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“Damn you Daniel Waters! First you suck me in with your pretty pretty book covers, then you make me actually LIKE zombies! I take pride in my hatred for zombies, but now when I tell people that I hate zombies I will have to qualify my statement with a “except for the zombie kids in the Generation Dead books”. Damn you I say!
If you didn’t get the hint yet, I am now a Daniel Waters fan (but still I say Damn you!). I thoroughly enjoyed Generation Dead (see my review here) and I also enjoyed its sequel Kiss of Life. If you haven’t read Generation Dead, stop here and go read it before I give away something you don’t want to know yet.
We begin with Phoebe spending most of her time helping Adam “come back” from dying. You see Adam took a fatal bullet for Phoebe. Adam and Phoebe have been friends forever, but recently he has discovered his love for her. Being teenagers and not realizing that it is OK to date someone out of your peer group, they have just been friends until now. Phoebe was dating a zombie named Tommy Williams, but when Adam sacrificed himself for her, Phoebe pretty much gave up her relationship with Tommy to spend all of her spare time with Adam.
The kids are still spending time at the Hunter Foundation, learning about the social repercussions that zombies have to face on a daily basis. People can get pretty ugly when they are faced with something they don’t understand. Pete Martinsburg, (the kid who shot Adam), has been assigned to work off his sentence at the Hunter Foundation. Since Adam isn’t really dead, (he has been reanimated) Pete gets off with some counseling and community service. This is an uncomfortable situation for everyone and Pete really doesn’t seem to feel any remorse for his actions.
Tommy has decided to leave and travel to Washington D.C. to see what good he can do for the differently biotic (pc word for zombies). During his travels, he submits travel logs to his blog and asks Phoebe and their DB friend Karen to run his site www.mysocalledundeath.com. The site has become a cultural phenomenon and a place for the differently biotic to read about others like them and even track down their traditionally biotic (living) relatives and friends.
Around the nation, stores and clubs are opening that cater to the differently biotic. But unfortunately, there are still many people who are filled with hate for the DB’s. Just as with any other group of people who are different from the population’s idea of what is normal, the DB’s have to deal with extreme prejudices and they are in constant fear of the mysterious white vans. White vans are always spotted when something bad happens to DB’s. And most of this hate seems to be spurned on by a crazy Reverend and his extreme religious zealot followers.
Daniel Waters does a fine job delivering an entertaining story along with a message of the ugliness of prejudice and the value of social responsibility. So I say again, Damn you Daniel Waters! Damn you for making me actually like some zombies, damn you for writing a socially relevant book, and damn you for making me stay up late to finish reading this story because once I got to the end of the novel I didn’t want to put it down. Also, Damn you for leaving me with a cliff hanger so now I have to wait until the next book to find out what happens to Phoebe, Tommy, Adam and mostly Karen! Damn you I say!”
Christel wrote this review Monday, August 10 2009.
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