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jenniepicky's review against another edition
4.0
Described by Kirkus Reviews as "Stephenie Meyer meets John Green" it delivers on that promise. I have high hopes for this series after the first installment and hope that it continues in kind!
radishcake's review against another edition
2.0
This is another book that ended too abruptly for me. I liked the concepts and the premise and the writing was well done. I just felt like it stopped in the middle.
sebinsangel's review against another edition
4.0
I really wish I could give this book a full five stars. The ending was moving and the story was very well thought out. I enjoyed it, but getting through the book was tough. I understand why he wrote the zombie speach out the way he did, but it added to the slowness of the book, as well as the drawn out story. I feel that there are parts in the novel that you are given, but nothing clarifies them in the end. Overall it was a good story and I do really want to read the second one to see what happens and how things progress with Adam and Pheobe.
lilawood's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book a very long time ago but I remember that I liked it a lot.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
Phoebe is a goth girl who doesn't care about being an outsider at school. She is more curious about the dead kids that share the school-the dead teens who didn't stay dead and are allowed to return to their normal life and get their education. When she develops a crush on one of the dead boys, her friends are horrified.
OMG. This book was bad! First, girl fancies zombie. Like, ewwww! But when you get past that, you find that you don't really care about any of the characters because they are as lifeless as the zombies. We have the usual bunch of airhead girls and obnoxious jocks (*yawn*) and the usual prejudice and bullying that seems to turn up in every YA book these days.
The author feels the need to point out the Really Important stuff like every goth band and song that Phoebe listens to, even though most of us don't actually CARE about all the music she likes. And seriously, nobody should EVER be subjected to the poetry that she writes!!! But if you want to know why American teenagers are coming back to life after they die, well that didn't seem important enough to the author for him to share with us, at least not in the parts I read.
This was just BORING! It was one of those books that sounded really good and different yet turned out just the same bland rubbish that I see in lots of other school based books. Twilight may have its faults but at least there was a nice bunch of kids at that school instead of the obnoxious gits at this one!
OMG. This book was bad! First, girl fancies zombie. Like, ewwww! But when you get past that, you find that you don't really care about any of the characters because they are as lifeless as the zombies. We have the usual bunch of airhead girls and obnoxious jocks (*yawn*) and the usual prejudice and bullying that seems to turn up in every YA book these days.
The author feels the need to point out the Really Important stuff like every goth band and song that Phoebe listens to, even though most of us don't actually CARE about all the music she likes. And seriously, nobody should EVER be subjected to the poetry that she writes!!! But if you want to know why American teenagers are coming back to life after they die, well that didn't seem important enough to the author for him to share with us, at least not in the parts I read.
This was just BORING! It was one of those books that sounded really good and different yet turned out just the same bland rubbish that I see in lots of other school based books. Twilight may have its faults but at least there was a nice bunch of kids at that school instead of the obnoxious gits at this one!
zoe_e_w's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not as big a fan of zombies as I am of vampires and werewolves, so even though I bought Generation Dead...um, three years ago, it's sat on my TBR shelf collecting dust. Hubby read it and said it was good, and even then I skipped over it. I am totally kicking myself now for this grievous mistake. Holy hell, what a fantastic book.
Basically, American teenagers are coming back from the dead, and no one knows why. One high school has become the place for these risen teens to get a fair shake at an education, and the story follows several of the students, including a pair of goth girls, Phoebe and Margi, some jocks, Adam, Thorny, and Pete, and some differently biotic teens, Tommy, Evan, Karen, and Collette.
The one thing I didn't buy was the US-centric nature of the rising teens, but I'll set that aside because this story explores the prejudice encountered by the new minority, and everything about this rings true. While I initially wanted to compare the situation to desegregated schools during the civil rights movement, as the story played out, I began to think it was more fitting of the struggles of modern GLBT students. These teens who die have no legal protections, and so people are abusing and even killing them with no legal repercussions. This is to some extent what school life is like for queers, where school officials will allow or encourage bullying, and will even actively work to prevent student alliances from forming and creating a normalizing environment.
