Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

"We knew it was all wrong. We knew we were diminishing ourselves in ways we couldn't even name, and we wept sometimes at memories of better days, but we no longer saw a choice. We were doing our best to survive. The equations at the roots of our problems were complex, and we were far too tired to solve them..."

The zombie as a metaphor is hardly a new idea. Zombies are the mindless hordes, reacting on impulse, driven by insatiable hunger to consume that which they once were. The more zombies feed, the more zombies they create. It's a fate worse than death, and it effects those who haven't even been turned yet. They start to die before they physically die.

R is a fairly typical zombie. He lives with a bunch of zombies in an abandoned airport. We get a look into his thought processes, about how zombies can't read, they can't remember their names or their old lives. It's all meaningless wandering and hunting for live flesh. They crave the intimacy of tearing into a human throat, eating a warm brain. When they are taking human life, they feel a tiny bit of humanity.

During a typical hunt, R kills a young man and eats his brain. Something strange happens, R experiences the boy's memories. He learns all about Perry Kelvin and his girlfriend Julie. R then acts completely out of undead character and rescues Julie from the other zombies, keeps her safe. In the process, he makes enemies both living and undead.

Warm Bodies seemed a little pretentious at first. The writing can be a bit flowery at times. It's still a very good read. There are times when I also feel dead inside, when it feels as though every day endlessly repeats itself, when all that's left driving me is the instinct to survive. Warm Bodies didn't make me want to embrace life or hug a zombie, but it did offer a new perspective on both living and dead zombies.

"There's no benchmark for how life's 'supposed' to happen...There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how to respond to it..."

Warm Bodies has already been released in the UK. It is set to be released in the US on April 26th, 2011. Thanks to Atria Books for sending an advance copy to my bookstore.

Killer by Sara Shepard

Wicked left off with a party at Spencer's house. The PLLs found Ian's dead body in the woods. By the time they find Officer Wilden at the party and drag him outside, Ian has vanished. The police look for him, but eventually call off searching and say that the girls were making the whole thing up. Nobody is sure if Ian is actually dead. Spencer uses her sister's laptop and gets IMs from someone claiming to be Ian, but we're not actually sure what's what.

The big event in Killer is the opening of a hotel called the Radley. It used to be a sanitarium for troubled children. Remember that, because it's important for later. Aria is invited by her mom, who still doesn't know that her skeevy boyfriend hit on Aria. Aria spends the book getting closer to Jason DiLaurentis, Alison's brother. Jason is a little off, flying into rages for seemingly no reason. He freaks out at Aria when she mentions the name of the hotel, and later on, Emily finds an old guest log from the sanitarium- Radley, and it has Jason's name in it over and over.

Speaking of Emily, she gets way close with new boyfriend Issac, in the carnal sense. Unfortunately, his mother starts to hint that she knows and verbally attacks Emily in an Applebee's bathroom. When Emily reasonably tells Issac all of this, he thinks she's being an attention whore like his last girlfriend who claimed the same things. Oh, Issac. In the end, Issac finds a picture of Emily that his mother mutilated, he confronts her, and she freaks out. Emily still won't take him back, for now, because he didn't trust her.

Hanna is still a total entitled princess and my least favorite character. Stepsister Kate decides that she wants to go out with Mike Montgomery, Aria's little brother and lacrosse boy. Hanna decides that she must have him, besides he once groped her years ago, so she has dibs. Mike goes around juggling both girls, but Hanna gets him to be exclusive by agreeing to take him to the prom. At the hotel party, Kate admits that she only ever pretended to like Mike to fool around with Hanna. Just a little revenge for telling everyone that she had herpes. Mike was also using her to win a bet with his friends, but they decide that they are even because she was using him in the first place. I hate them both. So. Much.

Poor little Spencer meets with her biological mother and she's all fancy and rich. They have such a wonderful time that Spencer is determined to move to New York to be with her. It doesn't help that Spencer's parents are total a-holes. Seriously, I have no idea what their issue is- that she told the truth about her dumb Golden Orchid essay? They spend the book sending her car back to the dealer and mocking her when her computer crashes. The only explanation I can think of is that they are secretly going broke. Spencer uses her college fund to purchase a loft from her mother's realtor, but it turns out not so much. She got scammed, the loft doesn't exist, that's not really her mom, and her college fund is all gone.

A shows up in this book, but she's more helpful than threatening. All A does is urge everyone to solve Ali's murder. This makes me wonder if there may be a different A now. The PLLs gather at the end to go over all their clues so far, when the woods behind Spencer's house are set on fire. They rescue someone from the blaze, someone who looks just like Alison.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

This post will contain spoilers to Chaos Walking Book 1, The Knife of Never Letting Go. Please be warned.

