Review: Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

Title: Marrried with Zombies
Author: Jesse Petersen
Series: Living With The Dead #1
Pages: 259
Genre: Zombie/ Post-Apocalypse
Publisher: Orbit Books
Source: Bought (Borders) 

Goodreads Description:
Meet Sarah and David.Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they're on the verge of divorce and going to couples' counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things - the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client's throat. Now, Sarah and David are fighting for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. But, just because there are zombies, doesn't mean your other problems go away. If the zombies don't eat their brains, they might just kill each other.

My Review:
Holy Awesome. I seriously can't remember the last time I laughed that hard at death and cannibalism. Ever. I've read quite a few zombie books...to the point where I studied them for most of an entire semester. For the most part, they are a bleak and desolate reflection of consumerist society, or just the greed and arrogance of humanity. There's always a sense of desperation and terror underlined by this ever present beacon of hope for the human race. That was SO not this book. The imagery of children devouring cops, and grandma zombie biting off grandpa's face was paired with these witty and sarcastic remarks about life in general that had me literally laughing out loud (much to the disdain of my roommates who were watching a rather sad episode of Grey's Anatomy)  This book was a definite satire that revolved not so much around the zombie apocalypse...but rather the even more impossible challenge that is...dun dun dun....couple's therapy...My favorite parts were the advice quotes at the beginning of each chapter which mixed cliched relationship advice with helpful hints of how to deal with the apocalypse.

"Make requests, not demands: Please kill that zombie, honey, I'm out of bullets."

It was less of a terrifying account of THE Zombie Apocalypse and more of a Romantic Zombedy about poor Sarah and Dave. A couple who reconnect and reaffirm their decision to stay together through the good times and the dead,  through infection and health, sub-machine guns or bare handed, as long as they both shall live...or un-live as it may very well come to. I found myself cracking up way more than crying in fear, though there were some extremely tense and scary moments involved as well. I really liked that there was a humorous edge throughout to take away some of the tension of what was going on in a dying world. For example. Sarah has to kill a zombie in her bathroom...as she is bashing his head in with the toilet seat, she can't seem to restrain herself from saying. "And THAT'S why we put the F*****G toilet seat DOWN David..." and things like that. The comments just come out of nowhere and catch you off guard. It was nice to see how the couple grew closer by using a combination of marriage advice and bonding over killing undead friends and neighbors.

"Find creative ways to have fun together. Looting is really underrated."

With all the good that Married to Zombies brought to the table, I do feel like I have to mention some of the things that brought my rating down. I liked it so much! But there were quite a few things that bugged me as I was going through, so despite having very good feelings towards the book I can't justify a really high rating. Sarah and David's dialogue is rather childish and forced at times. I understand that sometimes married couples really can act and talk like children, but it was less of the actual words that I disliked and more of how short and choppy the conversations were that made me hate on them. I found myself thinking out ways they could have phrased a sentence better, or a different word that could have been used and it was pretty distracting at times. Also, sometimes my wealth of zombie knowledge goes against me. There wasn't very much originality in the plot of Married with Zombies. Virtually every event that took place in the book has taken place in some way in either a previous zombie book or zombie movie, so I wasn't as enthralled with the action as I could have been.

"Put the small stuff in perspective. It's better to be wrong and alive than right and eating brains."

1/2

I give this book 3 1/2 Keys out of 5. The dialogue and originality just weren't there for me. However, unlike most of the 3 level ratings that come my way,  I will most definitely be getting the sequel to this book, Flip this Zombie. Sometimes life is dark and desolate enough without your reading material reflecting that. Jesse Petersen writes fantastic, hilarious, quick, light zombie books that leave you feeling cheery and happy...as weird as that sounds. Plus, I seriously can't get over how awesome all of the relationship advice was. It was SO great. I'm laughing right now just thinking about it...fabulous.