Review: Kiss of Life - Daniel Waters

When Phoebe's best friend Adam takes a bullet for her, it proves everyone right - Adam is in love with her.  And now that he's come back to life, Phoebe's more important than ever.  A zombie can come back from death faster if they're loved - and kissed... which means Phoebe has to say goodbye to Tommy Williams, the other zombie in her life.

While coaxing Adam back to reality and fending off Tommy's advances, Phoebe tries to carry on as normal.  But what's normal when teenageers are rising from the dead and scores of others want nothing more than to send them back to their graves?  And does having a zombie boyfriend make Phoebe a target too?

Generation Dead Series:
Generation Dead
The Kiss of Life
Passing Strange (July 2010)

For more information visit the Daniel Waters' Blog

Review:
It is impossible to review Kiss of Life without giving away at least one major spoiler for Generation Dead so if you're new to this series I'd really recommend you don't read any further.  Click here if you'd like to read my review for Generation Dead instead.

Kiss of Life continues the story not long after the end of Generation Dead, Adam died trying to save Phoebe's life and has now come back as a zombie but he is struggling to regain his speech and movement.  His killer is facing trial but as there are no laws protecting zombies or giving them any rights things are very complicated.  The defense are going to argue that it couldn't be murder when the victim can walk into court as a witness and it looks like the Adam's killer could literally get away with murder.  But that isn't the only thing Phoebe and her friends have to worry about.  The prejudice against the zombies is getting worse - with the help of an unknown group who are stirring trouble - and things are going to get even more complicated than they were before.

I had mixed feelings about Generation Dead and I had a similar experience with Kiss of Life.  It was interesting to have some of the story told from Adam's perspective but that did make for frustrating reading, particularly at the beginning when he is really struggling with his speach and his thoughts are very disjointed.  Adam was by far my favorite character in the first book so I wasn't happy about the change in him but I'm glad to say this does improve by the end.  I also found that this gave Colette and Margi a chance to shine and their humor added a lighter note that I enjoyed.

The themes of discrimination and prejudice are continued and again handled very realistically by Daniel Waters.  I really like this side to the series and think we can all learn something by reading it.  I'm very curious to see how this will be handled in Passing Strange which I believe is the last book in the series.  We see less of Tommy in this story which I didn't mind - he was never my favorite character anyway and I didn't have the same icky feeling about Adam & Phoebe that I did when she was dating Tommy.  I think this was because they already had a strong relationship before his death so it didn't come across as quite so creepy.

As much as I liked the above points I did find that I struggled to get into the story.  The first half of the book in particular was very slow with not much happening and I found myself wanting to give up.  I'm glad that I persisted though as the action levels do pick up and it has left me wanting to read Passing Strange so I can find out how the series ends.

Source: Thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me this review copy

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Review: Generation Dead - Daniel Waters

The dead boy reached for her, his pale eyes glowing in the darkness.

All over the country, teenagers who die aren't staying dead.

Against her better judgement, Phoebe finds herself drawn to Tommy Williams.  He's gorgeous, funny, on the football team.  And dead.

But not everybody is as accepting as Phoebe.  There are those who would like to rid the community of this sinister phenomenon, and they'll stop at nothing to achieve it...


Generation Dead Series:
Generation Dead
The Kiss of Life
Passing Strange (July 2010)

For more information visit the Daniel Waters' Blog



Review:
All over America teenagers who have died are coming back from the dead but not as your traditional zombies.  They have very slow speach and aren't very fast at moving but other than that they are basically able to carry on as normal - even attending school.  No one knows how or why some teenagers are coming back but it is happening more often and the living-dead community is growing larger.  Some people are very understanding but the majority aren't happy - some even think that it's a sign of the end of the world. 

I have really mixed feelings about this book, I thought the premise was brilliant and I really thought I was going to love the story but unfortunately I was disappointed.  To start with the positives I thought the way Daniel Waters dealt with the relationship between the living and the not quite dead was very well done.  I'm sure if teenagers ever do start coming back as zombies then the reaction from society in general (and teenagers in particular) would probably be very similar to how it was described in the book.  The book tackles important issues regarding discrimination and prejudice and it did make me think a lot about racism.  I love a book that can make me think so I really enjoyed this aspect of the story - especially as we are able to get inside the heads of both the people who are prejudiced and those who are being discriminated against.

On the other hand I found it really difficult to relate to Phoebe who was the main character.  Even half way through the book I was feeling that I hardly knew anything about her & I still have no idea why she was interested in Tommy.  I think if she'd known Tommy from before he died then it would have been a lot easier to believe her attraction to him.  I actually found the fact that she had a crush on a dead guy that she'd never even spoken to & knew absolutely nothing about really creepy.  I was also really unimpressed by Tommy - as a friend or a minor character he would have been fine but he just didn't strike me as main love interest material and I spent most of the book thinking "please don't go there Phoebe". 

My favorite character by far was Adam who is Phoebe's best friend.  I thought he was great - at first he doesn't seem like the nicest guy, he's got anger issues who gets in fights and hangs out with a rough crowd but it soon becomes clear that he is changing.  He isn't happy with his old crowd and although he isn't keen on the living dead characters to start with he doesn't like the way his old friends bully them.  Throughout the book you really get to see him grow up and come into his own and I loved him for that.

It took quite a long time for the story to suck me in but once it did I was curious to find out what was going to happen.  I'm don't want to give any spoilers so I'll just say I was gutted by the ending!  I'm going to have to read the second book just to find out what happens next.

Source: Library

Other Reviews:
Curling Up By The Fire
Obsessed!
I Swim For Oceans
Parajunkee's View
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.



I'm very excited to have been picked as Top Reviewer for Generation Dead by Blog With Bite - thanks so much girls!