The Knife of Never Letting Go ended on a sad note. After an epic quest to reach Haven and contact Viola's ship, both Viola and Todd ended up captured by Mayor Prentiss. Davy Prentiss, the Mayor's son, shot Viola, and Todd's main concern is that she be saved. They spend the first parts of the book separated, neither knowing whether the other is safe.

The city of Haven surrendered to Mayor Prentiss without a fight. It is now New Prentisstown, and Mayor Prentiss is the President. Todd is assigned to work with Davy. Davy wants nothing more than his father's approval but knows that his father prefers Todd. Hence, this is the root of the majority of Todd and Davy's fighting. Throughout the book, we understand more about Davy and he actually becomes kind of likeable.

Viola wakes up in a house of healing. After she recovers from her wound, she becomes an apprentice healer. The head of the house is Mistress Coyle. She wants to use Viola to get information on the President. The President wants to use her for the same reason. Mistress Coyle was once mayor of Haven. She had to make a lot of tough decisions while in charge. She doesn't agree with putting Prentiss in charge. So she fights.

The reoccurring theme in The Ask and the Answer is that we are the choices we make. Mistress Coyle forms the Answer with her group of rebels. They make themselves known with their bombs and their blue letter As. President Prentiss then retaliates with the Ask. Anyone of interest is "asked," basically tortured until they say anything just to make it stop.

Todd and Viola are both stuck on their opposite sides of the war. Todd numbly follows all of President Prentiss' orders, no matter how horrifying. Viola is resistant to Coyle, but eventually she is helping set explosions herself. Apart, they are affected by the battle. It's not until they meet again that they are themselves and the slate is clean.

Wicked by Sara Shepard

When we last left our Pretty Little Liars, Hanna's BFF Mona turned out to be A. Then Spencer had memory flashbacks of Alison going off with Ian just before getting all murdered. Jenna revealed that she was in on the plan that blinded her. Everyone believes that it's all over and they are safe now...but come on, this is only number five out of an eight book series (With a ninth being released this summer).

Ian's trial is a big plot in this book. He is arraigned and pleads not guilty. Gasps and fainting all around, of course. They weren't going to allow him the opportunity to post bail because he was considered a flight risk. His mother ends up coming down with a case of "My-son-was-accused-of-murder" cancer and her dying wish is to spend her last days with him. He is placed under house arrest. When the PLLs start getting more texts from A, they immediately suspect Ian.

Everyone is up to more trouble in this book. Hanna's mom moved away last book. Her dad is moving in, bringing annoying future stepmother Isabelle and her daughter Kate. Hanna still resents Kate for tattling when she left the daddy-daughter(-future stepmother-stepsister) weekend for Foxy back in book two. Eventually, Hanna befriends Kate, as well as former rivals Riley and Naomi. She enjoys being part of a clique again, but spending time with them leads to her neglecting boyfriend Lucas. She's also still incredibly paranoid about Kate. At the big party at the end of the book, Hanna makes a move to destroy her stepsister. Unfortunately, she ends up losing Lucas. Her father punishes her by forcing her to interact with nobody but Kate in the future.

There's part of me that thinks that Hanna is right to be cautious with Kate. Still, what she did really sucked. It's getting hard to like Hanna at all.

Emily is kind of adorable in this book. She broke up with Maya last time, though her family accepted her for being gay. She goes to a church event with her mother and ends up falling in like, with a guy. It's kind of funny how she is worrying about what people will think of her all over again. She worries about telling on A because she doesn't want the boy, Issac, to know about her past and hate her. Everything comes out in the end, and Issac still hearts Emily anyways.

Aria meets some older guy at an art gallery, but the guy ends up being her mom's blind date. Their relationship is still rocky, so Aria tries her best not to cause any trouble. Unfortunately, Xavier keeps hitting on her, kisses her, then threatens her in an incredibly pervy-rapey way. Aria decides she has no choice but to move back in with her father and his pregnant mistress. It's kind of dumb that she doesn't just tell her mom, but after the woman practically kicked Aria out for not telling her about her cheating husband, I think keeping quiet might be better.

There's a big deal made in this book about a past memory before the PLLs became friends. Ali was bragging about some time capsule flag. Each PLL swore to steal Ali's flag. It turns out that Aria is the one who ended up with the flag, though she never turned it back in.

Spencer is dealing with backlash from her plagiarized Golden Orchid essay. Her parents are the most awful people in the world. Rosewood Day has kicked her out of her clubs, and there is even doubt about whether her testimony against Ian is valid. Because none of this is bad enough, Spencer's grandma dies. In her will, grandma leaves money to all her grandchildren...except for Spencer. Sister Melissa convinces Spencer that this means she might be adopted.

