In the Flesh

So this is a British show about zombies with...a slightly intriguing take. It aired on BBC America a few weekends ago and I watched it last week and had mixed feelings about it mostly ending in dislike. I haven't really read any other reviews about it or talked about it with anyone so it's possible I'm missing its strengths, but in the end I feel like The Point of this show overrode the actual story and also, I JUST LIKE MY ZOMBIES UNTHINKING OKAY?

I'd be lying, though, if I said there weren't times I found the concepts intriguing. In the Flesh imagines a time when the dead suddenly rise due to the virus and eat people to survive. But then they come up with a cure that allows them to return mostly to the people they were before...except, of course, their bodies are dead. And they are being reintegrated into society. To varying degrees of success, of course, people are unsure about having dead people that also fed on their loved ones back as their neighbors. They organized groups to hunt them and somehow there's also a mix of religious zeal in there (which...kind of makes sense since Christians, at least, believe in a resurrection, but this also was part of my problem with the show) so there's a lot of adjustment in thinking necessary.

The main character Kieren Walker (sigh) is one such "recovering" zombie. They don't call them zombies, of course, they call it PDS (partially deceased syndrome) survivors? Anyway, the thing about Kieren is that he actually chose to end his life and so the most hellish thing imaginable is that he'd come back as a zombie. And it was only this specific group of people that died in 2009 that it happened to, and also it doesn't spread via biting or anything.

So Kieren is back with his family and his sister was part of the sort of militia army that hunted zombies (and still does) and so there's tons of tension. Not to mention that also there's the residual pain from the fact the he tried to off himself. And there's the fact that he doesn't quite fit in as a normal person anyway he has to wear make-up and contacts to cover up his true zombie appearance. But things get really interesting when his boyfriend, believed to be dead, is found--also a PDS survivor and comes back. Because Rick's (his boyfriend) father is the head of the group that hunts down the rabid zombies, Rick sort of refuses to accept that he also has PDS. Which leads to conflict, etc.

So...that's sort of where my problems with the show came in. What is PDS stand for in this show? Is that this is just a another way to make commentary on how we "other" people and how it's hard for them and us? Like, in some ways I could see PDS as a stand-in for veterans returning from war (probably because partially PDS reminds me of PTSD), but the show actually has an example of a veteran returning from war. Or is it about sexual orientation? There are these moments where Rick expresses so much self-loathing that it really reminded me of someone fighting their sexual orientation...except, the main couple is also gay. Is it about race? When they visit a bar, they are forced to eat in a different section. Maybe it's not supposed to align with anything in the real world and is just supposed to be a broad sweeping look at how in society we form groups and standards of what's normal and exclude everyone else to painful degrees. Maybe it's about how we don't accept what/who people are if it's not what we want them to be and would rather kill them than live with the reality they are not what we expect. But...are people wrong not to want the zombies around? I mean they may have eaten the people they loved, without medication they are a sincere threat, etc. They are almost a crime against nature in a way because they are supposed to be dead. (Just looked up a review that said it's a metaphor for mental illness. oooooooh. That actually makes the most sense of anything, but I didn't arrive there on my own so)

In any case, In the Flesh does succeed in being different from other zombie shows and showing a realistic way zombies could be reintegrated since it's not a contagious virus. It's just that I found the show didn't quite gel for me. I didn't become attached to any of the characters on any deep level and can't in fact remember most of their names. Add to that the tired trope of the evil church that encourages only hate and I just didn't have a lot of patience for this show, I guess.

Also, I'm resentful. I'm tired of hearing that the only "legitimate" "artistic" zombie stories are ones like this where the zombies aren't actually gone.(I also read it's a thinking man's Walking Dead, etc. UGH) It does raise an interesting discussion, I guess, about if a person's body can still move around does that mean they are still in there? Do we have a hard time believing that a person is not their body? What makes this kind of zombie more acceptable? Also, what makes it so different from a vampire story?

Anyway, I am interested in what others of you who watched this thought, if I'm being too harsh, etc. And tomorrow or the next day I'm really hoping to finally write about The Walking Dead rewatch I did earlier this year. (and lol it will probably be super defensive, oh well)

A Very Deep Question

Very few zombie worlds in fiction acknowledge the fact that zombie movies existed before the apocalypse. The only one I can think of that does is Mira Grant's in Feed.

If the world were to be infected by the zombie virus tomorrow do you think we'd call them zombies???? Or walkers/biters/ etc.?

