Megan Likes Books: Rusty Fischer

Last month I read Zombies Don't Cry by Rusty Fischer for Zombie month of the Paranormal Reading Challenge and now I'm featuring it again for the return of Cover Compare.

This ones appears to have gotten a cover change when the paperback changed publishers (I think that's what happened). Anyway, I prefer the old cover for sure. The yellow on the new one looks out of place and the placement of the words on her cheeks made me think the girl has really bizarre eyelashes. Plus I feel like the girl on the old cover looks more like a zombie.

old cover (Medallion Press)

new cover (Electric Monkey)

And just for fun, here are a couple of foreign language editions! I actually love the Italian cover the best!

Italian

Spanish

Info:

Title: Zombie's Don't Cry
Author: Rusty Fischer
Series: Living Dead Love Story #1
Publisher: Medallion Press
Publication Date: March 24, 2011
Source: Download free from Amazon (limited time)

Synopsis:

Maddy Swift is just a normal girl—a high school junior surviving class with her best friend and hoping the yummy new kid, Stamp, will ask her out. When he finally does, her whole life changes.

Sneaking out to meet Stamp at a party one rainy night, Maddy is struck by lightning. After awakening, she feels lucky to be alive. Over time, however, Maddy realizes that she’s become the thing she and everyone else fear most: the living dead.

With no heartbeat and no breath in her lungs, Maddy must learn how to survive as a zombie. Turns out there’s a lot more to it than shuffling around 24/7 growling, “Brains.” Needing an afterlife makeover is only the beginning of her problems. As Barracuda Bay High faces zombie Armageddon, Maddy must summon all of her strength to protect what matters most—just as soon as she figures out exactly what that is.

Review:

Zombies Don't Cry is a fun, non-traditional zombie read. Zombie purists likely won't enjoy the idea of talking, thinking, feeling zombies, but I feel like Rusty Fischer did a good job making them different enough for the original type, while still maintaining the zombie concept.

Our main character, Maddy, starts out pretty quiet and mild mannered, especially when compared to her rather loud best friend, Hazel. While she starts out quiet and a bit of a goody-two-shoes, her thoughts were funny and snarky and probably my favourite part of the book. Maddy definitely grows through book; becoming a zombie would definitely trigger some changes in anyone!

The tone of the book was really fun, mostly thanks to Maddy's voice in the novel. However, I feel like it was almost took much fun. Some pretty grim stuff happens and I feel like the fun and action kind of upstage the grim and scary parts of the book. The epilogue, however, felt suitably grim and dark.

The thing that drove me crazy with this one (and probably knocked it down a star) was the sneak-attack love triangle. It's one thing to see the love triangle coming and resign yourself to it. But when you think things are straight forward, then suddenly there are two guys, it makes it worse for an anti-love-triangle reader like me.

Overall, Zombies Don't Cry is a fun, pseudo-zombie read. I'm excited to read the next book in the series to see if Maddy makes the right choice when it comes to the sneak-attack love triangle (because it's one that's obvious to me).