Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads17-year-old Dallas Langdon is fighting off zombies with a pizza cutter.
Dallas has always loved zombie movies. But when she catches a real live (erm, dead) musician eating a man’s intestines backstage after the show, she knows her movies have become a reality. And what do characters in zombie movies do? Seek shelter. Fortunately, Dallas's eccentric uncle owns a farmhouse in Chattanooga, an eight hour drive from New Orleans. It’s on top of a steep mountain, surrounded by electric fences, and cut off from the worlds of the living and the dead.
Dallas’s parents, still safe at home, laugh at her idea over the phone. Her friends only agree to join her because it’s fall break and they could use a mini vacation anyway.
But then Dallas’s best friend is killed by a zombie horde when they’re attracted to her ringing cell phone. Civilians think their reanimated loved ones simply have the flu, leaving them alive (well, undead) and rapidly increasing the zombies ranks. And since minors can’t buy guns, Dallas’s only weapon is a giant industrial pizza cutter she swipes from a gas station. George A. Romero never mentioned anything like this. With one friend dead and no zombie survival guides to help her, Dallas and her friends must get to Chattanooga before joining the ranks of the undead themselves.
Dallas Langdon’s sister drags her to see her best friend perform in New Orleans. By drag I mean almost literally since Dallas hates the girl. Like legit hates the girl for becoming what Dallas wanted to be, a musician. Why does she get to do it while Dallas doesn’t? It just isn’t fair.
It’s okay though, because said musician decides that she is going to be oh so cool and drink the water. Water isn’t bad, but when it comes from the cemetery, and a chemical leak, you probably should move along. Of course teenage girls don’t listen and a stagehand gets a little too close to the mouth of the singer. When Dallas walks in, she sees more than just a stagehand and a musician. That is when things start to go horribly wrong. I don’t just mean for the stagehand ;).
Dallas has to step up her game in order to protect those she cares about. She has to save herself, her two good friends, her baby sister, and her sister’s boyfriend. When you have one teenager bossing others around, it is going to lead to conflict, especially siblings. So by leaving New Orleans in hopes of reaching Dallas’ uncle’s house, they must learn about themselves. Things and relationships are not always easy and as they seem in life. This is especially true for this story.
I know the review is vague, and I am sorry for that. This book runs and anything I say will be a spoiler. There are a lot of things that happen in this book, most bad, some good, and some really really sad. The Author, Mary Hallberg, does a good job at bringing the characters to life. With teenagers, especially with teenagers in dangerous situations, it can go one of two ways. You can either have the screaming mimi’s running around somehow not dying. Or you can have teenagers stand up and take a stand, against the dark, against the deprived, and for themselves.
Overall I liked the story a lot, it is your typical zombie story with an edge, and I don’t mean like the main character has a mohawk. It turns what you think would happen, wouldn’t. From a human perspective it was a good story, but as you will soon see there is some blood and guts I am not okay with.
Okay, so while I liked the story, I had an issue, and that issue was when they killed the dog. It didn’t want to hurt them, and it just wanted to play. Seriously you all know how I feel about pets dying in books and movies. If I know beforehand, I am better with it, but I didn’t know. Also, there was even the yelp that the pupper made before it died. Nope. Throw a bag of puppy food, let it out in the world, just it did not need to happen in the garage. Yeah I know it is a spoiler, but for those who go to Doesthedogdie.com before watching a movie, then you will understand.
Another thing that took a little away from the story was the peachy nature of it. It got a little in the weeds towards the end. It was almost like the end needed to end and so it was thrown together.
About Mary Hallberg
As a child, Mary Hallberg’s mother wanted her to read HEIDI and CADDIE WOODLAWN, so she grew up reading Goosebumps books under the covers. As soon as she was old enough for a Blockbuster card, she graduated to horror classics like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Evil Dead. Her parents still wonder where they went wrong in raising her. She lives in Mississippi.
