[Review: Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart]

"Eat, Brains, Love"
Author: Jeff Hart
Series: ?
Pages: 352
Genre: YA, Horror, Zombie, Comedy
Date Published: October 1st, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary:

Two teenage zombies search for brains, love, and answers in this surprisingly romantic and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel with guts.

Jake Stephens was always an average, fly-under-the-radar guy. The kind of guy who would never catch the attention of an insanely popular girl like Amanda Blake-or a psychic teenage government agent like Cass. But one day during lunch, Jake's whole life changed. He and Amanda suddenly locked eyes across the cafeteria, and at the exact same instant, they turned into zombies and devoured half their senior class.

Now Jake definitely has Amanda's attention-as well as Cass's, since she's been sent on a top-secret mission to hunt them down. As Jake and Amanda deal with the existential guilt of eating their best friends, Cass struggles with a growing psychic dilemma of her own-one that will lead the three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

Eat, Brains, Love is a heartwarming and bloody blend of romance, deadpan humor, and suspense that fans of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies will devour. With its irresistibly dry and authentic teen voice, as well as a zombie apocalypse worthy of AMC's The Walking Dead, this irreverent paperback original will leave readers dying for the sequel that's coming in Summer 2014.

-Goodreads 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts:

Right now I'll tell you that I'm most likely going to be the dark horse when it comes to this book.  I think people are really gonna eat this one up, heck even I should have loved it.  The fact is, I didn't.  I saw the humor, I saw the gore and for some reason I just couldn't fall in love with the story, even though I fully appreciate all of the nuances of the book.  

Seriously this book was clever, so clever, but also so weird.  I think that the weirdness got in the way for me.  Where I'm normally the queen of digging all things weird, this one was just too far out on limb (as in a ripped off arm or something) for me to fully get into.  Honestly the first chapter had me laughing so hard and I was excited to see what else Hart had in store for us and the somewhere along the line I started loosing interest.  I will say that Hart knows his way around mixing extreme gore and humor and that really worked for me. 

The story is told through 2 points of view.  But there are definitely 3 main characters.  We see the happenings through the eyes of Jeff.  He's a stoner/slacker type who really isn't that bad of a guy.  Well that is until he eats his best friends and a ton of other people at his High School.  He's got a really honest voice, which I liked.  We also get to see the zombie happenings through Cass's eyes.  She pretty much a badass, psychic, superhero type and she's cool.  It was interesting to see the Government cover up where the zombies were concerned and with Cass's POV you really got a good grip on what was going on.

Amanda also plays a large role in things.  See she also turned all zombie and ate a bunch of her friends the same day that Jeff did.  There is even this really twisted romance, when she realizes that she digs our other flesh eating pal.  It's kinda gross, but also kinda funny.  It totally worked with the story, but also could have been done a bit better.  I never really came to like Amanda, but I think that might have been the author's intent.  Maybe it's not, but it kinda felt that way.  

So basically if you don't wanna know how people ended up munching on their friends, you need to skip this paragraph.  Okay, you've been warned, if you keep reading it's all on you.  Good old, brain munching, zombie times take you over if you've had sex with someone who is a zombie.  Yep, zombie-ism is an STD in Hart's zombie world.  I don't know.  The fact is that I just couldn't get behind that whole idea.  I felt like it was one of those things that you joke about with your friends over a beer, but Hart decided to use it in his book.  Sadly, it just didn't work.  But in all honestly I think this is a case of "it's me, not you".  I bet a whole bunch of people will love it though.

So when it comes down to it.  I think the characters are awesome.  The idea was genius, but in the end it just didn't work for me.  Something just didn't click.  I guess knowing that there are going to be more books is a good thing, because I felt like there were some defiant plot holes that will most likely get handled in later books.  I'd totally suggest this to people who love a good zombie book, cause even though it's not a personal favorite, I still enjoyed it for the most part.

Actual Rating: 2.5

 2 Unicorns = It was okay, but something just didn't work for me!