I will accept your carefully thought through thesis in comments.

Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

So you all know that I enthusiastically embrace zombie stories and enjoy them. I'm always excited when I hear about new zombie books and I rarely feel like they are a disappointment. When this book came out a couple of years ago, people were raving about how great it was, so I bought it and gave it a shot. And...then I set it down unfinished. Well I'm trying to clear out my books so I'm trying to finish the books that I didn't quit reading out of pure hatred. And I knew the movie would be coming out and I wanted to finish it. So I did!

I didn't like it.

I like zombie stories where the zombies can't:
A) Think
B) Fall in Love
C) Turn human again

The reason I actually like zombie stories is because I like the stories about the humans struggling to survive. I like to think of the zombies as representative of something, but not human.

Warm Bodies is told from the POV of a zombie. But wait! On some level Marion knows that you need mindless zombies so there are zombies (flesh eaters) and bonies (no flesh, operate more like zombies) Sigh.

When zombies eat the brains they can see the flash of the life they are taking. One day R eats a brain and falls in love and saves a human girl...and well I think you can guess where this is going.

I just...no. No zombie awareness, please. No falling in love, no adopting families in zombie world or grunting talk with other zombies. That defeats the whole point of zombiesssssss. Also, no ridiculous theories on how the zombies were created, it takes all the subtlety out of zombie stories!

So I disliked the book. I do think it might make a cute fun comedy a la zombieland, though.

Rating: Ugh
Things You might Want to Know: This book contains faux-zombies
Source of Book: Bought It (in hardcover, weeps)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The Sunday Salon: Big Books and Zombie Movies! (Based on books)

Hi everyone!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. It has been chilly here which gave me some sort of allergy attack or something so it's felt like Fall! It's very exciting. But alas it's supposed to get warm again this week.

Is it just me or does Thanksgiving seem super early this year? Does anyone have any fun and exciting plans I can live through vicariously for Thanksgiving?

I'm getting near the end of Anna Karenina which makes me kind of sad. I will be genuinely bummed not to check in with these characters each week and see what social gathering they are going to or what's troubling Levin at the moment. (I've been reading with a friend and we've had like one hundredish pages to read each week but I've usually ended up reading them all in one go) Once again, as I always do once I've made my way through a chunkster, I'm thinking about how much I love long books and really digging in deep with a story. It's interesting to think about how a lot of these books were originally published as serials and that they were the sort of television of a certain time. Not all long books are created equal of course, but I have grown very fond of Tolstoy's style (or the interpreter's spin!) and so...next year as a year long reading project I'll be reading War and Peace! I'm very excited about it! There will be an official readalong announcement sometime this week, but we (the amazing Iris on Books and myself) plan on making it very manageable with having other reading interests as well. Anyway just getting that idea out there....

Basically the only other books I plan to read by year's end are Lilith by George MacDonald and The Final Martyrs by Shusaku Endo. You know you want to join in for The Final Martyrs!! If I get anything else fit in, great!! How about you? Any final reading plans for the year?

Also what are your favorite chunksters? I should keep a list so I have books to look forward to reading!

Zombiesssssss

I knew you guys (especially Jill) would join in my excitement about these upcoming zombie movies. I haven't read World War Z (yet!!) and everyone is complaining about it but what can you do? I'll still it because Brad Pitt + Zombies:

Also, the trailer for Warm Bodies has been released. I have to admit I didn't really like the book but giving it a romcom spin in the movie might work:


Will you see either of these?????

Discussion: Zom-B by Darren Shan

Yay, I am so excited to finally be discussing this!

First though, if you have not read this book I don't think you should read this post. I'm going to be posting full on spoilers and I feel like for this book to be effective it's best if you don't read spoilers ahead of time. Like I can't stress this enough and I realllly don't want the experience of this book ruined for anyone. Okay so now that we're clear on that.

Let's talk all who have read!

ALL THE SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT

A couple of years ago, Nicole and I did a podcast (no longer available, sorry) on zombies. We interviewed both Mira Grant and Jesse Petersen and it was fun to hear their different takes on zombies. We really wanted to know why zombies are so popular in culture right now and why people are drawn to them. And Mira Grant said one of the reasons she thinks zombies are popular is that they are pure monsters. Vampires have been romanticized/humanized, but zombies can be seen as a common enemy that must be killed. So you have this target upon which you can unleash all your righteous anger and you can defeat evil, yay!

