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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!
mirable's review against another edition
4.0
Call them what you will: living impaired, differently biotic or just plain zombies - they're still dead teens, up and moving around. What happens when Phoebe, a live girl, gets a crush on Tommy, a dead boy?
Interesting take on racisim, bullying and our society's inability to let go of differences.
Interesting take on racisim, bullying and our society's inability to let go of differences.
lalauren04's review against another edition
1.0
I rarely give up on a book, always reading them to the very end regardless of whether I like it or not. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish this one. I liked the idea but I just couldn't get into it at all. However, I gave the book to a friend and she loved it. In the end, I guess it's all down to personal taste and this one just did nothing for me.
kaitrosereads's review against another edition
5.0
Oakvale High has got a new type of student: dead. Well, actually, "living impaired" or "differently biotic" are the technical terms.
The phenomenon of the living impaired is sweeping the nation and nobody can quite explain why it is happening. Teenage Americans are rising from the dead just like nothing happened. Except for the fact that none of their organs are functioning any more.
Technically, the teenagers are still dead. They all have death certificates and the government refuses to issue rebirth certificates. Because of this, none of the living impaired teens have any rights and aren't even considered citizens anymore.
As with any group of people who vary from the typical, the living impaired are targets of many hate crimes including violent acts such as burning at the stake and being re-terminated. And the worst part is, they can't do anything about it.
Most people at Oakvale are terrified of the living impaired. All except Phoebe Kendall. Phoebe doesn't know why but she is inexplicably drawn to the leader of the living impaired, Tommy Williams. Even her best friends don't understand what is going on with her. Her best friend, Margi, has her own personal issues involving the living impaired and doesn't know why Phoebe would want to be with one of them. Her other best friend, Adam, has only just realized his true feelings for Phoebe but only wants her to be happy.
When the Hunter Foundation creates a living impaired class for both live and dead students, all three decide to sign up and face their myriad of fears. Little did they know, they had much more to fear than the dead, they had to fear the living. Because someone doesn't want the living impaired to be acclimated into society and they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
Will Phoebe and Tommy be able to overcome the prejudices of others and have a true relationship? Will Margi get over her fear of the dead? Will Adam ever admit his true feelings to Phoebe? And most important, will they be able to catch the killer before he catches them?
As soon as I started reading, I knew this book would become one of my favorites. Daniel Waters manged to tell an age-old story about prejudices while incorporating a very new subject, zombies. With so many vampire and werewolf books out there now, it was nice to read a book about a different paranormal subject.
The phenomenon of the living impaired is sweeping the nation and nobody can quite explain why it is happening. Teenage Americans are rising from the dead just like nothing happened. Except for the fact that none of their organs are functioning any more.
Technically, the teenagers are still dead. They all have death certificates and the government refuses to issue rebirth certificates. Because of this, none of the living impaired teens have any rights and aren't even considered citizens anymore.
As with any group of people who vary from the typical, the living impaired are targets of many hate crimes including violent acts such as burning at the stake and being re-terminated. And the worst part is, they can't do anything about it.
Most people at Oakvale are terrified of the living impaired. All except Phoebe Kendall. Phoebe doesn't know why but she is inexplicably drawn to the leader of the living impaired, Tommy Williams. Even her best friends don't understand what is going on with her. Her best friend, Margi, has her own personal issues involving the living impaired and doesn't know why Phoebe would want to be with one of them. Her other best friend, Adam, has only just realized his true feelings for Phoebe but only wants her to be happy.
When the Hunter Foundation creates a living impaired class for both live and dead students, all three decide to sign up and face their myriad of fears. Little did they know, they had much more to fear than the dead, they had to fear the living. Because someone doesn't want the living impaired to be acclimated into society and they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
Will Phoebe and Tommy be able to overcome the prejudices of others and have a true relationship? Will Margi get over her fear of the dead? Will Adam ever admit his true feelings to Phoebe? And most important, will they be able to catch the killer before he catches them?
As soon as I started reading, I knew this book would become one of my favorites. Daniel Waters manged to tell an age-old story about prejudices while incorporating a very new subject, zombies. With so many vampire and werewolf books out there now, it was nice to read a book about a different paranormal subject.
kat_rowlen's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
My personal rating is 2.5 stars but I’m adding an extra star on here because I’m not exactly the target audience. This book drug in places for me and didn’t really hook me into the story. The ending was unsatisfying and left lots of loose ends that still needed to be tied up.
snarkywench's review against another edition
2.0
To be clear, I didn't loathe this book but I did have a huge amount of issues that I won't proceed to list off. It's an interesting premise, the idea that some teen deaths are revived in such a way as to come back to "life". The pool of those that are integrated back into life is so small that it needed to be addressed more than a vague concept of it being of great interest to the public. It was just a little too convenient in it's vagaries to sit well.
The use of zombified (my bad, living impaired) teens is ridiculously mined for it's parallels to other minorities. Their poor status in society and the bigotry placed upon them should elicit my sympathy but instead it angered me that the author felt that zombies should be placed in the same league as hate crimes against teens of different races, religions or sexual preferences. It's so overt and so slavishly heaped upon the reader as to remove the need for thought. I don't approve of the hate crimes seen in this novel but I refuse to emotionally connect with the concept as portrayed here.
