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    Zombie Blondes
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    Zombie Blondes
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    Zombie Blondes
    Ebook225 pages3 hours

    Zombie Blondes

    By Brian James

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    They're beautiful. They're popular. They're dead. . . .

    From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong. A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah's first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders -- the most popular girls in school.

    The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.

    But Hannah wants desperately to fit in -- regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: If she doesn't watch her back, she's going to be blonde and popular and dead -- just like all the other zombies in this town. . . .

    "This foray into the world of the living dead is suspenseful and downright terrifying, with an ending right out of a classic film." -- Kirkus Reviews

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJun 24, 2008
    ISBN9781429990127
    Unavailable
    Zombie Blondes
    Author

    Brian James

    Brian James is the author of several highly praised books for young adults, including Pure Sunshine; Tomorrow, Maybe; Dirty Liar, Zombie Blondes; and The Heights. He lives in Upstate New York.

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    Reviews for Zombie Blondes

    3/5

    90 ratings17 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Poor Lukas. I like him.

      Pretty good zombie book. I couldn't put it down.
    • 3/5
      Stepford cheerleaders meet Revenge of the Zombies. Hannah and her father are always on the move and for once she wishes they would settle down. Being the new kid at school doesn't get off to a great start. Only one lonely boy Lukas befriends her and he warns her away from the impossibly, perfectly beautiful, popular lookalike cheerleaders. But Hannah yearns to belong and have friends and despite a disastrous tryout, she ends up on the squad. It's not long before she realizes Lukas was right. I didn't find this story particularly scary or suspenseful; it lacked tension and the inconclusive ending was anticlimactic. Still, young readers developing a taste for horror and science fiction could do far worse than this.
    • 2/5
      Come on! What is up with YA authors wimping out on the true strength of Zombies? What has happened to the good old zombies needing to feed? The constant craving they have to devour human flesh? The fact that zombies are supposed to be the risen dead?!! The cover should have been my first warning that this book was not going to go the logical and traditional route of zombies. Don't get me wrong, I think the cover is brilliantly done and definitely drew me in, but what you see on the cover is the exact way the zombies look. No rotting flesh, no dirt and blood covered skin. Just pretty, blond girls.So, I get that the author is trying to say something about society's need to follow the leader, especially in high school, but it just seemed over done. What non-popular kid in high school hasn't thought of or joked about the popular kids being zombies, or clones of each other? There was potential with the story, but James couldn't pull it off. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he has no idea how teenage girls think.Hannah starts fairly likable. She's obviously had a rough time constantly moving around the country with her father, and she's like most teens, wanting to fit in, to be popular. That is where I see the similarities ending. Hannah is obsessed, which could have been humorous, if the novel had been going in that direction, and if Hannah hadn't been such a self-absorbed, selfish, and downright rude character. Despite being constantly snubbed by the popular blond girls (zombies) she keeps going back for more, complaining about not having friends, then being a complete b***h to the few students who do try to befriend her. She was stupid and frankly I wish she had died at the end (sorry for the spoiler, but I'm just to angry to not put it in!).I'm going to skip all of the abusive friendship and romantic relationship stuff because I would simply rant about it forever. The plot is left with huge dangling threads. There's an almost constant reminder (every single chapter mentions it at least once) that her father was once a police officer, but is now on the run, and yet at the end nothing. We never find out what he did. There's no closure to this story, just a big cop out by James, maybe he was hoping for a series. I sincerely hope not.The actual writing style has its downfalls as well. James has a habit of dropping the subjects of his sentences. This can work occasionally. Occasionally. Here are some examples I randomly pulled:(p40) We take a few steps over the grass together before Diana tells me she's got to go the other way. Says good-bye but doesn't walk away.(p58) He adjusts the tape that wraps around the remote to hold in the batteries. Taps it gently against the palm of his hand...(p.82) I snatch my backpack up off the ground. Start to stomp up the driveway toward our dilapidated brown house with...There's just so many I wonder if an editor even read through it. What scares me the most is that one of my 3rd grade students just read one of his children's books and I'd hate for her to think he utilized the same style and she though it was an example of good writing.As sad as I am to say this. Skip it.
    • 3/5