I think there's some truth to that, but there's also the common themes of what zombies represent. We use the word zombie in colloquial language for various things...to refer to people unable to think for themselves, to refer to ourselves when we're over exhausted, etc. I haven't done any zombie studies (I totally would!) but the subject is interesting as is the way various authors explore these themes and ideas in their work. But...what if an author could be clever enough to tell a story about zombies and the way we are all kind of zombies, while exposing the reader's own....zombie tendencies? I think Darren Shan has done just that in Zom-B which is what makes it a delight.

Zom-B is written in such a way as to lead you to believe one thing is true, without ever explicitly stating that thing. It opens with a prologue of a zombie attack and a boy named Barry who is trying to survive. And then it launches you into the story of B, who is just trying to survive life--an abusive father with ideas are very racist. And he's not just racist, he's actively looking to make changes in society to limit the freedoms of others. This is B's main struggle you know, dealing with all the things she hears at home versus what she sort of believes to be true. She wants to make her father proud, but also seems to reject the idea of actually being a racist. And this struggle and conflict is always right at the surface.

But of course, I thought B was a boy throughout the entire book. I was genuinely surprised by the reveal at the end, and immediately wanted to talk about it. (which is why I set up this discussion day) and I love that Shan chose to subvert our assumptions in a book about zombies, in a book where B is struggling with the indoctrination she receives at home vs. what is right. Because it makes the book work on multiple levels. Of course, it is all based on assumption, on B's friendship with boys, on the fact that she's aggressive and picks fights (though how lightly she gets off for assaulting a girl makes so much more sense when you realize she is also a girl!), that she's strong enough to save that child, on the language she uses throughout the book. It never occurred to me to question the gender of B even though the book never explicitly states it until her father cries out in the end, "that's my daughter"

I also thought it was really odd how when they first hear about the zombie attack they all think it was manufactured to keep them in line! Like, I don't know if I heard about a zombie attack on the news, I'd believe it. I thought the zombies in this book were particularly grotesque, but I did like that it was a very immediate zombie environment. People had to make quick choices, they were immediately infected, etc. And of course having it break out at school was fantastic.

I'm not sure how invested I am in the overall storyline? Like the zombie conspiracy or whatever. I have to admit the way Shan played with my assumptions in this book is what made me love it so much, but I'm not sure about these ideas that B got some sort of treatment as a child or something? (I am just really clueless maybe I misunderstood that part?) I will definitely read the next book but I guess my expectations are not high.

I want to know what you thought, though!

Were you surprised B was a girl?
What do you think the story is behind the zombies?
How did you feel about the final zombie attack and B's survival?
Any other interesting things I failed to mention?

Please read Zom-B so we can Discuss on October 28th!

I love nothing more than a good zombie story and Zom-B certainly delivers that. Zombie stories, like most horror/supernatural stories tend to be about something other than zombies and often they explore the sort of mindlessness that pervades our culture. I think Zom-B does that on multiple levels but I can't really talk about it too much without spoiling a significant part of the book, which I absolutely do not want to do. It's kind of frustrating, though, because I think it's really smart and clever and I WANT to talk about it!

But I can't...yet. So I'm just going to say this. You might be tempted to give this a book a miss, but when it comes out on October 16th, I encourage you to think again and pick it up and read it. And then on...let's say October 28th, I'll post my more in-depth thoughts about Zom-B (under spoiler cover) and we can all discuss it then.

Please know this book is gruesome and all, I mean it's a zombie story, but I still want to chat about it!

Review: Blackout by Mira Grant

The Newsflesh Trilogy has been a really fun zombie trilogy for me--I enjoy the world Grant created, a world where zombies exist but society is still functional, people have to decontaminate before doing anything, and constantly take blood tests. I enjoyed the many ideas she explored in the trilogy like fear, government, truth, propaganda, science, etc. And lastly I enjoyed the main characters a fair bit, especially George. So it was with some sadness I read the last book in the trilogy. This review contains lotsa spoilers for the first two books, and even kind of spoilery for some things that happen later in book 3, proceed at your own risk.

Deadline ended with a teaser for Blackout (I think?) where we realized George had been cloned. This was an interesting new development for me because I preferred her voice to Shaun's overall and it was a kind of way to undo what had been done when George was killed in the first book, so it was like the best of both worlds. You get to keep the terrible tragic ending to Feed, but you also get to keep George + introduce some really interesting ideas about personhood and what it means to be human.

