Review: Flip This Zombie by Jesse Petersen

Title: Flip This Zombie
Author: Jesse Petersen
Series: Living with the Dead #2
Pages: 272
Publisher: Orbit Books
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie
Source: Bought from Borders *sobs*

Goodreads Description:
The Zombie Apocalypse has been good to Sarah and David. Their marriage is better than ever. They communicate well, share responsibilities, and now, they're starting a business. ZombieBusters-for all your zombie extermination needs.There are lots of zombies and that means lots of customers...Except one of them doesn't want the zombies dead, he wants them alive and ready for experimentation. Mad scientists make for difficult clients and this time, Sarah and David might have bitten off more than they can chew.

My Review:
Dave and Sarah are back and this time, they have pretty much forgotten all of their marriage trouble from their lives before the zombie apocalypse. They are now certified bad asses who specialize in kicking zombie butt. They travel around what used to be the US, going from survivor camp to survivor camp to help out those who can't fight the zombies for themselves. They are also pretty much happily in love. So now you know what it takes to fix a marriage on the rocks...the end of the world and the death of half of the population of America. They've grown and developed into zombie killing Barbie and Ken...complete with all the accessories that come with the position. Machetes, hand guns, rifles...awesomesauce :)

One of the things I liked best was how Sarah would go into detail about how she and Dave would try out things from the movies. It was hilarious how some of these experiences would turn out. There was an epic Jackie Chan type moment that had me wanting to go make a ninja zombie movie...and then, you know how in every supernatural movie, the heroine has that one pose where she's got one leg jutting sexily out to the side, all while somehow showing off both her ass and boobies? Yeah, Sarah finds out that that move doesn't quite work in real life...the same thing with the skin tight, black leather ensemble. It's funny to watch the couple bumbling through the world the same way that any of us would be doing. I have definitely seen my fair share of zombie movies, so I feel like I would be pretty prepared...but Sarah and Dave make you think of the things that slip your mind when preparing for the apocalypse...like the loss of bathing facilities....bleh...There are so many pop culture references in this book that any fan of zombie/horror/action movies will love to find the hidden comments and jokes.

I loved the first book in the series Married with Zombies, not so much because it was super original or that it added some spectacular new element to the Zombie genre, but because it was just straight up hilarious.The situational humor and simply the way that Petersen words her biting wit and sarcasm really made the book what it was. I'm glad to say that book number two definitely delivers the same dose of awesome that I have come to expect. The introduction of Kevin and the Kid was really cool...Jesse Petersen really knows how to make a character come off explosive and awesome from the getgo. Take Kevin for example...he's this wimpy scientist type, but has somehow rigged it so he has the most explosives, weapons, etc in the area and basically can control whether or not Sarah and Dave live or die. His pathetic attempts at flirting with Sarah were so awkward I was practically twisting and turning in my seat. It's like those super awkward first dates you witness at the coffee shop. (For those of you who don't know, I spend quite a bit of my free time either reading or blogging in the shop down the street from my house...I get to see a LOT of awkward first dates) Kevin's flirting was a cross between high schoolers going out on a first date and not knowing how to speak to a member of the opposite sex, and those super awkward dates spawned by the internet...the "You don't look like THAT in your profile picture!" dates :)

Though still pretty hilarious at parts, Flip This Zombie has a lot less humor and a lot more blood, guts, and angst for the survival of the human race. As the slapstick comedy leaves, there is a lot more room for interesting plot developments. I'm not gunna lie, the plot of this book was pretty sweet. It still wasn't super original (you find mad scientists in almost every incarnation of the Zombie genre) it was really cool. The lab was just a fun place to hang out and see the characters interact with each other and their environment. The zombie gerbil/hamster things were freaking sweet and I enjoyed myself immensely during that section of the book. Now if only I could find a zombie hamster to go terrorize my roommate...the girl left her dirty underpants in the middle of the floor today! Seriously...she probably wouldn't even notice if a hamster got into her clothes, the dirty little pig...lol

I give Flip This Zombie 4 out of 5 Keys! It was a great addition to the series. It was really easy to get lost in the book...I sat down to read a few chapters, then the next thing I know I had been sitting there for hours and the library was kicking me out. The Kid was a great character...I loved that here was this violent, wild, foul-mouthed brat who acts like he owns the world...which I guess you could say that he does...he's survived this long into the zombie apocalypse after all... I also liked the ending a lot. It was a minor cliff hanger, but not too bad. It basically just makes you wanna get your hands on the next book as soon as humanly possible.