Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues

Angel Crawford has finally gotten her life together. She used to be addicted to prescription drugs, go out with the wrong guys, get mixed up with the wrong crowd, and even bought a stolen car, which she is still on parole for. After becoming a zombie, everything changed. No more drugs, no more bad boyfriends, and she finally has a steady job that she enjoys and that also supplies her with the brains she needs to eat. The trouble comes in when someone steals a body from her at gunpoint and no one believes her due to her criminal past. So, she takes it upon herself to investigate the mystery and finds a plot involving synthetic brains, zombie mobsters, and more zombie hunters. Let's hope she can solve the mystery and prove that she has reformed without dying for good.

The white trash zombie is back! Angel Crawford is my favorite sassy and foul mouthed zombie and I've been waiting for this book for a year. The wait was well worth it as this book was just a teensy bit better than the first book. Although she isn't very well educated (what with not graduating high school), Angel is very smart, resourceful, and observant. She puts many of the more formally educated people around her to shame although they constantly underestimate her and her abilities. While the first book was Angel just getting used to being a zombie, this book is her getting used to her new life, being successful and becoming confident and self assured. She even works on cultivating a real relationship with her dad, which was really sweet. Her relationship with Marcus becomes strained when he acts like an idiot. The way she acted was so refreshing. She wasn't meek and didn't back down when she knew she was right nor was she shy about letting Marcus know how he let her down. It's nice to finally see a woman not afraid to be herself and hold her own. I also love her narrative and hilarious observations.

Besides Angel, my other favorite thing about this book is getting to know the technical aspects behind the zombies. Usually, zombie books explain it right up front, but it makes sense that just because you are a zombie doesn't mean you know if it's caused by a virus or a tumor or radiation or whatever. This particular brand of zombie is caused by a parasite that keeps the body healthy when well fed to prolong both its life and the host's life. When not fed properly, the parasite allows the host to rot to prolong its own life as long as possible. This makes total sense. If it were a virus, the virus doesn't care about letting the host live and that's why it is used most often for the more traditional rotting, nonsentient type of zombies. I really like the science and sound reasoning for the zombie catalyst.

Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues is a great, funny, gory zombie book with crazy stuff like zombie mob bosses, wild twists and turns, and, of course, Angel Crawford. I would highly recommend this series to people that like a dose of humor with their zombies and aren't afraid of a few curse words. I eagerly await the next book!

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins