Honestly, the best thing about "Zombie Blondes" is probably its title. But I'm an ecstatic, huge, major league fan of the title, so the book has lots of room to breathe for me and still be a good read.
Young Hannah Sanders has spent the past several years fleeing from town to town with her father, a down-on-his-luck ex-cop who spends his waking life devising ways to outrun bill collectors and his past in general. It's a sad, hopeless tactic, and it never works for long. Eventually, your past always has a way of catching up with you.
As soon as Hannah sees Maplecrest, the latest town on her shared journey with her father, she finds it even bleaker than most towns she has seen. It seems more houses are for sale, with dark windows and overgrown lawns, than are occupied. Add to the mix a fast friend with wild theories about the town's dwindling supply of residents, and Hannah begins counting down the days until her dad decides to run yet again, and she can put the town behind her forever.
However, things start to look up for Hannah. The popular girls are paying positive attention to her. A studly jock football player begins to warm to her. Hannah may just stand a chance of fitting in, after all. But the closer she gets to "them," the more dire her friend's warnings become. Is there really anything to the warnings? Could the popular kids at Maplecrest High REALLY be the living dead? They seem so perfect...
There are a number of things that are less than stellar about "Zombie Blondes" - one-dimensional characters (including main character Hannah, who seems almost impossibly passive), and plot points that seem far-fetched and almost too convenient to be true (Hannah's dad leaves town for two weeks to pursue work just as things in the story really start to pick up).
But there are plenty of things that make "Zombie Blondes" worth reading - some very fun plot twists and a central mystery that grows more mysterious as the novel progresses, then comes into focus spectacularly in a fiery final act. There is so little zombie action in the book that I began to wonder if "zombie" was just another way of referring to a member of the popular cliques in every high school that are willing to do whatever it takes to conform and be "perfect." This doesn't prove to be the case (or maybe, at least partly, it does), but the book carries a few interesting subtexts throughout. A surprise, twist ending fits well into the classic horror tradition, and leaves the door open for a sequel.
"Zombie Blondes" isn't going to revolutionize the world. Heck, it's not even great literature. But it's a lot of fun - especially past the half-way point when things really begin to click with the story.