While the story was interesting in that a girl who had proclivities for goth-wear (why wasn't this element given more than a brush over?), befriends those that are actually dead, the story didn't really capture my enthusiasm. Instead, Waters changed perspective numerous times. This should have added some pace to the plot but weirdly didn't. I found myself longing for the sections that were told from Adam's point of view as he is the most relatable character in this tale. Phoebe for all her black wearing, free thinking ideologies is a badly constructed character. On a shallow level she is an interesting character but swiftly it becomes apparent that the author had no concept of a female's perspective. A female teen doesn't NOT know her feelings towards a guy that intrigues her or the guy that has been her best friend forever. The permanent fog that clouds Phoebe's feelings for Tommy and Adam for the entire book made no sense for me. She wouldn't be without identified feelings, she'd have inklings for either fellow but if she were vague in real life it would be because she wasn't sure of the strength of her feelings for both. Phoebe would know her feeling (of whatever strength) so the whole concept that she spends the entire book not knowing if she's interesting in Tommy infuriated me. Teen girls over think EVERYTHING and the lack of introspection into her feelings, and their feelings for her, was a major character oversight.
Generation Dead is a novel that many bloggers reviewed positively and I am still not entirely sure why. Sure the book is well written but the pacing, the core concept and the crafting of the protagonist need considerable development. The well timed zombie concept of this book works on a surface level if you have no problem wading through didactic prose and leaden metaphors but it's not to my liking.
The use of zombified (my bad, living impaired) teens is ridiculously mined for it's parallels to other minorities. Their poor status in society and the bigotry placed upon them should elicit my sympathy but instead it angered me that the author felt that zombies should be placed in the same league as hate crimes against teens of different races, religions or sexual preferences. It's so overt and so slavishly heaped upon the reader as to remove the need for thought. I don't approve of the hate crimes seen in this novel but I refuse to emotionally connect with the concept as portrayed here.
While the story was interesting in that a girl who had proclivities for goth-wear (why wasn't this element given more than a brush over?), befriends those that are actually dead, the story didn't really capture my enthusiasm. Instead, Waters changed perspective numerous times. This should have added some pace to the plot but weirdly didn't. I found myself longing for the sections that were told from Adam's point of view as he is the most relatable character in this tale. Phoebe for all her black wearing, free thinking ideologies is a badly constructed character. On a shallow level she is an interesting character but swiftly it becomes apparent that the author had no concept of a female's perspective. A female teen doesn't NOT know her feelings towards a guy that intrigues her or the guy that has been her best friend forever. The permanent fog that clouds Phoebe's feelings for Tommy and Adam for the entire book made no sense for me. She wouldn't be without identified feelings, she'd have inklings for either fellow but if she were vague in real life it would be because she wasn't sure of the strength of her feelings for both. Phoebe would know her feeling (of whatever strength) so the whole concept that she spends the entire book not knowing if she's interesting in Tommy infuriated me. Teen girls over think EVERYTHING and the lack of introspection into her feelings, and their feelings for her, was a major character oversight.
Generation Dead is a novel that many bloggers reviewed positively and I am still not entirely sure why. Sure the book is well written but the pacing, the core concept and the crafting of the protagonist need considerable development. The well timed zombie concept of this book works on a surface level if you have no problem wading through didactic prose and leaden metaphors but it's not to my liking.
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
2.0
I expected a light zombie book.
Instead I got a pretty deep look into prejudice and "social acceptable terms" and all kinds of political soapbox discussions about accepting kids who've died and how to change society to accept them.
Near the end, it finally became more about the character and I enjoyed that more.
I especially don't like the POV changes. They are mid-chpater and mid-paragraph sometimes. It's jarring and complete distracts from the story. A simple break squiggly, change in chapter, etc, would make the transition so much easier.
Instead I got a pretty deep look into prejudice and "social acceptable terms" and all kinds of political soapbox discussions about accepting kids who've died and how to change society to accept them.
Near the end, it finally became more about the character and I enjoyed that more.
I especially don't like the POV changes. They are mid-chpater and mid-paragraph sometimes. It's jarring and complete distracts from the story. A simple break squiggly, change in chapter, etc, would make the transition so much easier.
allmadhere106's review against another edition
4.0
Phoebe is a teen goth girl who is trying to become more aware of the political and social movements around here. THe biggest issues gripping American is the sudden rise of teen zombies--creatures that aren't appearing in other nations and who aren't adult. The zombies have started rising for no apparent reason and there isn't a huge amount of similarities between the zombies that Phoebe knows. She becomes interested in Tommy, a highly intelligent "living impaired" boy who starts questioning his rights and his roles in society. Her fascination becomes problematic with her relationship with Adam, her best friend and next door neighbor who's finally admitting to himself that he's in love with a goth girl. All of the characters must face hatred and discrimination from others simply from having their beliefs and this can easily be something that readers will identify with.
I found the pacing a little weird and it was sometimes abrupt to shift between so many different narrative voices, sometimes even within the same section of writing. I find the premise extremely captivating and relevant to many readers. Readers can definitely draw parallels in several places in the book and it's interesting to be in the head of Pete, one of the characters that is filled with hate. This book can definitely open up a world of discussion with readers and it can easily be appealing for both genders. This first installment wasn't as heavy on the romance as I originally thought, which can also be helpful. I also didn't know that this was part of a series when I finished it, so the ending was a little off in terms of not resolving things. However, I definitely plan to go out and read the other books in the series.
I found the pacing a little weird and it was sometimes abrupt to shift between so many different narrative voices, sometimes even within the same section of writing. I find the premise extremely captivating and relevant to many readers. Readers can definitely draw parallels in several places in the book and it's interesting to be in the head of Pete, one of the characters that is filled with hate. This book can definitely open up a world of discussion with readers and it can easily be appealing for both genders. This first installment wasn't as heavy on the romance as I originally thought, which can also be helpful. I also didn't know that this was part of a series when I finished it, so the ending was a little off in terms of not resolving things. However, I definitely plan to go out and read the other books in the series.
mutablemoon's review against another edition
1.0
The book has potential although it dragged in parts. It's okay, I just regret purchasing the book.
boti's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0