The risen teens are often abandoned by their families (like many GLBT teens when they come out), and at school they are the butt of jokes or the targets of hate speech of violence (ditto). They are seen by some as curious object to be studied (ditto), and by others as a new trend to be monetized and profited off of. (another ditto) And when they are murdered violently by the living, it doesn't make the evening news, because no one cares. (Major ditto!)
So yes, this story had a very strong ring of truth to its central theme of dealing with prejudice. It also was a nice change of pace for the use of third person perspective, where most YA uses first person. This let the narrator get inside more character's heads, and with the exception of Pete, I loved everyone. Pete's character is the school bully, and his prejudice is based on the weakest logic. And yet, even this has the ring of truth. Many people who have prejudices have no valid reason to hate, they just do. If pressed for a reason, their excuses would sound extremely stupid to an objective observer. Pete's certainly does, and I felt zero sympathy for him even after his back story was elaborated on. He is simply a bully who feels he's justified in harming others. A righteous asshole. But this makes his character disturbingly realistic, and I applaud the author for giving Pete his own chapters instead of just glossing over his role as the bad guy.
So, aside from my one very minor complaint about "only American teens are rising," I loved everything about this story. I loved the characters, the dialogue, the plot; I loved that it didn't sugar-coat the prejudice these kids were dealing with. And the book's conclusion fills me with a dire need to grab the next book in the series, Kiss of Life, ASAP. Once I've got it shipped here, I can promise you, it won't be collecting dust waiting to be read.
I give Generation Dead 5 stars, and I'd recommend it to fans of YA, of zombies, or of dark fantasy. No, not good enough. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a solidly written story that isn't afraid to tackle a tough topic without pulling punches. It's so, so good, and I need to stop here, or I'll be gushing till the crack of dawn, and that would spoil the book for y'all. But do look it up, really. It's a great story, and I can't speak highly enough about it.
Basically, American teenagers are coming back from the dead, and no one knows why. One high school has become the place for these risen teens to get a fair shake at an education, and the story follows several of the students, including a pair of goth girls, Phoebe and Margi, some jocks, Adam, Thorny, and Pete, and some differently biotic teens, Tommy, Evan, Karen, and Collette.
The one thing I didn't buy was the US-centric nature of the rising teens, but I'll set that aside because this story explores the prejudice encountered by the new minority, and everything about this rings true. While I initially wanted to compare the situation to desegregated schools during the civil rights movement, as the story played out, I began to think it was more fitting of the struggles of modern GLBT students. These teens who die have no legal protections, and so people are abusing and even killing them with no legal repercussions. This is to some extent what school life is like for queers, where school officials will allow or encourage bullying, and will even actively work to prevent student alliances from forming and creating a normalizing environment.
The risen teens are often abandoned by their families (like many GLBT teens when they come out), and at school they are the butt of jokes or the targets of hate speech of violence (ditto). They are seen by some as curious object to be studied (ditto), and by others as a new trend to be monetized and profited off of. (another ditto) And when they are murdered violently by the living, it doesn't make the evening news, because no one cares. (Major ditto!)
So yes, this story had a very strong ring of truth to its central theme of dealing with prejudice. It also was a nice change of pace for the use of third person perspective, where most YA uses first person. This let the narrator get inside more character's heads, and with the exception of Pete, I loved everyone. Pete's character is the school bully, and his prejudice is based on the weakest logic. And yet, even this has the ring of truth. Many people who have prejudices have no valid reason to hate, they just do. If pressed for a reason, their excuses would sound extremely stupid to an objective observer. Pete's certainly does, and I felt zero sympathy for him even after his back story was elaborated on. He is simply a bully who feels he's justified in harming others. A righteous asshole. But this makes his character disturbingly realistic, and I applaud the author for giving Pete his own chapters instead of just glossing over his role as the bad guy.
So, aside from my one very minor complaint about "only American teens are rising," I loved everything about this story. I loved the characters, the dialogue, the plot; I loved that it didn't sugar-coat the prejudice these kids were dealing with. And the book's conclusion fills me with a dire need to grab the next book in the series, Kiss of Life, ASAP. Once I've got it shipped here, I can promise you, it won't be collecting dust waiting to be read.
