Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues

Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues

by Diana Rowland

 

 

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right--the zombie mafia.

Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower--and maybe a brain smoothie as well--in order to get through it without falling apart.



This series has my favorite female urban fantasy character.  Diana Rowland does a great job developing Angel's character.
Angel Crawford has really come into her own in this book.  I love how her character is maturing through each book.  A lot of urban fantasy (a lot of fiction, actually) has a character who doesn't move much beyond the starting point, psychologically.  But Angel is tired of being called a loser.  She doesn't want to live in a house with a driveway paved in beer cans.  She can't get high anymore because of her new zombie nature, which really solved a lot of her problems. But now she's looking toward the future and she wants to learn things and improve herself.  She is sticking up for herself when someone puts her down, which is a huge improvement over the first book.  And my favorite thing- she values herself enough that she can tell Marcus to back off when he tries to control her. 

The plot was great and there were quite a few twists and turns along the way.  I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that this one stood up to all my expectations.  I read through the night because I couldn't put it down. 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J.Maas

Throne Of Glass

by Sarah J. Maas

Finally finished with this one!  I was disappointed because I really thought I was going to love it.  I listened to the audiobook and maybe that's one of my problems, because the narrator sounded like a valley girl sometimes and it just irritated me.  Anyway, on to the book.

First of all, I hate love triangles.  I didn't actually know this was going to have one.  Serves me right for not reading the synopsis all the way through.  Almost the entire book was about the love triangle and her hormones and thinking about how handsome the two guys are.  I wish Chaol had smacked more sense into her.  I think that, for the most part, love triangles are a way for an author to add tension between the characters without having to put much thought into it.  And it's annoying. 

I probably would have still liked the book, even with the love triangle, if the characters had interested me at all.  Celaena as a character didn't have much depth to her.  I think the author tried to give her some interesting dynamics by making her an assassin as well as a girly girl, but she just came off as shallow and Mary Sue-ish.

Chaol was by far the most interesting character and I liked that the author kept me wondering what exactly was going in in his head.

I really wish I had liked this book more.  It would be perfect for someone who likes (or doesn't mind) love triangles and YA characters.  

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Wives and Daughters

by Elizabeth Gaskell

Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly's quiet life – loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.

Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society. 'No nineteenth-century novel contains a more devastating rejection than this of the Victorian male assumption of moral authority', writes Pam Morris in her introduction to this new edition, in which she explores the novel's main themes – the role of women, Darwinism and the concept of Englishness – and its literary and social context.





I had a love/hate relationship with this book.  There were some parts where it felt tedious and then many parts that I absolutely loved.  I had to take a break from reading it...I think it was for a week or more. 
Such characters!  Mrs. Gibson gave me this hunted and trapped feeling.  I was beginning to dread every scene with her in it, yet love the drama she brought.  I can completely understand why Cynthia turned out the way she did.  Oh man, she was a piece of work. 
I was so disappointed that the story ended when it did.  Nothing was resolved, the future was uncertain, and no feelings were discussed.  I think I read somewhere that Mrs. Gaskell died before she could finish it.  I was hoping for an ending similar to the one seen in the Masterpiece Classic movie.  So disappointed.  But still, the story was good.  I loved Mr. Gibson and the Squire.  They were both very endearing with their gruff exteriors.