So Blackout was nice in that the chapters alternated Shaun and George's points over view. Shaun is still in thick of his grief and he's getting progressively worse...he starts to "see" George and gets to the point where he wants to finish what their team has started...outing the truth about the government and then go off to just indulge himself in pretending George isn't really gone.

And George the II is stuck in the CDC where she's been cloned and she's trying to figure out how to get out before they kill her. She's been developed as a weapon for them to use against Shaun, but her model of clone is so close to the original George, that obviously won't be effective. They have others in development that they control more easily.

This was my favorite part of the book because it's just so fascinating and also a bit creepy. The relationship between George and Shaun that was hinted at in Deadline is in full force in Blackout, and so the fact that Shaun just kind of accepts the clone of George without too much reservation creeped me out. I mean there is definitely some conflict in George the second--she's not really George but she's also not really anyone else. She has all of George's memories, etc. But the way Shaun accepts her so easily as George is just, I don't know, it's weird and creepy.

Even so, I did enjoy George's conflict about who she was and how the fact that she wasn't actually George was made apparent in certain ways...like she didn't have the same reservoir condition that George had, which made things like how George always wanted to wear her sunglasses odd because she didn't need to.

Also I think Grant did a better job of not describing every single decontamination in detail in this book and creating some actions scenes with some urgency and cost. The resolution made sense and the ending was very satisfying.

So..Shaun and George's relationship. I think I would have been more accepting of it if it had been established in Feed. I think Grant tries to cover her tracks by saying, "what siblings sleep in the same room that aren't involved?" or something to that effect, but the thing is that I totally accepted that because of their codependent relationship. And one of the things I liked so much about Feed was that George didn't have a romantic relationship in her life. I could have gone through this whole series without her ever having a romance, so I don't know, I just didn't prefer that part of the story.

But overall I really enjoyed the trilogy. Still one of my favorite zombie worlds!

My reviews of Feed, Deadline

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Profanity
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: Orbit Books

Review: The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

And then her mind crowds with other things—a noisy parade of memories that frustrate her because of the way they play themselves out. These memories—it feels like she’s back there in the moment, like she has the moment to do over and make different choices than she made. But she can’t, because they’re just memories and they’re set down permanent as if they were chiseled in marble, and so she has to just watch herself do the same things over and over, and it’s a condemnation if anything

I loved this book. Part of me just wants to leave it at that, but I'll try to explain why.

First of all, it is hands down the most beautiful zombie book I have ever read, and while that sounds strange it makes complete sense to me. The writing is gorgeous and evocative, and drenched in longing. It stands out to me for the gorgeous writing and unique circumstances. While I've read some criticism that the book is a pale shadow of other better works about a chase for justice across an apocalyptic land, I don't really care. It introduced some interesting ideas in a zombie wasteland to me.

But really I guess what makes this book stand out to me is the heroine Temple. I loved her. Temple was born after the zombies overran the land, she has never known a life other than one with zombies. She's illiterate but clever and fierce. She's small and carrying around the weight of the world on her shoulders, the desire to somehow make peace with the ghosts that haunt her. It's a huge burden she bears even as she attempts to survive. At first I was slightly put off by her rough ways, but suddenly at one point in the book, I realized I was so attached to her. There are all kinds of settlements in this apocalyptic wasteland that Temple encounters and at one, when a man tries to force himself on her, she fights him off and it results in his death which sends her on her own journey to get away from his brother who seeks justice.

Temple is a caretaker, in that she picks up a friend along the way and cares for him because he can't really look after himself. She manages to get herself out of scrapes, but is often troubled by the dark nature of what exists inside of her. She longs for beauty but is also a little bit frightened of it as well. She's haunted by the mistakes of her past. Temple meets people along the way and then they turn up again and there's always a sense of danger even while things seem relatively calm. There are zombie hunters and people who get high on zombie juice, and towns trying to rebuild, and zombies kept as pets...it's a unique assortment of situations Temple encounters.

Alden Bell like so many authors these days apparently doesn't believe in quotation marks, but I got used to it relatively quickly. The book is short and fast to read, but it's beautiful and painful as well.

Minor quibble I had with the book is that Temple sometimes stops at gas stations and Coke is still a thing that's around, but this is 25 years post-apocalypse and it's hard for me to believe packaged crackers and such would still be around. But I'm totally willing to overlook that, because it wasn't really that big of a deal.

