Saturday, September 24, 2011

My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland - review



My Life As A White Trash Zombie (a fairly long title)

*****


cover - I really like this cover. The hair, the braids, the piercings, the make-up and the halter top. Only thing is that I don't think the main character was quite so busty - I seem to remember her mentioning something about her small boobies, though maybe I'm remembering wrong. It seems that no matter how endowed a character is though, she will be depicted with rather large breasts. Everytime. I don't think that I've ever SEEN a small breasted woman on a cover of a book. I think possibly that men are incapable of drawing small breasts. They always end up HUGE. lol. Either way, I do like the whole look of the cover. The harsh look of the woman, with the pink coloring and pink background. Princess pink for a Zombified white trash woman from "the wrong side of town".


Now, I read this book over the summer - and I don't have it right here in front of me so I'm writing this review from my sometimes faulty memory (see what you get when you read a non-pro book reviewer? okay, a non-pro LAZY book reviewer.) My overall memory is of reading a damned good book. There were a couple parts that got a bit....squicky (well, we ARE talking zombies, and zombies -well. They eat BRAINS) and to tell you the truth the description of a certain drink almost did me in. And I have a pretty tought stomach. Correction - I used to have a pretty strong stomach. Lately, sometimes the smell of FOOD nauseates me. Weird, but there it is. So reading about brain eating and drinking....ohhh. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Seems Angel Crawford has woken up in the hospital to the sight of a rather hostile nurse. Since Angel has always had a chip on her shoulder and a bit of a problem with authority figures, she's not too happy to be in the hospital - especially when two policmen come in to ask heer questions. Things aren't helped by her vague memory of blood - blood all over her and the sense of extreme pain. And the cops are asking her about a body - one that is missing a head. Oh Boy. Her history? job losses, drinking (heavy) drug use, etc

Despite her memories of being possibly attacked and blood and pain, there are no signs of trauma to her body. Later she's released with a mysterious package and note left by an anonymous person. Seems she HAS to follow the instructions in the note, take a job at a mortuary or she'll be reported to the police with proof of her recent drug use (she's on probation). So despite her history of failing at every job she's ever had she takes the job and finds herself actually trying to do a good job. Except that every few days she has to drink these weird thick chunky drinks that seem to have a hint of mocha in a coffee like liquid. ugh. Guess what it is. Come on....Guess. (shudder)

Most of the book is an interesting first person account of how she tries to make do with her new situation, which she doesn't completely understand. She starts to get a clue though when she finds herself CRAVING the suddenly sweet smelling (to her anyway) smell of the brains in the bodies she helps with during autopsies. She has to stop herself from cramming them into her mouth and is beginning to be horrified. Thinks come to a head when she runs out of the mysterious drinks and can't stop herself from.....guess. Take a wild guess. Ugh!

Despite the squickiness of the subject matter - I found myself enjoying reading all about Angel and how she comes to terms with what she now is (and her new diet). Only now the mystery deepens, because how did she get this way? That's what the rest of the book is about and it's pretty interesting. Loved the plot, loved the character voice of Angel. Most of the time she sounded convincingly like a "down to earth" woman who has struggled or failed most of her life for everything she has (my way of saying "white trash" - because I don't really feel comfortable with that term) - there were a few moments when the language didn't quite fit the character, but for the most part Diana Rowland did a great job with the character's voice. Which was great for me, because I quit reading her previous book - the Demon one- because I didn't like the sound of the character. Way too stiff sounding.

Anyway the story had some twists and turns that I didn't see coming. The ending wasn't quite what I expected, and I was totally surprised and yet I'm not sure if it was too pat, too convenient....either way - it's Rowland's story and that's how she ended it. I think the thing is that most the story read like an urban fatansy but then there was a few parts with Angel literally panting after this particular man, and then by the end, she had her HEA just like a romance novel. either a good mix or it was a story that couldn't make up it's mind.

Enjoyed it though. Very much. After I finished I was left with a feeling of "Oh My God - What a Great Read!

As usual, excerpt under the cover.

Diana Rowland is also the author of Mark of a Demon and two other Demon novels.

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