Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting

Series: The Body Finder (bk. 4)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Mystery Thriller

Subjects: murder, death, supernatural, psychics, psychic abilities, love

Setting: Washington state

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Violet

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 389 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover and in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Violet thought she’d made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers…that is until she acquired an imprint of her own. Forced to carry a reminder of the horrible events of her kidnapping, Violet is more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team Violet works for have no intention of letting her go.

When someone close to Violet becomes a suspect in a horrific murder, she finds herself pulled into a deadly hunt for a madman with an army of devoted followers. Violet has survived dangerous situations before, but she quickly discovers that protecting those closest to her is far more difficult than protecting herself.”

My Review:  I waited over a year and a half to read this book! I haven’t read the Last Echo since it came out in May 2012, yet how could I forget the amazing characters and awesome story that Kimberly Derting created? When I first picked up The Body Finder is 2010, I had no idea what I was getting into. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at all. I had a real treat because I ended up loving it. I usually had issues with 3^rd person perspective, but it turned out that it worked for this book.

In Dead Silence, Violet is stuck with the imprint of the killer that she killed in the previous book. A music box song that haunts her. She has her amazing boyfriend Jay and her friends, including Chelsea. Rafe and Gemma show up at her school on the first day of Senior year. They were part of crime solving team of psychics. Rafe is jealous that Violet’s in love with Jay and not him. Chelsea has a crush on Rafe, Gemma has a little crush on Jay.  I love the banter and humor between the characters. Jay is so cute and hot and he say some ridiculous and romantic things.  

Violet discovers bodies of a family at a house by a lake. The story’s plot revolves around finding the killer. We also get the killer’s perspective, as usual. The story has so creepy stuff as well as mystery. Just know that this is an awesome finale, and if you are familiar with the previous books and still have been putting off ending the series, there is nothing to fear! These book start with a bang (a prologue that teases the ending) and end with one.

If you have not read the Body Finder, it’s a YA paranormal crime thriller series. It’s kind of like Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon in that Violet can sense dead bodies. She can also identify the killer of the body by a matching imprint. Check it out and you won’t regret it.

Cover Art Review: Lovely red flower made of material like the other covers.

Undead with Benefits by Jeff Hart

Series: Eat, Brains, Love (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Dystopian/ Horror/Humor

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

Setting: Starts out in Illinois and then they have to figure out how to get to Iowa. Mostly set in Des Moines, Iowa

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense, rotating between Jake and Cass

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 406 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “The living dead are living it up in this hilarious and surprisingly romantic sequel to Eat, Brains, Love, which Kirkus Reviews called “one hell of a road trip...funny, gross, and scary in equal, alternating measures."

Jake and Amanda are in love, on the run—and undead. They've teamed up with Cass, who’s ditched her former job as shady government psychic zombie-tracker, and they're headed across the border into Iowa, where there’s rumored to be a zombie cure.

Armed with a trunk full of guinea pigs (aka zombie snacks), they're ready to take on the Midwest’s first undead warlord, the psycho psychic out for their blood, and their own superawkward love triangle. But the virus is spreading faster than you can say "zombie apocalypse," and Jake, Amanda, and Cass have to find the cure—if it even exists—before the whole state of Iowa goes up in flames.

With its heartwarming blend of guts, romance, and spot-on teen humor, this road trip–ready paperback original is perfect for fans of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies and AMC’s The Walking Dead. Readers will devour Jeff Hart's fresh, funny, and irreverent take on love and life (well, unlife) in an eat-or-be-eaten world.”

My Review:  When I read the first book, Eat, Brains, Love, I was not expecting a sequel. It seemed like a standalone until near the end. I am really happy that there is a sequel and Undead With Benefits is a very good one. It continuous this hilarious zombie story and takes us to the state of Iowa. It’s such a unique take on zombies. The zombies turn normal after they eat flesh and back into zombies when they are hungry. It’s like werewolves, but were-zombies.

Jake, Amanda and Cass are on the hunt for the cure to being a zombie. They have a lead that it’s in Des Moines. Once in Iowa things get rough. It’s pretty much a post-apocalyptic environment with all the body parts lying around and ghouls looking for food. Jake joked about the Midwest along the way and all that corn. He never expected Iowa to be so gruesome.

I love the twisted humor and the characters. Jake is a gamer like my brother, except Jake was a pot head. He’s lazy and nerdy and still sometimes act like his zombie life is a video game. He still can’t believe that Amanda likes him. The books start out with him and Amanda having sex and he calls it Jake Day. This book is pretty much a goofy comedy. I really wish this was a movie because it would be so fun and hilarious to see. Except for all the gory stuff.

Also, I like that the story includes a psychic as a main character. Cass can read mind and control people and dream walk. She worked for a government agency that tracked down zombie outbreaks and contained them. She joins up with Amanda and Jake; helps then steal some useful stuff before going into Iowa. Jake makes a gamer friend. Reggie is African American and has a place where he plays video games and hangs out. Reggie’s got a bit of an alter ego too. He and Jake become friends, and they get stoned with Jake’s pot. It’s weird guy bonding.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy anything zombie, especially funny zombie movies, like Zombieland, Warm Bodies, and Shawn of the Dead.

Cover Art Review: The title is made with food and on what looks like the hood of a silver car. Really creative and gross. The perfect cover for this funny zombie story.

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block

Series: Standalone

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, ghosts, psychic ability, possession

Setting: Beverly Hills, California and Los Angeles area

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, Julie

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 234 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark—a die-hard fan of Buffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.

When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.

Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss, love, and redemption.”

My Review:  Teen Spirit is a short, fast, and fun read. It’s a standalone, and it’s a complete story. It contains interesting and unique characters and paranormal twists. It’s set in Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles area of California. Julie, the main character, had a grandmother who recently died. Her mother, a TV writer, loses her job about a year later, and Julie has to move from Hollywood to Beverly Hills, from a house to an apartment.

Julie is half Cherokee and Jewish. Her father was just a sperm donor, so she never met him. Julie also has a gift. She can see auras and have prophetic dreams. Julie meets Clark, a quirky vegan guy who shares Julie’s love for Buffy. Clark is very atypical of love interest characters. He first becomes her best friend and they don’t really become boyfriend and girlfriend.  

Clark has had a recent loss too, but he doesn’t tell Julie till later on in the story. Julie’s psychic abilities make spirits come to her, so after using a Ouija Board to contact her dead grandma on Halloween, a spirit begins to haunt Julie and Clark and they search for a way to rid themselves of the spirit, even though they may wish to keep this spirit around for personal reason.

Teen Spirit is full of humor and pop-culture references. There’s romance and a little mystery. It’s mostly filled with fun paranormal, but it’s also a light-hearted, poetic story about dealing with grief and growing up. As this author has done before, she managed to fit an exciting story into a short book. You could read it easily in one sitting. I recommend this book to fan of the Ghost Huntress series and other ghost stories. Also for fans of books by this author, or Cyn Balog. This book would be okay for younger teens too because the easy reading level, but there are some profanities.

Cover Art Review: The cover is cute and fits the book. It’s wood with engraving-like text and images. It looks like a Ouija Board.  I love the rose quartz hear pointer.

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.