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: profanity and sex and violence and zombies
Source of Book: bought it
Publisher: Henry Holt

Review: Deadline by Mira Grant

Last year I read and really enjoyed Feed by Mira Grant...I still think it's one of the smartest zombie worlds I've ever read about and the ideas Grant explores in her zombie-fied world are some of the more interesting to be explored. It's less about raw survival and costly moments of kindness, and more about the way fear dominates our lives, the importance of truth, the corruption of government, etc. Additionally, the dominance of bloggers in this post-rising but still very civilized world is still one of my favorite things about these books.

She continues to explore these same ideas in Deadline, but takes it to a new level. I cannot discuss Deadline without mentioning major events from Feed, so if you have not read Feed and plan to read these books please do not read any farther!

The presidential campaign that Shaun and Georgia were following is obviously over in Deadline. Shaun is still coping with George's death and not doing it very well. He still talks to her as if she's alive and in his head. His sole reason for living at this point is to discover who killed his sister and why. He's no longer on the field as an Irwin, either. His grief is a huge part and motivator of the story. When someone from the CDC shows up with information, though, things get intense fast and Shaun and his team are forced to make hard decisions about just how far they are willing to go to uncover the truth.

Grant's world is incredibly detailed and as such very believable. At times there are huge exposition dumps, for example there were three pages describing what the showers were like and occasionally that bothered me a bit, but for the most part the story still moves incredibly quickly. There are a lot of surprises as well. One thing that surprised me about this book was the nature of Shaun and George's relationship. Even though I guessed that romantic feelings between them could exist since they were adoptive siblings, I didn't feel like that was strongly indicated at all in Feed. I just thought they were very close and trusted each other more than anyone else in the world. But this story, told from Shaun's point of view, was very clear that Shaun was in love with George. Not in any way that was spoken between them or even really acknowledged by him for awhile, but it was clear that she fulfilled that role in his life. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this development.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the progression of the story. It's different from Feed, it raises the stakes of the zombie virus, and the conclusion is somewhat stunning and I'm definitely looking forward to the third book coming out next year! Also I really liked the new characters introduced, especially Dr. Abbey.

Have you read Feed and Deadline? What's your favorite zombie book? I also caught up on The Walking Dead this past weekend and it was so freaking good I kind of feel like escaping into zombie stories for awhile.

Rating: 4.25/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Some profanity, a little sex. Also zombies.
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: Orbit (Hachette)

Covers for Upcoming Zombie Sequels

Orbit has recently revealed the covers to two of their upcoming zombie books which makes me very happy.



Deadline is the sequel to Feed by Mira Grant a book I read and LOVED this year. Here's the synopsis:
"I guess in the end, it doesn’t matter what we wanted. What matters is what we chose to do with the things we had. —Georgia Mason”

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news—he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.


Can't wait for it!

Also, the third book in Jesse Petersen's Zombie Therapy series is coming out in May I believe....and I love the title and cover!

But first we'll have Flip This Zombie the second book in the series! (Read my review of Married with Zombies)

I'm still loving The Walking Dead and zombies in general though I've taken a little break to enjoy a few more enjoyable holiday themed books...I'm really looking forward to these!

Are there any forthcoming zombie books you're looking forward to?

Review: Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

The entire premise of this book is impossible to resist, a sort of guide to marriage counseling through the eyes of the zombie apocalypse.

Sarah and Dave are having marriage problems and have been attending marriage counseling. Both are somewhat ready to throw in the towel but when they arrive at counseling, they notice everyone is missing. Upon going into their counselor's office, they see her feasting on the couple that goes in before them. And, well, the zombies have arrived.

The story then follows what Sarah and Dave do as zombies begin to take over their city of Seattle. And while they are forced together in this crisis, they begin to deal with some of their marriage issues.

Each chapter starts with a little marriage tip for the zombie apocalypse such as my favorite, "Put the small stuff into perspective. It's better to be wrong and alive than right but eating brains." And the book is really funny. While I might get in a little bit of trouble for saying this, it reminds me of the best of chick lit...a strong snarky first person female voice that is instantly likable and a pleasure to read. Another one of my favorite funny bits, when Sarah has to tell her neighbor she killed her zombieified boyfriend "I shifted, throughly uncomfortable with what I'd done. Hallmark didn't exactly made a card for this situation (well they do now, but not then) so I wasn't sure what to say to her so that she'd understand I hadn't done this out of spite."

