Title: Zombified
Series: N/A
Author: Maggie LaCroix
Genre: Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Romance
Blurb: Monsters generally know their place: vampires get to be sexy while zombies just decompose. But Maggie La Croix’s Zombified conjures up an entirely different kind of undead raised by good old-fashioned Voodoo. These gorgeous walking corpses don’t eat brain, they don’t stagger, and their bodies are spared the indignities of putrefaction.
Take Henri Jolicoeur. More than one hundred years after his death he is still a bewitching Adonis. But zombification does have its downsides. Henri has a master, a powerful Voodoo priest whose spells keep Henri, his teenage zombie sister, and five other poor souls in perpetual servitude.
That is, until a hurricane devastates their New Orleans home and the zombies are evacuated to the Texas border town of El Paso. The curse is broken. They are free and intend to stay that way. But how can they pass for human when they don’t eat or sleep and they’re reeling from black magic withdrawal? If that isn’t enough, they have a traitor in their midst, their master is hot on their trail, and a mysterious stranger in black is watching.
Enter Josie Cortez, a cowboy boots-wearing reporter at the local newspaper who desperately needs a good story to save her moribund career and get her editor off her back. One look at Henri and his weird little family and she knows she’s struck journalism gold. But strange things keep happening around Henri, things that remind Josie of her own tragic family history with black magic, a history that cost her her beloved mother and led Josie straight to the bottom of a bottle. Josie would rather forget all about that. Forgetting Henri, however, is easier said than done, even if falling for a man without a heartbeat could get her more than a broken heart. It could get her zombified.
Thoughts: If you’re looking for something a little different….well, this is it! I have to admit I haven’t read anything quite like it before. It definitely provided a change of pace anyway. It appealed to me because of the zombies – of course! I mean how often do you get a whole book dedicated to just zombies – at least the ones that fall in love and aren’t mindless individuals looking for human flesh to eat? If you’re a zombie fan, this is a definite must read – though it may not be quite what you expect. I was expecting somewhat along the lines of the movie Warm Bodies.
In some ways it was a little similar to that, but in others it was very different. I was surprised at the amount of the story that dealt with the Hurricane Katrina and the after-effects. The author inserts this small little band of zombies that make up Henri’s makeshift ‘family’ right into the middle of this real-life disaster, and it made for an interesting outlook for the story. It’s set right in with New Orleans and the culture there, which I know many people enjoy reading about. Of course, sticking with the paranormal aspect of it, there is also a lot about voodoo and the like. All of this made up some of my favorite parts of the book!…:)
Henri was an interesting character, and I particularly enjoyed reading about his path into zombie-hood and some of his flashbacks. He was a solid, likeable character, and his loyalty to his family really spoke well of his character. I was a bit more disappointed with Josie. The further along the book went, the less I liked her character, and I really just didn’t feel the connection between these two characters. It will be interesting to see if other people respond to her character the same way.
Rating: B-/C+
