You Are So Undead to Me

Megan Berry is just an average, normal teenager, except for the fact that she is a zombie settler. Normal zombies are not the Night of the Living Dead, flesh eating variety. They are merely dead kids with unresolved issues who then go to settlers to get those issues of their chest and to be laid to rest. Megan just wants to be a normal teenager who goes on dates not interrupted by the undead and join the pom squad at school. However, someone else has other plans for her. Zombies of the flesh eating variety are only raised by black magic and are called reanimated corpses. When these creatures start attacking people around Megan, she has to find out who is doing and stop them before someone dies. Is it Monica, the vindictive popular girl who has it in for Megan? Or someone else entirely? And will Megan's social life stay intact through it all?

Stacey Jay has created a fresh, new take on zombies that I have never seen before. It's such an over-flooded genre right now, so this is like a breath of fresh air for me. The secret society of settlers was intriguing and also ominous at times. The story was a great mix of suspense, horror, romance, action, and mystery punctuated with moments of humor. The book was similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that there is a girl who has a supernatural calling and tries to balance that job and her normal life. However, the narrative still held its own as a unique story by the strength and individuality of Megan.

I related to Megan, the narrator and main character. She was a teenager with crushes on boys and freakouts about what people at school will think about her. It's expected, but it didn't overpower the novel (which would have been annoying). There were no temper tantrums or super dramatic teen angst. She was very sensible and intelligent. She had depth and a traumatic past involving reanimated corpses. She also knew when to let go of the superficial in order to save people when the situation became really dangerous. She had depth and a traumatic past involving reanimated corpses. I was also enamored and intrigued with the ever changing relationship between Megan and Ethan. I could completely understand her confusion with his behavior and his feelings for her. I was completely emotionally invested in these characters.

You Are So Undead to Me was a great read. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out the mystery before Megan, but ended up being totally blindsided. Stacey Jay's writing flowed well and really sucked me in. If you like supernatural fiction, this book is the one for you. I'm really looking forward to the sequel, Undead Much that comes out next month.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins