Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Title: Generation Dead
Author: Daniel Waters
Publication: Hyperion Book CH (2008)
ISBN 9781423109211
Format: Hardcover ($16.99) 400 pages
Series: Yes. Generation Dead
                     Kiss of Life
                     Passing Strange

~*~*~*~*~*~

Phoebe is just your typical

goth girl with a crush.

He's strong and silent . . . and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best t blend into society again.

But the kids at Oakvale High don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws to protect the differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear--for good.

With her pale skin and goth wardrobe, Phoebe Kendall has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids: not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has realized that his feelings for Phoebe ran much deeper than just friendship. He would do anything for her--but what if protesting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Aside from the flesh eating kind I don't really read that many things about zombies. And even then they are mostly only the kind that are bossed around and forced to obey the person that raised them in the first place. In this book there isn't really much of an explanation of why teens come back from the dead. Everyone is afraid of the people that come back. It is new and scary. It ruins the mourning process for the living. Frankly I don't blame them for being afraid and not really talking to them. In fact I don't really think that Margi should feel as bad as she does for how she reacts when her best friend dies and them comes back.

The whole book talks about how the living are so something-ist against the undead or "living impaired" and how if they only changed themselves then they can all live together happily. The whole sunshine and bunnies deal. But the living impaired show just as much if not more hatred toward the living. In fact if anything the living pretty much fear the dead and the dead don't really do much to make me feel that they don't deserve it. Sure there are the zealots out there but they are on both sides. I felt that this book did not talk nearly enough about the hatred against the living since it was never mentioned only shown.

Phoebe and Tommy. They are supposed to be the hot and heavy couple in this book. No spark. Their dates are all awkward silences and Phoebe feeling saying something that she thinks insults Tommy. No chemistry. Why were they even trying to stay together? I realize that Daniel Waters was probably going for the whole star crossed lovers angle but it just did not work. At all. If felt more like they were both trying so hard to prove everyone that they knew that they did not hate/fear/whatever the other group that they ended up using each other. And since they both did it I don't think Phoebe has the right to be so butt hurt about it. It was never going to work out anyway. So in the end I really disliked this book and after reading how awful the second book is I am not planning on reading that one either.