Review: Eat. Slay. Love by Jesse Petersen

Title: Eat. Slay. Love
Author: Jesse Petersen
Series: Living With The Dead #3
Pages: 272
Publisher: Simon &Schuster
Genre: Post-Apocalypse/Zombie
Source: Library

Goodreads Description:
Sarah and David have survived the zombie apocalypse. They stood side by side and fought the undead, mad scientists, and even bionic monsters until the unthinkable happened. A zombie bite. But not even that could stop them. Now, with a possible cure in hand, they're headed east, looking for a safe zone behind the rumored "Wall." They're feeling pretty optimistic, even when faced with a catty ex-gossip columnist. That is until Dave stops sleeping and breathing... and starts lifting huge objects.
My Review:
After the almost heart-breaking ending of the last book, I was so excited to get started with this one. This series has been such a roller coaster ride...first with hilarity then darkness then horror...all mixed in with love and affection of a couple that has seen each other through the very worst and very best of their lives. I have loved seeing Dave and Sarah change as a couple and as individuals during their journey first from Seattle to the desert, then from the desert to the Midwest Wall.

The first book was straight up hilarious, but each succeeding book gets darker and deals with more serious issues than just superficial couple problems like leaving the toilet seat up and who should cook dinner that night. They've gone from bickering over small things to struggling to deal with their intense love and affection during the zombie apocalypse, battling bionic zombies, and dealing with a military cover-up operation. However, the apocalypse has been going on for months now and it seems like the horde is never ending. I love that you get a look at how survivors deal with the zombie for months. Usually zombie books are about the beginning of an outbreak, or are set so far after an outbreak that people have just always dealt with zombies. This book shows how simply surviving can be exhausting as people become accustomed to the idea that they might be...well...Living with the Dead...for the foreseeable future.

I am in total gushy-couple love with Sarah and Dave. They are just so...good together...it's like that couple in high school that you wanted to hate because they were so happy while everyone else was going bat-shit crazy, but they were just so cute that you loved them instead...Here's my favorite couple-y quote from the book.

Our eyes met and despite the fact that we'd been sniping at each other five seconds earlier, the connection between us was stronger than ever. He just got me. He got my autopilot reaction of going bitchcakes when I got scared, because he knew it was the only way I could function without falling apart. And I got him, too. Every brave, fantastic, awesome inch of him. Even if he was a zombie, he was still my Dave. 

Now that last sentence is a bit misleading and spoilery. If you have read the last book, you know that Dave got bitten in the end and received a type of cure. In this book you get to see the repercussions of that cure and the suspicions and issues that follow. There are a lot of scary and suspenseful moments and your heart breaks about 4 times for certain star crossed lover moments.

The military segments were freaking scary and awesome. The government has contained the breakout of the zombie plague at a wall across the middle of America, now called the Midwest Wall. In an enormous cover-up, all of the people living on the Eastern side of the wall think that there are no survivors. The government doesn't want to risk taking survivors over the wall so that the plague doesn't spread, however...they are keeping the rest of the population in the dark, and killing those survivors who are attempting to get over the wall to safety. They do take interest when they overhear that the survivors have discovered a cure. They end up kidnapping Dave, sure to start running experiments and horrible tests on him...Well, not if Sarah has anything to do with it. She was such a freaking bad ass when she went in to try and rescue Dave. You get to see how very much she has changed on her journey and how strong she has really become.

I give Eat. Slay. Love. 4 out of 5 keys. I think what sets this series apart from all of the other zombie books out there is the humor and dialogue. There are so many one liners and inside jokes that you find yourself laughing on every other page, even despite the darker and more violent themes that are brought up in the later books. There's always something scathing and snarky that comes flying out of Sarah's mouth and something that plays at the dynamics of a normal relationship. Also Petersen manages to incorporate pop-cultural references that really catch the attention of the reader and gives you reasons to like the main characters. I really get a kick out of these books and I really hope there will be more books in this series. As of right now there are no for sure plans to make more books, but no definite endings either. All I can do is keep hoping that the awesomeness will continue.

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.

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.