E. Van Lowe, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie

In high school, Margot remains a failure when it comes to popularity especially her fantasy of having Dirk ask her to the carnival. Her BFF Sybil says she has it under control as she will ask Dirk out for Margot. Sybil hides her attraction to Dirk from Margot. Meanwhile making matters worse for Margot is her most hated enemy Amanda Culpepper is dating Dirk. Whereas Margot does not go to the carnival, Sybil does but leaves early as she had no one with her.

The next day the pair expects to hear how everyone had a good time and by implication they are losers. Instead they find their classmates have become zombies, but remained with their pre zombie subculture. Instead of fleeing screaming Margot and Sybil mount a coup d'etat taking over as the new kids on the block in charge. They instigate the anti zombie laws while converted Dirk remains a stud muffin albeit a bit slower than before the carnival.

With a nod to chick lit lits and principal rules, NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE is an amusing tale as Margot the magnificent and her bud work the high school. The story line uses student stunts to provide some sense of realism, but this young teen urban fantasy focuses on how to lead the in crowd when your school is overrun (bad term as zombies don't run) by zombies and your hunk gives off hunks of epidermal parts.

Harriet Klausner