I give Generation Dead 5 stars, and I'd recommend it to fans of YA, of zombies, or of dark fantasy. No, not good enough. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a solidly written story that isn't afraid to tackle a tough topic without pulling punches. It's so, so good, and I need to stop here, or I'll be gushing till the crack of dawn, and that would spoil the book for y'all. But do look it up, really. It's a great story, and I can't speak highly enough about it.
kristid's review against another edition
4.0
You’ve heard of Generation "X" and Generation "Y." Get ready for Generation Dead. Generation Dead being known for its, well, undead. Science can’t explain it, and no one really knows why it happens, but American teenagers are coming back to life. Known to the living as differently biotic or the living impaired. These zombie teenagers try to "live" their undead lives, but as with any group of people that vary from the norm, there are always prejudices.
Phoebe, a Goth. girl, finds herself unexpectedly drawn to one of these so-called living impaired students, Tommy Williams. Her best friend Margi, thinks she is crazy, but Margi’s feeling for the undead are more complicated than a general dislike. Then there is Phoebe’s neighbor and childhood friend, Adam. Adam has finally realized his feeling for Phoebe, but he still can’t find the courage to tell her. Of course it doesn’t make the situation any easier when he discovers Phoebe is crushing on the dead kid.
Phoebe talks Margi and Adam into joining a work study at the Hunter Foundation, which is centered around the undead phenomenon. Unfortunately not everyone tries to be as open minded. There aren’t any laws protecting the living impaired and they are being singled out and sometimes killed again. When a student makes a personal vendetta to take out the living impaired and anyone associated with them, the situation can only end in tragedy.
Generation Dead went above and beyond what I was expecting. Sure it is about the dead, but there are so many underlying messages in this book. Prejudice is something that is very apparent, and is something that we deal within reality on a daily basis. There is a part in the book in chapter 16, where they have a guest speaker so to sort in their undead studies program, basically they are discussing how they can acclimate the undead into society. I have to say that the dialogue of the speaker, totally blew me away. I think I read it maybe three of four times and I just kept thinking, if only, if only acceptance and change were and could be that easy, the world would be a better place. But anyway, as for the rest of the story, characters were beyond three dimensional, I felt like I knew these kids, and they continued to develop throughout the entire story, I mean literally up until the last page, I loved it! The plot was totally original and kept me turning the pages until the late hours of the night. I love Waters writing style, it’s engrossing yet simple, can that even be possible! The story was full of wit and humor, and I was totally captured! Obviously I really liked/love this book. It comes out on May 6th and I strongly suggest you pick up a copy. There is just something about it, it’s different and fresh!
Phoebe, a Goth. girl, finds herself unexpectedly drawn to one of these so-called living impaired students, Tommy Williams. Her best friend Margi, thinks she is crazy, but Margi’s feeling for the undead are more complicated than a general dislike. Then there is Phoebe’s neighbor and childhood friend, Adam. Adam has finally realized his feeling for Phoebe, but he still can’t find the courage to tell her. Of course it doesn’t make the situation any easier when he discovers Phoebe is crushing on the dead kid.
Phoebe talks Margi and Adam into joining a work study at the Hunter Foundation, which is centered around the undead phenomenon. Unfortunately not everyone tries to be as open minded. There aren’t any laws protecting the living impaired and they are being singled out and sometimes killed again. When a student makes a personal vendetta to take out the living impaired and anyone associated with them, the situation can only end in tragedy.
Generation Dead went above and beyond what I was expecting. Sure it is about the dead, but there are so many underlying messages in this book. Prejudice is something that is very apparent, and is something that we deal within reality on a daily basis. There is a part in the book in chapter 16, where they have a guest speaker so to sort in their undead studies program, basically they are discussing how they can acclimate the undead into society. I have to say that the dialogue of the speaker, totally blew me away. I think I read it maybe three of four times and I just kept thinking, if only, if only acceptance and change were and could be that easy, the world would be a better place. But anyway, as for the rest of the story, characters were beyond three dimensional, I felt like I knew these kids, and they continued to develop throughout the entire story, I mean literally up until the last page, I loved it! The plot was totally original and kept me turning the pages until the late hours of the night. I love Waters writing style, it’s engrossing yet simple, can that even be possible! The story was full of wit and humor, and I was totally captured! Obviously I really liked/love this book. It comes out on May 6th and I strongly suggest you pick up a copy. There is just something about it, it’s different and fresh!