      In a way, Hannah faces realistic problems. Moving out of places, no friends, trying to fit in, and wanting to be popular. However, being plotted to be killed by a town full of zombies is not. I think the meaning of that is about people wanting to change you and blend in, but in the plot that is not the case.One of the two themes in this book is friendship, and and growing up. Hannah is in her teens and has to move from time to time. She has no friends, and does not fit in. Most teenagers a faces a problem like this, so I think they can relate to that.Hannah meets a boy named Lucas, which she sometimes considers her friend. He warns Hannah about the popular girls, but she d'oesnt trust him, leading them both to dangerous situations. Most people in their lives has had argues, and situations where they do not trust their friends. I think this theme in this book depicts that you should trust your friends and be yourself.
    • 4/5
      Zombie Blondes builds the suspense with glee. Although I knew that inevitably these cheerleaders had to be zombies, I wondered how long it would take Hannah to come to this realization. Furthermore, how she would deal with this upon finding out. A town ruled by zombie cheerleaders and football players does not seem like an easy problem to fix, especially when the entire town has either ran away or dead. What makes it even creepier is not knowing who else (beyond the cheerleaders and football team) were zombies. Like Hannah, I did not know who to trust. Were those blue eyes simply blue - or were they zombie-blue?I would have liked more explanation about how the zombie-making process works. It seemed like a complicated mess of initiation to fully-zombiefied. Why blue eyes? Why blonde? Apparently these zombies appeared pretty normal, maybe scarily perfect All-American, butnormal nonetheless. If the small town became depleted of "fresh meat", would that mean some branching out into other towns for food? Most likely yes, but who knows.Hannah was a rather interesting character, never really making up her mind until it was nearly too late. Denial is a pretty strong force of nature, and I am sure that if I were in her shoes, I probably would ignore the loner boy crying zombie.The ending - partly predictable, but partly not. I am not entirely sure what to make of it, but if I had to bet some money on anything, I would say that Hannah may have won the battle, but zombies will win the war!
    • 4/5
      Have you ever imagined a blondie's true identity? A zombie blonde. The protagonist of this book tries to fit in this new school. She yearns to mingle with the popular group of blondies. But a friend who seems to be a weirdo warns her not to...that being herself is better than being them. The protagonist goes through dangers and realizations and with the help of her friend, would both of them make it alive until the end?
    • 2/5
      Hannah and her father have just arrived in a new town; it's a new start. Hannah is used to new towns and new starts, she has had to experience both numerous times, but she still does not like it.On first impressions Maplecrest is just like any other small town you find anywhere, the same sparse shops in the main street, the same popular kids you find at every school. Hannah is sure she has this town figured out and, if she plays it right, this time she just may be in with the popular group.However not all is as it seems, there are strange stories and warnings from Lukas, a nice but odd boy who developed a crush on Hannah, and then there is Diana, a wannabe that is interested in Hannah only if she succeeds in being popular. But will Hannah forget them both in her bid to become popular? and is it worth being popular if you wont live to enjoy it?This is your typical story of adolescence with your everyday trials of acceptance and identity. The familiar story of the new kid at school is used to highlight the themes of friendship and belonging; and zombies... As a young adult book about adolescent themes it falls a little short. As a fictional book about zombies it doesn't quite make it for me.
    • 4/5
      I bought this book because I needed a book that started with Z for my A to Z Challenge. This was the first one I ran across and actually, I enjoyed it.Hannah’s dad has had trouble ever since he turned in some dirty cops. Now he and Hannah move around every 1 to 6 months to stay away from bill collectors and harassment for his past.Their newest town? Maplecrest. It seems like a ghost town driving in. Houses are For Sale everywhere.Hannah makes a new friend at school, but he’s not the most desirable. He’s a bit of a freak, to put it nicely. And within the first day, Lukas is warning Hannah of the “it girls”.They are the popular girls. They are the cheerleaders. They are beautiful. Super skinny. Electric blue eyes. Ghost white skin. And all of their names start with M.Hannah would do anything to be one of the popular girls, but as her dream starts to come true, she realizes it may be more of a nightmare.The title pretty much gives the point of the story away, but that didn’t ruin the book for me.It was very well written and quite the page turner. And although the plot is obviously not realistic, I imagine most teenage girls could relate. High school is all about popularity and to be popular, there aren’t many boundaries.One thing that I didn’t like about this book – even though it was a pretty big part – was all the girls names start with M. I understand the concept, but throughout the book, I never knew who anyone was. I know Morgan is the mean one. Meredith is the nice one and Maggie is the leader, but it took me until the end of the book to figure it out.I’m very much a “series book” kind of girl. I liked the ending of this book because it left it open for a series if James would ever want to write one. And he left it with a lot to work with.I enjoyed this book and although I’ve heard it hasn’t gotten many good reviews, I’m going to give it 4 bookmarks.
    • 4/5