One night, Spencer encounters Ian in her backyard, even though he is supposed to be under house arrest. She doesn't tell anyone. Ian never shows up to the trial. The PLLs are convinced that he will be after them, that he has to be the new A. The book ends with Ian's body found in the woods behind Spencer's house. We've got dead body #3, folks, and the series is far from over.

Unbelievable by Sara Shepard

Okay, so Book 4 in the Pretty Little Liars series. They're still pretty, they're still little, and they're still liars. Seriously, though, some major stuff happens in this book. I kind of love it.

When we last left our PLLs, pretty much all the secrets got revealed. Aria was exiled from her mom's house because of her dad's adulterating, then kicked to the curb by her boyfriend because she was hot for her English teacher. I just sounded like Gossip Girl in that last sentence and I'm torn between whether I should feel pride or shame. Spencer stole her sister's essay and qualified for a big essay award. She also pushed her sister down some stairs and may have killed Ali in a rage blackout. Emily was outed to the school. The kids accepted her, but her family forces her into gay rehab or Iowa. Finally, after a humiliating time at her friend Mona's party, Hanna figures out who the mysterious A is, then she's run over by an SUV.

Aria moves in with her dad and his now-girlfriend Meredith. Meredith has "stomach flu" which everyone automatically knows means preggo, pregnant, with child. All she really does in this book is take a Mindless Art class...oh, and also kind of mess everything up for everyone. She tells the Rosewood police all about A. Then she confesses the PLL's part in Jenna's blinding to Jenna. In a bit of a twist, Jenna already knew and set the entire thing up with Alison.

Spencer's sister is okay after her fall down the stairs. Her parents are making her keep pretending that Melissa's essay is hers. She ends up winning the Golden Orchid, but apparently confesses that she stole her sister's essay (She calls the committee at the end of the book, but we don't know for sure).

Emily is exiled to Iowa, but soon learns that her uber-religious cousins aren't as innocent as they seem. They take her partying and then blame her when they get caught. She runs away for home, but her parents think she's just plain missing and take that as a chance to accept her for being gay. It's almost sweet (Sarcasm!). The catch is that now that her parents are accepting of Maya, Emily isn't as into her. She also met a girl in Iowa named Trista. Emily's just really confused.

Hanna doesn't remember the party or anything that came after. Mona is pretending they are BFFs just as if nothing happened. Lucas, the unpopular guy who came to her rescue last book, is telling her not to trust Mona. Unfortunately, Hanna doesn't really listen to him. She manipulates her father into spoiling her and whines a lot about all the scars on her face from getting run over. She's really just a pain.

Mona and Spencer had been planning a candlelight vigil for when Hanna was in a coma, but they change it to a party. Mona gets closer to Spencer while planning the party. She reveals that she has also been getting texts from A. It seems as though Mona is now part of the group. At the party, Spencer has a confrontation with her sister. She finds a picture of Ali and Melissa's boyfriend Ian in her purse and becomes convinced that Melissa put it there. Melissa must have killed Alison, Melissa must be A.

Throughout the book, Hanna slowly regains her memories. She eventually remembers that A slipped up and texted her from a number she knew: Mona's. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Mona is A. Unfortunately, nobody realizes this until Spencer is already driving off to the police station with her to turn in Melissa. Because they couldn't call the police for...some reason.

The other PLLs start texting Spencer all, "Mona's dangerous!" They keep texting her, lots of times. If your friend is in a car with a psychopath, but the psycho doesn't know that she knows that they are a psycho, why let the psycho know? Do you want your friend to die?!? Mona thought they were just going to the police to turn in Melissa, maybe flash some rugby players, call it a day. But, no, now Mona has taken Spencer hostage.

We find out that Mona salvaged Alison's diary and learned everyone's secrets. Though...Alison didn't know about Mr. Fitz or Maya or Spencer stealing Melissa's essay. So I guess Mona was just a creepy sneaky stalker? Why would she exploit these girls? Well, Mona was also there for the Jenna Incident (Good band name, but seriously, there was Toby, Ali, Jenna, Aria, now Mona; they should have just sold tickets) and she got burned on her tummy. This horrible disfigurement that nobody frickin' knows about motivated her to seek her revenge.

So, the book ends with Mona falling down a quarry and dying. The PLLs figure out that Melissa's (and Ali's) boyfriend Ian must have killed Alison. We end with his arraignment. Alas, it seems as though the next book comes with a new A. Because when you are super special snowflakes like our girls, one stalker won't do.

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt

My bookstore was sent a sample of Patton Oswalt's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. It was an extremely thin book with only the intro and a couple chapters. I've always enjoyed reading memoirs and essays, so I grabbed the sample. I read it and decided to purchase the book when it came out.

