Bad Taste in Boys

Kate Grable wants to be a doctor and she's getting a head start helping out at school with the world's worst football team and their various injuries. She is shocked when the coach tries to get her to inject the players with a mysterious substance that the coach claims is vitamin B12 and refuses. Steroids are horrible and she won't have anything to do with them. Some of the players are injected even without Kate and they start to act strangely: black vomit, biting other people, parts falling off. It's not pretty. No one is immune and it's spreading like wildfire. Kate must create an antidote before the whole school eats each other and before it spreads further and further until it can't be stopped.

Bad Taste in Boys is good campy fun, akin to zombie flicks like Dance of the Dead. It features a great mix of horror and humor. The zombie violence is usually more comical than frightening, but the danger is still there for the characters. The gore and zombie carnage are pretty well described and gross, which is awesome and would probably scare away the more weak stomached. The characters' nonchalance at some of the situations, like carrying the coach's severed foot around, was hilarious and a bit unrealistic, but hey, it's a comedy. It's kind of like the love child of a John Hughes movie and a zombie movie together. You can't really go wrong there.

I really liked Kate. She was nerdy and really into medicine and science without being completely socially inept or awkward. Not only did she have her own friends and loving family, she wasn't afraid to stand up for herself. She did have a stereotypical crush on a hot football player, but the romance aspect wasn't a central plot point. Her witty and odd observations made me laugh out loud more than once. My favorite aspect of the novel was that Kate did scientific experiments to beat the zombie virus instead of just trying to kill everyone who had the disease. Kate was a much more cerebral hero than usually seen in zombie novels and it was nice to read about more than just hacking and smashing through zombified friends, family, and classmates (although there was some of that too). She was a great example of a strong female character with brains, nerve, and strength.

I really enjoyed Bad Taste in Boys, but I really hate the cover. It's just weird, off-putting, and not indicative of the story at all. It looks like sugar/salt covered duck lips. Anyway, I would definitely read the next book in the series. I just hope that every book isn't going to have some weird disease outbreak because it would stretch the limits of my ability to suspend my disbelief.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins