Title: Dead Over Heels
Series: N/A
Author: Alison Kemper
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Blurb: The end of the world just might be their perfect beginning…
Glenview, North Carolina. Also known—at least to sixteen-year-old Ava Pegg—as the Land of Incredibly Boring Vacations. What exactly were her parents thinking when they bought a summer home here? Then the cute-but-really-annoying boy next door shows up at her place in a panic…hollering something about flesh-eating zombies attacking the town.
At first, Ava’s certain that Cole spent a little too much time with his head in the moonshine barrel. But when someone—or something—rotted and terrifying emerges from behind the woodpile, Ava realizes this is no hooch hallucination. The undead are walking in Glenview, and they are hungry. Panicked, Ava and Cole flee into the national forest. No supplies, no weapons. Just two teenagers who don’t even like each other fighting for their lives. But that’s the funny thing about the Zombpocalypse. You never know when you’ll meet your undead end. Or when you’ll fall dead over heels for a boy…
Thoughts: I’m usually not a big fan of YA (although there are a few exceptions)….but the fact that this one has zombies? Oh, yeah…had to pick this one up! Apparently, this one is a companion book to the author’s Donna of the Dead book – although the author herself is careful to point out that it is not a sequel. The book is completely stand alone with new characters. Personally, I hadn’t read the previous book that is similarly connected to this ‘world’, but I imagine I will after I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
I have to admit I was a bit hesitant in the beginning – first off, because it all seemed a bit cheesy and predictable. Then, simply because there were a few things that bugged me. The constant need to emphasize the zombie noise, for example – ‘Rawr!’ You’ve explained it to me. You’ve described it already. I get it. I don’t need it re-emphasized every time one of the zombies comes into sight. Additionally, in the beginning there is a huge amount of ‘I reckon’, ‘ain’t’, ‘dadgum’, etc. – which seems to happen much less often toward the end – at least in comparison. I get that he is a ‘redneck hillbilly’, but too many of these detracts from my enjoyment of the story. I understand that he has a accent, but I don’t need to read it in every other word. Maybe it’s just a personal quirk of mine that I talk with that type of accent but hate to read it, or perhaps since I come from a ‘hillbilly redneck’ area myself I am a bit overly sensitive here…LOL To the author’s credit, however, she does mention how ‘rednecks’ came to be called that which I thought was a sensitive thing to do…:)
I have to say though, that the more I read, the more I liked. Each page pulls you deeper into the story, and before you know it, you’re caught up in what happens to these two characters – and you just have to see how it all ends. All in all, my little critiques are easy to overlook within the scope of the whole book. While I may have been on the fence initially, I was completely won over by the end of the book – and I’m ready for more!
Rate: A