Lest you think it's all fun and games, well it's not. It is a zombie apocalypse so there are some horrifying moments and LOTS of gore. Never enough tragedy to bring the tears I so dearly love to shed during most zombie books, but not all fun and games.

A very fun way to spend the afternoon and best part? Flip This Zombie, book 2, is out in January.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Profanity, lots of it. Gore. Zombies
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
Publisher: Orbit

Review: Feed by Mira Grant

So I've kind of learned I have a thing for zombie stories. I think it's the mix of the apocalyptic sort of atmosphere and the tragedy. So much TRAGEDY in zombie stories because it's so EASY to get infected. And there might be some other deeper psychological reasons (that probably point to me being slightly nuts), but in any case, I was delighted to finally have a chance to read Mira Grant's Feed this past week.

Which was awesome! Feed takes place 25 years after the virus first broke out, so the world definitely has coping mechanisms now and zones of hazard and safety and all sorts of laws against big animals and taking like, 4 blood tests a day is completely normal. But what's really cool about this world? Bloggers are huge! The zombie outbreak was so mishandled by traditional news outlets that bloggers became the go to people for reliable information. And they've organized themselves and they have classifications and licenses and all kinds of stuff like that. Pretty awesome.

So our main character, Georgia, is a blogger, called a newsie. This means she hunts down the truth and reports facts as best she can. Georgia has an adoptive brother Shaun and these two are TIGHT, as Georgia says at one point, codependent. Not in any sick gross way, really, just that they are totally and completely comfortable with each other, they know each completely and trust each other that much, too. Shaun is the more adventurous sort (called an Irwin!)..he likes to go out in the field and taunt the zombies for amusements sake.

Georgia, Shaun, and their coblogger Buffy (yes Buffy--just how much do you love Mira Grant right now?) get invited to follow a presidential candidate's campaign. This means that they will have complete access to the candidate as he runs and also that their ratings will shoot through the roof. (they got rid of traffic as a measurement of blog popularity after the zombie apocalypse)

What this means is that Feed can be enjoyed on many levels. If you really like political thrillers it's a bit of one of those. If you love blogging, you're not going to top this. If you love close family relationships in your book, you've got that. If you like zombies...they are very present. Feed has a lot going for it.

What I loved about this book was the world building was so good! The explanation for the zombie virus made a lot of sense. The way the world recovered and moved on was fascinating. The fact that EVERYONE carries the virus in them and it activates on death is so rich with meaning I loved it. Using blogging as such a huge part of the story provided a glimpse into how a zombie's craving for flesh is a bit like our craving for information. And the fact that San Diego Comic-con got a mention was super cool because I saw Mira Grant on a zombie panel there and she was delightful and funny!

Feed is told in first person perspective. It is not in any way a romance. There are zombies. There is death. The dead rise again...but only to eat your brains. There's a lot of action and a lot of mystery. And the biggest compliment I can pay it is that when I wasn't reading it, I was wishing I was reading it.

Rating: 4.25/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Profanity. Also, zombies (and I would say a slightly unfavorable view of religious people)
Source of Book: Received for review from publisher
Publisher: Orbit

And Mira Grant is also Seanan McGuire who writes urban fantasy!

San Diego Comic-Con 2010: TV

(I'm going to attempt to recap some of my SDCC impressions by theme. Starting with TV!)

One of my favorite things about San Diego Comic-Con are the TV panels. As much as I love books, I also love story-telling in general and television is probably my second favorite form of it. I really enjoy checking out the panels for the shows coming up because it gives me a good chance to see if I'll be interested in watching them and also they tend to be MUCH less crowded. I have to admit the loss of LOST was extremely noticeable to me, but more on that later.

My first day at Comic-Con I had nothing to do with television, but my second day, Friday was almost completely devoted to it.

The first panel I went to was for the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-O. Honestly, I expected this one to not be very crowded since it's off-genre, but I had misjudged the immense popularity of the panel following it. (They don't clear rooms between panels at Comic-Con so a good rule of thumb if you really want to see a certain panel is to go to the one before it). So when I arrived at the convention center, the line was already really long, and people were tweeting about being worried about getting in! I ended up only being in line for about 30 minutes, which for SDCC is really not bad. I enjoyed the clips they showed, and I especially enjoyed all of the hot actors that will be in this show. I was happy to hear from Daniel Dae-Kim that he had liked the ending of LOST as well. (I did, too, and still hope to blog my thoughts on it before the release of the DVD set) And lucky me, I also met up with Florinda during this panel. Even luckier for me, Florinda snagged one of the Vampire Diaries bags I was coveting and gave it to me. It's absolutely gorgeous and I'll show it to you in a different post. Many thanks for Florinda!