      Title: Zombie Blondes Author: Brian James Publisher: Feiwel & Friends Number Of Pages: 232 Summary From Jacket Flap: From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town , she felt there was something wrong. A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet, and then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders- the most popular girls in school. The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in their appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale. But Hannah wants desperately to fit in- regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: if she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead- just like all the other zombies in this town… Review: I got this book at the library because of the title. I hadn’t even read the summary. It turned out to be very good. My problem with it though is that Hannah’s love interest in the story fell in love with her when he was walking her home and they suddenly just kissed like they had been dating for a while even though they had just met. The book ended on a bad note and I wonder if Brian James is writing a second book because I would really like to know what happens next. I recommend this book if you like zombies, young adult novels, and blondes that are beautiful.
    • 3/5
      Hannah and her dad have moved around a lot. Her dad was a cop then lost his job badly, now he goes from town to town looking for work, taking Hannah with him. She's 15 and doesn't like the next new town. Everyone acts like zombies and worship the blond shiny eyed high school cheerleaders and the football games. And there is something wrong with them. A nice twist to the YA zombie story, more a drama about the agonies of trying to belong to a clique in high school, with the undead being the equivalent of the "popular group". Hannah has one sensible friend in the strange town, who constantly warns her about them, yet she still has that desire to belong to something bigger than herself; the popular clique. A lot of forewarning and quirky moments that push the story and the reader along, kind of like a Twilight Zone episode. Yeah, you know they are zombies already, but as you inch along with Hannah you wonder when she will come to realize it. So it's not a blood n guts mayhem zombie story, but peaks well enough. A fast and fairly entertaining read.
    • 2/5
      This one was *such* a disappointment. Flat characters and mediocre writing. The premise was great and I had very high hopes for it. I should have known better because my favorite blogger/reviewer didn't love it either and I always agree with her. Should have skipped this one!
    • 3/5
      Hannah is the new kid in her school. She's pretty much always the new kid in her school, because her dad is on the run from bill collectors and unemployment so they move pretty frequently. Hannah always wants to fit in, but usually she just makes a few friends on the fringes of popularity before she has to move again. This time the first person to make friends with her is Lukas - but it turns out he might be crazy. He keeps warning Hannah that the other kids in the schools are all zombies, drinking the blood of the people in town who go missing. Hannah does not believe Lukas, but she does admit that a lot of weird things happen in town. When the cheerleaders invite her onto the squad, she nearly forgets Lukas and all of his warnings as she becomes part of the popular crowd. Worried that she will be turned into a zombie, Lukas makes one last-ditch effort to save her.
    • 3/5
      I liked the concept of this book, but the actual writing kind of turned me off. There's just something about James' style that doesn't sit well with me... especially how he'll have dialogue, then summarize more dialogue (he then told me about...), and then go back into dialogue. Not sure if you follow what I mean by that, but it drove me crazy. The main character was too stupid to relate to. She consistently thought of nothing but popularity and getting a spot on the cheerleading squad, even when the girls were horrible to her, and was constantly able to brush off all the warning signs that something wasn't right.... until they were actually making her into a zombie. I say she deserves it, ha ha.
    • 4/5
      Hannah and her father are always one step ahead of the bill collectors, moving from town to town. At every school, she tries to fit in but is usually the odd man out even though she is pretty and smart. When they hit their new town, she is determined to be popular, no matter what the cost. Despite the weirdness of her new school and schoolmates, she ignores all the warnings and warning signs and tries out for cheerleader. Will she survive???I like this book way more than I thought I would. I really got caught up in Hannah's desire to fit in. In her case it is not just superficial, she is so rootless that I could understand the need in her. The pace is good and Hannah is very believable.
    • 2/5
      It was short and easy to read. That's about the best thing I can say about this book. On the very last page, the publisher has an ad that says "Our books are friends for life." Not so much this one. It's more like a short-lived crush that you regret almost as soon as it begins.And, the ending is crappy. Completely crappy.
    • 2/5
      When fifteen-year-old Hannah moves to a new school, her fears about making new friends are validated when she discovers that the cheerleading squad is comprised entirely of zombies. Forced to battle the undead in order avoid becoming one of them, Hannah defends her right to stay unpopular.
    • 3/5
      Interesting concept, though it was both a bit over the top and flat, if that makes sense. Hannah is not a very complex character, and, though I *know* it's a 'zombie novel', I thought that some of the devices he employs to put Hannah in the situations necessary for the story to move forward implausible. And though I thought the ending fit the story, it was waaaaaaay too abrupt (especially as he devoted so much time to *everything* else). Felt as though he suddenly got tired of the story, so he simply quit writing...