Angel Crawford is doing well: working as a morgue tech, getting her GED, and going to college. It's stressful, but a zombie drug that focuses her, works around her dyslexia, and gives her extra energy. The zombie film (from the last book) is finished and transforms the town into a fun Zombie Fest(er) with paintballing, parties, and a screening of the film. It's all fun and games until someone gets decapitated. Angel investigates herself since she finds clues on the body that could reveal zombies' existence to the whole world. Unfortunately, Angel's gone overboard with the zombie drug and it's making her act strangely, lose time, and take it more frequently. Can she solve this crime or will her addiction past be her undoing?
Angel Crawford is one of my favorite zombie protagonists and she's better than ever. She's single now and free from Marcus' controlling nature. The relationship honestly went on too long and I'm glad she had the sense to see the toxic effects. The split was amicable and they're still friends, but awkwardness and tension color their interactions. It's nice to see Angel stand by herself for a while. Angel's relationship with her father is still going strong, but her recent recreational drug use puts a bit of a bump in it. Both of them revert slightly to how they were before they reconciled and show that it's a journey to change. People make mistakes and people can go back into bad habits.
Angel has had substance abuse and addiction problems in the past, which were never really addressed. She was off of drugs only because they had no affect on her anymore. With the invention of this new zombie drug, old habits die hard. She finds herself stealing from the lab she works for at the expense of another zombie who needs it for medicine and covering her tracks by refilling those vials with saline all while rationalizing her actions to herself. Once she realizes what she's doing, she's caught and she runs. I loved the resolution to this situation and the fact that her unresolved addiction issues were finally addressed.
Besides Angel's personal drama, a pretty big threat to zombiekind rears its ugly head. Within the zombie film made in the last book, a documentary is shown with actual (which includes Angel) that make them look horrifying and evil as it takes the scenes out of context. The Zombie Mafia (as Angel calls it) is used to picking up, moving, and starting over. However, a situation like this hasn't happened in a while and the internet makes their fresh start nearly impossible, making the stakes higher than ever. It's tied to her old deadbeat boyfriend (who she is friends with now) and his degenerate friends. The resolution to this situation stretched by suspension of disbelief at times, but I liked the rest of the novel so much, it didn't bother me.
Angel's fifth adventure is satisfying throughout even with some minor flaws. I hope Diana Rowland continues this series and I can't wait to read more. This series is a nice mix of comedy, horror, and drama that I recommend.
My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins
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