Where to even begin with piece of “literature”. The blurb painted the word picture that this would be a horror re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s best known comedy. I quote, “Get ready for laughter to turn into screams in R.L. Stine’s re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Yeah, this is utter BS. I’m sorry, but it is. The only way in which this waste of a tree even vaguely resembles Shakespeare’s work is in the title, the character ‘Puckerman,’ who is neither Sprite nor Fairy but rather just a lunatic, and the fact that it culminates on midsummer’s eve (which is apparently the longest night of the year, because obviously that makes total fucking sense).

For this yarn Stine, the supposed master of horror (whomever gave him that title has never, ever read a work of true horror I swear), has attempted to engage the YA audience. Although I swear the reading of this feels more middle grade to me, but hey, maybe I think teenagers are more intelligent than Stine does, because this book sure as shit dumbs everything down.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1

Well, hello there my fellow zombie-philes!

I am still on a book high from this series, and I do not think that that will be changing anytime soon. Previously you will have, presumably, perused my review for Feed, the first book in this series, well now ladies and gents it is the turn of Deadline.

Deadline picks up about a year after the events of book one. After the End Times is still broadcasting the news, the dead are still rising and attempting to make Chimichangas out of the living, and Shaun, our surviving protagonist, is going just a little bit insane. By insane I don’t mean the good kind of insane where you use your mental instability to create wondrous pieces of music or art… I mean the “should be neck deep in anti-psychotics” variety.

Y’see, Shauny boy is hearing, and having full coherent conversations, with his sister Georgia… who is as dead as a door nail and residing in his brain.

Well, hello there my fellow bibliophiles!

I just want to make a confession at the head of this review. I am a zombie fan. I have been ever since I was 8 years old and watched George Romero’s seminal 1960’s classic Night of the Living Dead. I firmly believe that Romero’s flicks are not just trashy horror flicks but the ultimate in zombie survival plans.

Now imagine my shock when I hear about a novel series that has been doing the rounds of the YA circuit (although I’m not entirely certain that YA applies to it so far) that actually seems to believe this too. Remember my thoughts of Alice in Zombieland? No? How about The Reapers are the Angels? Well I recommend you click the links and read those reviews, then carry on with this one. You will see that I am not one of the people who thinks that zombies have been done well in recent popular fiction that young people have been reading.

I’m not sure how to proceed with this review WITHOUT resorting to a shit ton of gifs. I just really feel like some kind of crazy wild action would better represent how I feel than words ever could.

I mean, I could say that The Eternity Cure is one badass tale that left me desperate for more because this story was fucking awesome.  Or I could just do this:

Which is, no joke, my exact facial expression upon finishing this book.  I think it actually stayed like that for a full two minutes.

I could tell you that Allison Sekemoto was such an unmitigated badass that I am prepared to lay my sword down at her badass feet and swear my fealty to her as the god of badass forever.  Or I could just do this:

See how much easier that is?  I can’t write this bloody review because I’m too busy stalking Julie Kagawa and thinking of ways to beg her to hurry up and give me the next book.

I was completely prepared to go slow with this book and take my time. No self-imposed time limits or expectations, no rushed urgency. It started off well. I picked up my held copy from the library and promptly cracked it open the moment I got home, with the intention of reading the first 100 pages or so before calling it a day.

And what happened?

I read the entire thing in what was, essentially, one sitting.

Because Imaginary Girls is good.  Nova Ren Suma’s first foray into the YA world is incredibly unique and nearly perfect.  It’s dreamy.  It’s haunting.  It’s beautiful and sad, and a wonderful little oddity in the YA genre.

You’ll notice that I said that it’s nearly perfect.  There are indeed a few caveats that prevent me from giving Imaginary Girls that final star, but they’re ultimately harmless enough that they do the story no great disservice.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 368 (Hardcover)
Series: Paper Valentine #1
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Horror
Release date: January 8th 2013

The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Clare Legrand

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Pages: 352 (Hardcover)
Series: Standalone
Genre: Children’s Lit, Horror

At the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, you will definitely learn your lesson. A dark, timeless, and heartfelt novel for fans of Coraline and The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t come out at all.

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Pages: 464 (Hardcover)
Series: Velveteen #1
Release date: October 9th 2012

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal . . . and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul.

 Claire Legrand is the author Cavendish Home fore Boys and Girls, a middle grade horror novel available now.

Kat, Archer and I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the awesomely hilarious Claire Legrand, author of Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls. We talked about her influences, fears (Chucky! Gah!) and gigantic cockroaches. Probably best not to google anything mentioned in this interview at night. #justsaying

Kat Kennedy: Steph, Archer and I saw a van offering free candy today. Seemed legit at the time, but turns out instead of Candy, was Claire Legrand.

So we decided to chat with her instead!

Stephanie Sinclair: Also, I love candy.

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 404 (Hardcover)
Series: The White Rabbit Chronicles #1
Release date: September 25th 2012

Buy This At Your Local Indie Store: US | AUS | UK

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….