Review: Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby

PARANORMAL TEEN FICTION

A prom night Mia will never forget...

Quiet, unpopular, noncheerleading Mia is blissfully happy. Rob--super hot football god--has asked her to prom! Life couldn't get any better. Enter Samantha--cheerleader queen and Miss Popularity--who has made it quite clear that Rob should be her prom date. Mia is desperate to makes ure she doesn't end up dumped in front of the whole school. So with prom in just a few days, she turns to Candice--her holistic, hypochondriac best friend--and decides to try a love spell to make Rob stay with her. Unfortunately, she ends up inflicting a zombie virus on her whole class instead, and she is their zombie leader! At first, she loves all the attention. But when she learns from zombie hunter hottie Chase that her classmates will actually try to eat her in a few days, she's not too thrilled. She's sure she and Chase can figure something out, but in the meantime, she's suggesting that no one wear white to prom, because things could get very messy.

Eh. As you could probably tell from the summary, this book does not have very much substance, as far as paranormal YA books go. But along with its flaws, it did have some good points...

Starting off with Mia, our main character, a.k.a. Zombie Queen of Newbury High. She was an okay main character, as far as protagonists go. Her character wasn't particularly hilarious, and I didn't want to root for her--she just didn't have very much depth. But, on the plus side, she was a little clever, which made me warm to her a little more. And she gave up a life of popularity with Rob for her adorable romance with Chase, so that was a nice plus. But, what sucked was the way she spoke. What self-respecting seventeen-year-old-girl says "perhaps" every five seconds and never, ever, ever curses? Yeah, right. All in all, I think she could have been better, and the fact that this is the author's first YA book was kind of reflected in her character, but she was fine.

I think the best character in this book was probably Chase, the zombie hunter who was the first to put his finger on what, exactly, happened with Mia's screwed-up spell. I didn't find out very much about him, which kinda bothered me, but from what I do know, he was awesome. Kinda mysterious and good-guy, what with his zombie hunting skills, but then again, I didn't have a clue about his life outside from Newbury High. Why, oh why did Amanda Ashby not expand on this character and yet tell me all about Mia's life at home? The unfairness of our book world sometimes...tsk, tsk.

To be honest, the plot had potential. Bring on the salivating zombies and their hot hunter! Plus, throw in a hilarious main character who makes me want to root her on all the time, and you've got a fantastic book with depth, mystery, and suspense. When I read the back, I knew this book might not exactly have the most substance, but it could be a great one. But my expectations fell flat. The zombie action was very tame, as far as zombies are concerned, and while Chase was awesome, I didn't even get to know him. And on top of that, Mia was anything but funny and relatable. But the other quirky characters in this book, like Mia's best friend, and Mia's younger sister, kinda added to the plot a little bit. However, in the end, I was not satisfied at all.

Another thing I liked about the book was Mia falling for Chase. Okay, so Mia might not have been the best main character, but the fact that she's getting herself out of her crappy romance with Rob and enjoying life to the fullest by falling for Chase gave her some brownie points, in my opinion. I don't know if they were meant for each other or not, but what I do know is that Chase is definitely boyfriend material, and she was wise in choosing him over the stupid, jock Rob.

In the end, I have to say that this book is not one of the finest pieces of YA literature I've ever read. As a matter of fact, not even close. All I know is that if this author writes another YA book, I'll be a little more cautious in picking it up. Now, for the rating: Zombie Queen of Newbury High is the first book on The Wordy Wench to get a measly two stars.