Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart

Series: Eat, Brains, Love (bk. 1)

Genera: Paranormal Romance/Sci-fi Horror/Humor

Subjects: zombies, cannibalism, psychic ability, psychics, telepathy, government conspiracies, government officials, love, fugitives

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 345 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Two teenage zombies search for brains, love, and answers in this surprisingly romantic and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel with guts.

Jake Stephens was always an average, fly-under-the-radar guy. The kind of guy who would never catch the attention of an insanely popular girl like Amanda Blake-or a psychic teenage government agent like Cass. But one day during lunch, Jake's whole life changed. He and Amanda suddenly locked eyes across the cafeteria, and at the exact same instant, they turned into zombies and devoured half their senior class.

Now Jake definitely has Amanda's attention-as well as Cass's, since she's been sent on a top-secret mission to hunt them down. As Jake and Amanda deal with the existential guilt of eating their best friends, Cass struggles with a growing psychic dilemma of her own-one that will lead the three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

Eat, Brains, Love is a heartwarming and bloody blend of romance, deadpan humor, and suspense that fans of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies will devour. With its irresistibly dry and authentic teen voice, as well as a zombie apocalypse worthy of AMC's The Walking Dead, this irreverent paperback original will leave readers dying for the sequel that's coming in Summer 2014.”

My Review: This book was ridiculous for a zombie book. It’s not dystopian or post-apocalyptic. It’s very unique and creative and funny. Basically, being a zombie is kind of like being a vampire or werewolf, but they eat live flesh instead of blood. They change when they’re hungry. They start to look like a corpse and parts of them sometime fall out or decompose, and their skin turns grayish. Once they are full, they heal up and look like normal people again. Getting turned into a zombie is kind of an STD. The zombie virus is not spread by bites and it’s rare. There are no hordes of undead. It’s so different from all the zombie books I’ve read, and different from vampire books too.

The characters are not cookie cutter. Jake is kind of like my brother, with his love for video games, but Jake’s a stoner and kind of lazy. He’s very much a guy, but he’s also sort of nerdy too. He like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and comic books and anime. He love hard rock and hate pop. Amanda was a cheerleader and popular. She seemed stereotypical until she a Jake went on the run. She’s smart and knows how to hotwire a car because her dad taught her. He and Jake start to fall for each other, and kiss after eating people. It’s kind of like a zombie Bonnie and Clyde, but they both feel remorse and would prefer to eat animals instead of people.

Cass is a psychic telepath and is working for the NCD, tracking down zombies so they government can exterminate them and protect the public. She’s funny and reminds me of Evie from Paranormalcy. She has a handler named Tom, who like to wear designer suits and is now Cass’s only real “friend”. Cass helps track down Jake and Amanda by connecting to Jake’s mind. She starts to see that zombies can still have feeling and want to find a cure for themselves. She kind of mind stalks Jake. He power is pretty cool and it’s kind of like Men in Black, but with zombie hunting instead of aliens.

I love all the traveling that Jake and Amanda do. The book started in New Jersey and ended in Iowa. I never been to New Jersey, but every other state they drove though I have. Along the way, they drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, on I-90, which is they road we took. I like books with road trips. Even morbid zombie road trips. They stopped in Western Pennsylvania and meet some other zombies. They visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. They also stopped in Ann Arbor Michigan to see Amanda’s brother. I camped near Ann Arbor and visited the college there. It’s a nice city. I love when books mention places I’ve been too.

The book ended before they could get the cure, and apparently there’s going to be a sequel. I was expecting this to be a standalone, but I’ll read the sequel for sure. I recommend this book if you liked Warm Bodies, the Paranormalcy series by Kiersten White, Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, or anything with Zombies. It’s a cool book. A fast and fun read.

Cover Art Review: This cover fit it’s book perfectly. I love how the title is made of food. It’s perfectly legible and creative. They both turned into zombies in the cafeteria, so it works. Would you like some blood ketchup on you fries? How about some worms. The gummy kind, not the real ones.