Florinda headed off to meet her husband at this point but I stayed for The Walking Dead panel. AMC has got to be the most exciting channel producing scripted drama today. They've brought us Mad Men, Breaking Bad (which I haven't watched, but will!), and in October they are bringing us the first serialized television show about zombies. Oh the love! The Walking Dead is an extremely popular series of graphic novels from Image Comics. The creator of these comics, Robert Kirkman, has been extremely involved in the making of the show and trust me...it looks awesome! I was really hoping AMC would release the official trailer but for now you can watch this leaked version someone illegally recorded! Tell me does it not look insanely good? This might the be the post-apocalyptic TV show I've been hoping for!

You can also check out the official AMC site for The Walking Dead.

I also sat in on the panel for NBC's The Cape which is a superhero show. They showed us the pilot which was fairly entertaining. I felt certain segments of it were a little bit confusing and the plot moves incredibly quickly. Having said that, I enjoyed it enough to consider tuning in this fall and seeing where they take it. I also just really love Summer Glau.

The Cape Panel at Comic-Con

Immediately following this one was the panel for Teen Wolf. I was all kinds of interested in this panel because I remember watching these movies with Michael J. Fox when I was but a young thing and the idea that MTV was creating a scripted drama inspired by these movies was almost too much. But for better or worse, I'm a huge fan of the paranormal and while we have vampire-centric shows that also have werewolves, I can't think of any (besides maybe Being Human) that are werewolf-centric. They showed us just the very first act of the show (I bet you can guess what happens) and I do think the show is fairly early in production...they don't have a premiere date or anything. But I'm really excited about it because they're taking away the cheese factor and aiming to make a show that's edgy. One thing they've changed is the sport...it will be Lacrosse instead of basketball which is really interesting itself. I only knew one member of the cast, but I think this will be a really fun show and I'm looking forward to it. And yay for MTV dipping its toes into scripted drama!

The new Teen Wolf!

My final TV panel on Friday was for Falling Skies. Falling Skies doesn't premiere until next summer on TNT, but once again, I'm looking forward to this show! It's a Steven Spielberg produced post-apocalyptic alien invasion show. I mean that's all you need to know right? Whee! Evil aliens destroying the earth! Also it stars Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood. I was skeptical they were going to be able to show us any footage, but they did have a short trailer. Apparently, a lot of people were disappointed by it, but I thought it was pretty awesome. I mean I feel so lucky that when I was mourning the loss of LOST one of the things I wanted was a post-apocalyptic show and now I'm going to get two. Yay! Admittedly this panel was fairly low energy...the cast doesn't really have much chemistry yet and there's not much to say since no one has really seen anything but I'll definitely be anticipating it!

The Falling Skies panel with Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood

SATURDAY

On Saturday I attended three panels for shows already on the air: V, Fringe, and The Vampire Diaries

V--I have to admit I almost dumped V last season when it started to drag. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because the season finale was pretty exciting. The panel teased things to come in the second season. Part of the reason I wanted to attend this panel is my love for Elizabeth Mitchell! The other reason is my favorite television writer, Jace Lacob of Televisionary was the moderator.

The V Panel!

Fringe--I stopped watching this show halfway through the first season, but clearly I need to catch up on it, it looks like it's gotten a lot better! Also I just love Joshua Jackson! If you're wondering why I attended when I don't watch the show it's because it was right inbetween the V panel and The Vampire Diaries.



The Vampire Diaries--this panel was full of fun and energy. It's funny because last year when I attended this panel, most of the people were waiting for the Mythbusters panel and made fun of The Vampire Diaries. It was irritating for devoted fans like myself! So it was fun this year to be in the company of fans, and see a short teaser of the season premiere which looks AWESOME! I'm so excited with the direction this show is going. As a reminder, I'll be recapping it every week and inviting you to link up your recaps as well.

In Summary

Of the new shows I saw, I'd say I'm looking forward to them in this order:
The Walking Dead
Teen Wolf
Falling Skies
Hawaii Five-O
The Cape

Of the existing shows, I think they all look like they have promising seasons ahead but I'm really just excited for The Vampire Diaries.

Do any of these shows look good to you??? What shows are you most looking forward to coming back on air?