Author: Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier (features short stories by many YA faves including: Libba Bray, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, Cassandra Clare, Carrie Ryan)
Genre: Short Stories, Anthology, Humor, Horror, YA*
Published: 2010
The first few stories didn't do a whole lot for me, honestly, so I skipped around to the authors I was familiar with and read the book in a non-linear way. I greatly enjoyed Maureen Johnson's story of a nanny to a nursery of zombie tots whose mother may or may not have been a famous celebrity parent known for adopting children internationally. I also loved Scott Westerfeld's post-zomb-acolypse survivial tale, somehow with a love story and infection control thrown in, Meg Cabot's typical snarky teen girl tale with added bad-ass unicorn, and Libba Bray's sad but ... yes, sad survival zombie story of high school kids trying to have prom among the world of the undead.
The stories are mostly inventive, but a few I found a bit confusing or uninteresting. I put an *asterisk next to Young Adult for genre because I think this is appropriate for upper-end YA. Maybe I'm a big 'ole prude, but the language and horror scenarios of several stories may make some younger readers (and their parents) uncomfortable. Just because there are cartoony pictures on the cover does not mean it's OK for a 12-year-old (think South Park or Family Guy - animiated but adult humor).
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I think Scott Westerfeld has sold it for me :)
ReplyDeleteHe is pretty great; I haven't even read his two biggest series: Uglies and the Leviathan books (not sure what they're called).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review. I like the idea of unicorns, but I'm not a big fan of zombies.
ReplyDeleteI think Holly Black's books can have pretty heavy stuff. YA runs the gamut, doesn't it?