his book, I knew I’d have to get it, and I started stalking following him. He, however, didn’t really know me from Adam uhh… other followers and this recommendation is unbiased, and I bought my book at retail price on Amazon. By the way, while I judge books on their covers ALL the time, unabashedly, this is the first time I’ve felt a book’s cover demanded it be bought. It lived up to my high expectations.

Algonquin “Alley” Rhodes is part of the “vicious circle”—a group of seniors in high school who run an online paper. Alley is the school’s music correspondent… and she is cruel if accurate. She’d already written the review of a local band almost entirely before they even took the stage. Well, they sucked as she expected. What she didn’t expect was to fall hard for their soft-spoken guest singer, Doug. Doug croons the classics of Cole Porter and Leonard Cohen into life… which is ironic because, as Alley is the last to figure out, he’s dead and has been for years—NOT that there is anything wrong with that. The whole post-death population of the world has “come out” and there are groups of girls at school just dying to date the post-dead. Alley has always mocked them, in fact. A member of the vicious circle is falling hard and learning quick that loving someone means being okay with the facts that they always wear the same suit, smell a bit funny, and they’re a zombie. Quite a few people want Alley to “convert” and join the undead—Will, the local vampire stud, is among them. Alley has to make some tough decisions by the end… including whether she wants to avoid her own.

Foremost what impressed me was that Adam nailed the female first person narrative. Alley’s voice was authentic and consistent. She was humorous and flawed. The style of humor reminded me of Christopher Moore’s vampire series which I’ve really wanted to recommend, but the swearing and depth of sexual content of those books… made it impossible. This book has the same sort of satirical humor, and I can whole-heartedly recommend it. What I love about male writers is that they don’t get caught in some of the romance traps that female writers do. Romance doesn’t always work out when it shouldn’t… and there is a good dose of reality. It was fascinating to see how he wove in the actuality of a flawed first love with the fantasy elements. This is not Twilight where things work out regardless of whether they should… and the obsessed vampire with the glorious cheekbones gets the girl. This is the reality that first loves don’t work out but life does and there are growing experiences. It’s a coming-of-age book… through falling in love with an age-less undead. (Okay, so that might not be a realistic path for most teenagers.)

Also *Possible Spoiler* you know that I don’t read sad books. This book does not end happy… but it ends right and satisfying and the book is not unhappy or sad, in my opinion. I think this is another of the traps that female writers fall into. Love doesn’t conquer all… forever. Alley’s life changes for the better, and THAT is your happyish ending. I put down the book thinking, “Yeah… right on. That’s how it should have ended.”

If you do buy this book… and you should… be prepared for people to sit and stare at the front cover and even crouch beside you to try to read the back. I read it in LAX and on the plane and wound up just holding the book upright so people could see the cover easily. I didn’t think you could “sell” a zombie romance though after stalking following Adam on Twitter… I knew his humor might carry it off. He did it. This zombie romance is more believable than most of the contemporary YA books I’ve read recently. Unfortunately, I’ll have to “out” myself on Amazon now because this book deserves every positive review it gets. Dang it. I love anonymity.

Two zombie thumbs up.

Day Six-- Contributing to the Delinquency of Fictional Minors

So, I'm writing a YA book, and I picked up a few YA books to read lately. I've been noticing a trend in both TV and written media. I find it to be disturbing, but maybe I'm crazy and overly moralistic. I've been reading sites that say that nothing is off-limits in YA books as long as it's handled appropriately. This begs the question: Who is deciding what is "appropriately" and shouldn't SOME things be off-limits?

Drinking parties-- It used to be, back in the old days of the eighties and nineties, that if you wanted to portray someone as a rebel, you'd show them knocking back a beer snuck in a coke bottle at a wild party where everyone was trying to fit in. Lately, every book I've read has included under-age drinking. Sometimes, the focus of the party is just to get drunk. This isn't like nineteen year olds, but fifteen and sixteen year olds are out slamming back a six pack on a school night. The author slips it in like it's nothing. It's not to convey the teen's personality or the atmosphere of the party, but it's a prop--like a soda. They're treating it not as if it's rebellion, but it's normal-- a big "meh" on the normal teenage experience. These are the books that I'll be handing my children to read in ten years? Should we expect to preview all books by the time that decade rolls around?

Sex-- Yes, I said it. I'll admit I'm conservative, but the books I've read recently (intended for a teenage audience) haven't been about adults or older teens in monogamous relationships. Once again, fifteen and sixteen year olds--and it's treated like a big "meh."

Profanity-- Why are movies still getting "R" ratings based on language when apparently using the 'F' word twenty times in a book gives it a PG-13 age group? Plus, I've found, without fail, that the parents are portrayed as clueless in this regard because the minute their child says "damn" in front of them... or even "stupid" the parents jump on them screaming "We don't use that word around here." Twenty minutes later, they're at school dropping words that should burn holes in the paper. I'm disgusted to admit that our local high school only prohibits racist and hate language. It's also why waiting in line at a fast food place behind teenagers includes me covering my children's ears. I've even been "that" parent who taps them on the shoulder saying, "I have kids here. Can you watch your language?" There are still quite a few teens that immediately change their language when they see my kids, but... why are they using so much profanity if they CAN turn it off?

Lately, I've found myself using more mild profanity just because it seems to fit. Taking it out makes my writing unrealistic, but using it makes me feel like I'm about to contribute to the delinquency of a minor. (I have a teenage beta reader, so I will be.) I feel like I need to find a non-profanity type of profanity to fill in the blanks. (AKA "holy crow" ala Stephanie Meyer) Crap and darn sound puny now. Shoot is laughable. When I do a rewrite on my NaNoWriMo project, I'll probably yank out some of the profanity, but hopefully... not add any in.

Anyone else writing YA thinking about this stuff?

Oh, and while most don't consider this a "sin" of any kind, it's also become commonplace for teens to drink coffee apparently with their breakfast? Is this not stunting their growth? Is this really the norm outside of my little world?