I'm not uber-familiar with a lot of Mr. Oswalt's work, probably just Ratatouille, which I found a little unbelievable (I don't care how good a cook it is, I'm not eating rat food), and his guest spots on Community ("Did I accidentally tell you that you have AIDS, because I do that sometimes"). I also looked him up on IMDB and found out that he is the voice of boy genius Tobey on PBS Kids show Word Girl, which is awesome and features a monkey named Captain Huggy Face. Okay, back to the book...

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland mixes personal stories with shorter humorous chapters. The stories are about Oswalt growing up, his love of reading, and his fairly nerdy life. Ah, a man after my own heart. The title comes from a chapter where he describes zombie, spaceship, and wasteland as three distinct personality types. The zombie is about simplifying their world. The spaceship wants to leave their world. The wasteland wants to destroy their world. Highlights are a recount of his time headlining at a horrible comedy club outside Vancouver (Which has the BEST ending- seriously, I thought it was going on too long, but it was worth it) and a chapter of explanations behind gifts from his grandmother. There's also a surprisingly touching story about his mentally ill uncle.

The shorter chapters are more jokey, things such as a wine list with very specific descriptions, illustrations of greeting cards with the fairly horrible history behind the pictures, and a comic about two vampires. There's lots of little details that made me laugh out loud.

In conclusion, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is an incredibly worthwhile read. My only complaint is that it's a bit short. I want more Patton Oswalt.

Perfect by Sara Shepard

Yes, I read another Pretty Little Liars book. Yes, I'm going to throw together another ramshackle review. You can ignore this and hopefully I'll get into something of a higher quality in the future.

Anyways, Flawless ended with corpse number two, Toby Cavanaugh. He killed himself out of guilt over molesting his sister. Emily then feels guilty about Toby's death. She had asked him to Foxy, ran away from him, then hid out in her house while he OD'd in the woods. She decides that enough is enough, she will tell the cops about A.

It turns out that this isn't the right solution. In Perfect, A goes from passive observer to active meddler. Whoever A is, they are out to hurt. First, Emily's swim meet is interrupted when A posts pictures of her kissing her girlfriend Maya. Emily's parents are less than understanding and give her an ultimatum: complete the Tree Tops gay reprogramming class or be banished to her ultra-creepy aunt's house. Seriously, they make their children eat Cheerios and run through cornfields to repress sexual urges. That entire situation was absolutely disgusting and infuriating. Poor Emily is so confused as it is.

Aria's secret, seeing her father kissing a student and not telling her mom, was revealed in the previous book. Now there are a bunch of consequences as a result. Her mom basically blames her for the situation and kicks her out of the house. Aria moves in with her boyfriend Sean's family. Unfortunately, Aria soon grows tired of Sean and starts back up with her stupid damn English teacher again. In a pretty awesome scene, the cops show up and arrest Mr. Fitz. Sean had called them because of a tip from A. He then breaks up with Aria and kicks her out. Aria is now homeless, and though I think it's stupid to try to date your English teacher, her mom really should grow up and realize that it's not Aria's fault.

Spencer previously turned in one of her sister Melissa's essays as her own. It was then nominated for the important Golden Orchid essay award. The whole thing snowballs, with Spencer getting a newspaper cover. During a family game of Scrabble, A texts part of the essay to Melissa and the entire situation is revealed. A massive sister fight ensues resulting in Spencer pushing Melissa down the stairs. Spencer's parents also reveal her history of blacking out during traumatic memories. Spencer has flashbacks to the night Ali disappeared, memories of a fight and shoving Ali. Aria has a vision of Alison that points to Spencer as the killer as well.

Finally, Hanna is having problems with her best friend Mona. There's a police interrogation that interferes with their frenniversary dinner, then a skywriting mishap. Hanna's receiving texts saying that she can't trust Mona, but she doesn't take the advice. Mona has gone all mean girls on her, even disinviting Hanna from her birthday party and cozying up with their archrivals. Despite all the cattiness, when Hanna receives a dress from Mona's birthday court, she runs off to the party even though the dress is too tight. Unfortunately, this leads to public humiliation. Later on, she gets a text from A that shows the actual phone number, a number she recognizes. Hanna gets the other girls to meet her at Rosewood Day school. As she is getting out of her car to talk to them, Hanna is run over.

Then the text: "She knew too much." After that, there's the usual letter from A. Yes, I've neglected to mention that A has a little letter to the reader at the end of the books. A comes off like an even crazier, murder-obsessed Gossip Girl. I can't promise that I won't be reading and reviewing more of this series in the future. I do apologize because it's difficult to write reviews of single books in a series, and it's really kind of boring unless you've read the series or have a vague interest in the series. On the bright side, this was the best book in the series so far.