Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Generation Dead
by Daniel Waters

Published: 2008
Genre: Zombies
Paperback: 392 pages
Rating: 4

Inspiration: September Zombies week - check out this week's events

Description from amazon.com:
Phoebe Kendall is just your typical Goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent...and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn't want them.

The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the "differently biotic." But the students don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the "living impaired" from the people who want them to disappear--for good.

When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her. But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

Zombification:

The newest Frankenstein Formula theory was that a certain mixture of teenge hormones and fast food preservatives set up the proper conditions of living impairment.

Teens from Oklahoma, Rockaway Beach, The Big Apple, Arkansas, or The Big Easy all bore at least a chance of winding up living impaired, as long as they croaked during the delicate teen years. (Generation Dead, page 7)

Zombie mode:  high-functioning with some low-functioning

My thoughts:
In-a-word(s): differently biotic

This is a more serious rather than campy or gory zombie book. Teen zombies begin to deal with issues regarding fair treatment and rights. They are a subculture that experience a kind of racism of their own. So sad to read about hate crimes and family displacement among these young zombies. 

In reading about these zombie troubles, I am reminded of the African-American Civil Rights Movement and how that period of time in the U.S. played out. This world must undergo similar changes in order to co-exist with zombies.

Definitely, a thought-provoking book. 

Love after death series:
Generation Dead
Kiss of Life
Passing Strange (Release date: May 2010)
Book 4 - untitled - tba
Book 5 - untitled - tba


Check out Tommy's blog:
My So-Called Undeath - My Life As A Zombie

Excerpt:

ABOUT ME

My name is Tommy Williams. I'm a junior at Oakvale High in Oakvale, Connecticut. I'm new to the area. I moved here with my Mom because she likes the school. We've got a cat named Gamera that hates me. We live in a trailer park near Lake Oxoboxo. Mom says it's temporary but I kind of like it. 

My main hobby right now is writing, but I played football and baseball at my last school.

Oh yeah--I'm also a zombie.