Diana Rowland (1) (1966–)

Crawl on me. Sink into me. Die for me. Living dead girl.

First of all, this cover is great. But the content inside is kinda… prosaic? It’s a simple read. There’s nothing flowery or striking about the prose. It’s just pretty much a straight urban fantasy with not a whole lot of plot or high stakes. There’s no build-up to something. It’s more slice of life. Writing for the masses. For entertainment.

The concept is really really close to iZombie, even though this came years before that. They’re both undead people (but not quite undead, they just have 10 bpm heart rates), both eat brains (as opposed to flesh), both work in a morgue, both eat the brains they get from the morgue, both help the cops solve murders, if you don’t eat brains quick enough you become the rotting mindless kind of zombie, both have an underground zombie society/black market. I wonder if Rob Thomas gleaned more from this than from the comic book of the same name.

My problem is the white trash part of her life and the zombie part of her life never mix together to create a synergistic plot. There are scenes dedicated to her alcoholic father, run-down house, drug habit, etc. And there are scenes where she’s working as a morgue technician. And the two never see each other. It’s like two separate stories are going on just to justify the title/hook. Zombie-ness/undeadness doesn’t factor into her life. She hides it too well and it’s never an obstacle. So I enjoyed this for what it is, but I’m not interested enough to read the sequels.… (meer)

Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues
White Trash Zombie, Book 2

I Picked Up This Book Because: #Scarathlon / continue the series.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Dates Read: 10/21/23 - 10/23/23
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Allison McLemore

The Characters:

Angel Crawford
Marcus, Ed

The Story:

I kind of adore Angel and this series. The way Angel stands her ground and is determined to get her life together is inspiring. The Mystery in this one is captivating. The resolution is a bit convoluted but it’s a zombie book, who is looking for facts?

The Random Thoughts:… (meer)

Nope, I am done with this shit.
I dropped the book at a bit over 50%.
The MC is so incredibly stupid constantly, I don't even want to try counting.
The whole drug relapse was frustrating but totally in character and believable. That's just how it is.
But it doesn't stop there. She just makes one stupid decision after another basically every time she can make any decision at all. It's infuriating to read and doesn't fit the character I have gotten to know in the series so far. It's probably all just an incredibly contrived setup because the author couldn't come up with a better one for the climax she wanted.

This is no worthy continuation of the series.… (meer)

If I had to describe the series with one word it would be "shallow".
The writing is fine, the pacing is fine.
The magic, while being rather vague, was mostly fine in the first book.
Later on, the author generously adjusts the rules at her convenience.

The MC is a pushover. I complain about MCs being pushovers frequently but this is on a whole other level. This gurl needs serious therapy.
And there is no character development. No deeper insight into anything really, neither for the reader nor the MC herself.
This isn't much of a problem for just the first book, hence the 3-star rating, but it stays that way at least up to and including the fourth book and I don't see it changing later on either.

Some things that particularly bugged me:
The MC continues to lust after every hot guy she encounters even though she is stuck in a weird semi-love-triangle from the beginning. It's not nearly as obnoxious as in some other romance but it still irritated me that it was explicitly mentioned every time she encountered one.

This love triangle is utter bs but explaining that requires a spoiler.
"Ryan, I am attracted to you and I like your personality. I want to get to know you better and I want a romantic relationship with you. Oh, and btw, while we figure this out I will continue fucking this other unearthly hot guy the entire time. Cool with you?" like... WTF? How is everyone just ok with this? Yea, Ryan is pissed about her fucking that guy but not because of himself!

I have to mention the disgusting clichée of appearance. If someone is ugly or has bad hygiene you can bet it's a bad guy.
And the MC constantly judges the clothing and appearance of every other woman she encounters. It's always prefixed with something like "I don't know a lot about fashion, BUT..." but every pretty female is being judged and dismissed and on top of that, they all obviously had cosmetic surgery without exception. It's absurd really.… (meer)