Title: Generation
Dead
Author: Daniel Waters
Series: Generation
Dead #1
Publisher:
Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: May
6, 2008
Source: Purchased
I was initially drawn to Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
because it is a novel about zombies and who doesn’t love a good old fashioned
zombie novel? I mean, zombies are the
dead come back to life. Creatures that
were once human that are now rotting and want to eat our brains. Not much can go wrong when you go with a
story about zombies.
However, this is not a story about your typical
zombies. These zombies are more human
than not. In Generation Dead the zombies
are not eating humans and they are not really rotting either. Actually, some of them can almost pass as
still being alive. They talk, dance,
joke, go to school and in some cases even play sports.
Generation Dead is a book about the undead trying to find
their way in the world. The zombies are
all teenagers. For reasons yet to be
discovered only those in a certain age bracket come back from the dead. Thus, being the teenagers that they are, they
are sent to school to complete their high school educations.
Not everyone is happy about the undead trying to find their
place in society. They do not want to
see them go to school, get jobs, hanging out at the mall, or even walking down
the street. Also, there are no laws
about killing a zombie. It is definitely
a hard time to be one of the walking dead.
Our main living character is Phoebe. Phoebe is a goth girl fascinated with zombies
and their plight. She recruits a few
living friends to partake in a special class for the living and the dead to
comingle and get to know each other. She
also becomes very close to our main zombie character Tommy Williams.
Tommy is a dead boy who wants to help those like him fit
into society. While he finds some that
share his hopes and dreams for the undead, he finds many more (both living and
dead) that are opposed to it. He
actually joins the football team and writes an online blog in support of the
zombie plight for equality.
All in all, I thought that Generation Dead was okay. I didn’t think it was anything super special,
but it wasn’t bad either. You could
easily substitute the zombies for any class/race of people and be able to apply
it to reality. This could actually make
for some very interesting book club or classroom discussions.
I do wish that the characters didn’t feel so one
dimensional. I wanted to feel more from
them than I got to. I understand that
from the zombies, but I wanted more life from the living (pun intended).
My Rating
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