I, Zombie by Jo Michaels on 2014-01-07
Genres: Fiction, Horror, Young Adult
Pages: 262
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It's the end of the world as we know it. Trixie Collins is a normal teen making her way through high school. One night at a party, a boy comes on to her and won't take no for an answer. As she jerks her arm away, his fingernails cut into her skin. When she finds her dog's mutilated body and realizes she's to blame, she starts to think maybe the zombie apocalypse they've been screaming about on the news isn't a hoax after all. Worse, she begins to think maybe she's one of the infected. Now it's a fight for life as she joins together with her brethren to stop the humans intent on destroying them. Are zombies all bad, or is it just a huge misunderstanding?
What an enjoyable read. I sat down this morning thinking to give this a few chapters before I started on my list of things to do today. Before I knew it, I’d finished the book.
First of all, let me say that YA is not a genre I’ve ever found myself enjoying. The relationships always feel too committed to me, like they can’t live without one another nor do they know how to become their own person. It’s usually why I steer clear of YA. With that said, obviously this book fit differently for me. For one, I finished it in one sitting which means it held my interests. The story moved at a quick pace that didn’t allow me to grow bored and look for something else to do. Nicely done, Ms. Michaels. Two, is that the characters were very separate in their identities. Sure, there were close relationships, but the main character was a strong girl on her own. She didn’t need them to survive. I enjoyed that very much. She wasn’t all dependent on the male lead. Refreshing.
Second of all, since I don’t read zombie books, I don’t know if the view point of this novel was original. It struck me as original, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from the zombie point of view. The effects of zombieness were very creatively described.
The writing was clean and smooth and pulled me right into the story. There’s hardly any description which is a bonus for me since I usually skim over excessively descriptive passages.
While I didn’t latch on to any one character, I did tear up which surprised me. I guess I was more invested than I thought I was when reading. Or it could have been how well those sad scenes were written. Not sure, but, either way, it pulled at my heart.
I’d recommend this to any lover of YA and zombie books.
About Jo Michaels
Hi, I’m Jo. Let’s forget all the “Jo Michaels is blah, blah, blah” stuff and just go with it. I’m a voracious reader (often reading more than one book at a time), a writer, a book reviewer, a mom, a wife, and one of the EICs at INDIE Books Gone Wild. I have an almost photographic memory and tend to make people cringe at the number of details I can recall about them and/or their book(s). My imagination follows me around like a conjoined twin and causes me to space out pretty often or laugh out loud randomly in completely inappropriate situations.
I have a degree in graphic design, and my journey to the end was one few students who begin that program ever complete. However, this was one case where my memory and OCD tendencies helped me. Graduation was one of the most amazing days of my life. But, my most amazing day was when my now husband proposed. Every little girl dreams of being Cinderella someday, and he pulled off the proposal of fantasies.
At the risk of sounding cliche, I’m going to let it out there and say how much I absolutely adore the man I’m married to. Along with my children, he’s my whole world.
I’ve lived in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, but I’ve had my feet in almost every state. Traveling is something I adore, and have plans to someday see the Mongolia I’ve written about in Yassa.
One of my favorite things is hearing from fans! You can find me on social media most any day of the week. Connect! I’d love to hear from you.
