Generation Dead (#1)

The teens of America are coming back from the dead and attending Phoebe's school.  As one of the goth kids, Phoebe is no stranger to people treating her weird, but it's weird to see her dead friend shuffling around the school.  But when of the "living impaired" boys tries out for football Phoebe is intrigued.  The living impaired rarely bother with socializing.  What makes this one different?  As Phoebe becomes more and more fascinated with him, it gets more dangerous at her school.

Was it possible for any girl, living or dead, to be sane for more than a few hours at a time?

You know, for someone who doesn't like zombies, I have read quite a few zombie books this year.  And I've enjoyed them all.  But the concept of the zombies in Generation Dead is quite different than the normal zombie shuffling around, eating brains, flesh rotting, etc.  This concept shows them, basically, "frozen" in time rather than truly undead, functioning members of society although at a much slower pace.  And I don't mind this idea at all (hey, if I can take sparkling vampires, I can deal with this) but the idea that the girl wants to date someone who has died is odd.  I get the parallels to the differently abled (physically and/or mentally challenged) plight and all, but the boy is DEAD.  And so I don't know if I can buy it on that level. 

But on another separate level, I enjoyed group classes to reach an understanding about the living impaired kids and foster community growth and all that. The back story about why the kids are coming back needs fleshing out but it was good to get quite a bit of information on that score. The political agenda and the commercializing of these poor kids felt real and it would definitely really happen. 

The characters of the book are wholy sympathetic and identifible.  Although I felt like I was being hit over the head with Pete, the villian, and his motive.  Tommy, the zombie football player, is an awesome character and I liked him.  I loved Adam a whole lot and I really liked Karen, the high fuctioning short skirted dead girl.   I hope we get more story on her in later books.  Because of course this is a series!  Of course, it is and I've already started the next book.

Oh and check out Tommy's blog, my so-called undeath, for more fun, but be forewarned about spoilers.