This is the third book in the White Trash Zombie series, and as with the other books, Diana Rowland starts with a bang and doesn’t let the reader go.
Angel is a zombie, a ‘white trash’ zombie. Zombies are the cleanest ‘living’ people Angel knows, after all, anything bad for you – drugs, alcohol, cigarettes – tended to use up valuable brain power making the zombie hungry again. And you had to restore the brains somehow!
It was a good job then, that Angel worked in the local mortuary, a moving buffet cart full of delicious brains.
A year ago Angel was ‘white trash’, living with her alcoholic father, bumming around with no hoper boyfriend and enjoying drink and drugs to excess. Just a few months ago, Angel discovered the zombie virus was actually a parasite that required brains to survive.
Ironically a zombie film is being made in Angel’s hometown in the South. On the set, Angel investigates what seems to be an accident, as a truck attempts to mow her down. Until she is rescued by her zombie offspring Philip, a soldier she turned months ago whilst held in captivity by an evil doctor. Injured, Angel downs some of her chocolate/brain smoothie to help heal herself. Her injury doesn’t go down well with her zombie/cop boyfriend Marcus, who is getting far too protective of late.
At a swanky soir̩e, Angel finds herself battling the real thing Рa card carrying rotting zombie, who has been mistaken for one of the fake zombies promoting the film currently in the making.
Rowland is adept at what C E Murphy calls ‘first person snark’, a type of narrative style written in the first person which allows the writer to be snarky, judgmental, witty and annoying without the guilt factor. And Rowland, as Angel, is all of these things. She is a character you can relate to, as despite her bravado she is a little vulnerable and uses the snark as a defence mechanism. Angel also thinks, and says out loud the things we really want to say ourselves.
The supporting cast is also pretty good and very realistic, particularly Angel’s father who is battling alcoholism and trying to rebuild his damaged relationship with his daughter.
The actual zombie excerpts are great fun, relatively violent and there are some great witty scenes of brain chomping going on.
A very strong third installment and a great addition to the zombie genre.
Available at Amazon.
