No Brain Munching Here

Phoebe is just your typical goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent... and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is happening. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same-- they stutter, and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best to fit into a society that doesn't want them. Fitting in his hard enough when you don't have the look or attitude, but when almost everyone else is alive and you're not, it's close to impossible. The kids at Oakvale High don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear-- for good.

With her pale skin and Goth wardrobe, Phoebe has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids. Not her best friend, Margi, whose fear of the differently biotic is deeply rooted in guilt over the past. And especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has just realized his feelings for Phoebe run much deeper than just friendship. He would do anything for her, but what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

Generation dead is a sharp, funny, and breathtaking original novel from an exciting new talent.

Title: Generation Dead
Author: Daniel Waters
Series: Generation Dead, Book 1
Start & Finished: 5/25/09
Published: 2008
Publisher: Hyperion Teens
Pages: 392
Genre: YA- Fiction/ Fantasy
Official Book Site

After hearing about acts of random violence that were being performed and filmed to place on YouTube, Daniel Waters decided that he wanted to write his first book about that. However, nothing seemed to click until one day “out of the blue [he] thought that if zombies really existed they would be the most discriminated against group ever." Soon after that he set to work creating his first book Generation Dead which is now the first in a series.

Zombies have always scared me. They are one of the few things that I have repeatedly had nightmares about ever since I was a kid and yet I finally convinced myself to pick up a book that I knew had zombies in it. Or differently biotic, living impaired, etc. as they are also called in the book. Instead of the disgust I had expected to feel toward the dead kids, I actually felt the same way I feel when I read books about racism and prejudice. I believe that was the point the author was trying to make and it came across just fine. Matter of fact, in an interview he said he “see’s the book as very anti-death. If there are messages to be found, I suppose "Choose life, choose love" are among them.”

If you ask Mr. Water's, he will tell you that he wrote a love story with Generation Dead. "It just happens to be a love story with zombies. Teenaged zombies.” Now, this is supposed to be YA fiction and it is. The story is even set in high school but Mr. Waters avoids most of the high school drama and while this is a welcome change, it wasn’t very realistic in that respect. My only other complaint was the ending of the book which upset me a little but I understand that it was mandatory for the story to be able to continue in a series.

This book may have zombies in it and at the end of the day zombies still freak me out but Daniel Waters really is writing about "kids who’re trying to live” and that is what makes this story so unique.

Generation Dead
1. Generation Dead (2008)
2. Kiss Of Life (2009)
3. Passing Strange (2010)

First Paragraph: Phoebe and her friends held their breath as the dead girl in the plaid skirt walked past their table in the lunchroom. Her motion kicked up a cool trailing breeze that seemed to settle of the skin and catch in their hair. As they watched her go by, Phoebe could almost tell what everyone was thinking. Everyone, that is, except for the dead girl.

Links

• Wikpedia Summary for Generation Dead
• Character Tommy’s Blog My So-Called Undeath

Interviews:
2009-Fantastic Book Reviews
2008- The Horror Library
2009- Jackie On Air
2009- Largehearted Boy (author's playlist for the book)



Picture Explanations
School Hallway: Most of the school and the country want nothing to do with the dead kids.
Grave: Yes, someone dies in the book.
Football: Tommy tries out for football though every one from the players to the coach hates him.