Zombies vs. Unicorns

5 out of 5

Zombies vs. Unicorns is 5 stars all the way. The banter between Team Zombie and Team Unicorn is hilarious and creates a worthy story of it's own. Each short story was intriguing and compelled me to read on, and I'm sorry to say, want for more.

It also changed my mind a bit on the subject of unicorns. Being a zombie supporter, I lean much more toward science fiction than I do fantasy and I had only previously had silly, shiny pictures of unicorns in my mind. Thanks to the superb writing and imagination of these authors, I've had my imagination expanded and I'm actually intrigued enough to seek out atypical unicorn tales.

High Justice by Garth Nix

In true Garth Nix style, the writing was enticing and a quick read. His story was listed as Team Unicorn, which surprised me, but it wasn't that simple. I figured in the fight between zombie enthusiasts and unicorn loyalists, Nix would have fallen on the side of the zombie after all of the detail in his series on Necromancers and the inevitable undead that came along with it. Even though a primary character was a unicorn, there were undead present. Garth Nix; sneaky line-straddler.


Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson

This zombie-human love story stole my heart from the very beginning. I did suffer from my usual want of more information out of a short story, but the entire tale was well kept in these short pages. Her description of the zombie's prions inflicting humans like a hyperactive pheromone reminded me of the vampire-seduction explanations in Twilight.

Some of the themes in this love story that caught my attention were the zombie's explanation on the guilt of killing people, which was centered around music; 'It only bothers me sometimes. Like when they love Joy Division.' Social comments on our race in the sense of existence; 'Humans are lousy stewards of the earth,' and 'There are certain theories of suicide that propose that the more self-loathing one feels, the more violent the method one chooses.'

Needless to say, Johnson has a new and fast fan.


Purity Test by Naomi Novik

All I can say about this story is that it was rife with humor. And I may be pro-zombie, but who doesn't love the mental image of a heard of baby unicorns all calling out for chocolate milk?


Bouganivillea by Carrie Ryan

I loved the classic reformed, post zombie apocalypse format. The idea of defending and island, both from the undead and invasion, and the tierany it requires to maintain such defense always fascinates me. I wanted something more from this story, though.

The line 'Gravity pulls harder on troubles than on anything else,' is a line I can apply to life.


A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan

An interesting, if somewhat superficial, rumination on the idea of mixing human and unicorn DNA. Touted as beastiality, this story only dealt with the pregnancy of something so odd.


The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson

This story delved into the strange idea of keeping zombie children as some sort of house pet. No detail on whether they were acquired before or after they became infected. It didn't have the pandemic aspect that I enjoy in zombie stories.


The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund

I am going to look up what else this author has written. Her idea of a unicorn as a dangerous and nearly extinct animal was breath-taking. It was a little hard to take at times, due to the sadness and harsh look at reality, but it sucked me in. The main character struggled with religious expectations and moral dilemma over her new-found ward, the rigors of being an adolescent, and listening to the voice inside of her. Deciding that the voice inside of her was right, if only for her, struck an easy chord with me.

Wonderful, wonderful story. I'm glad it was the longest.


Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld

Class reformed society, trapped behind a fence, waiting out their days kind of zombie tale. I loved taking this ride with these kids; seeing how they managed to function on a daily basis and waiting, page after page, for the change. There's always a change.

Inoculata put the 'cure' idea in the hands of children.


Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot

This story took the bitchy, teenage girl in all of us and proved her wrong. Isn't that what parents always secretly hope for? For their teenagers to see the error in their ways?

As the title warns, this your traditional, gallant unicorn story with a lot of humor. So suck it up, cupcake.


Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare

I don't usually gravitate toward the voudin idea of possessed and risen dead (being the traditional sense of a zombie and not necessarily the brain and flesh consuming undead), but Cold Hands was a solid story in general. I like the underdog and a story about murder and zombie uprising was easily palatable.


The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey

If animals have the same percentage of instability and corruption than humans, I think this unicorn might have been a psychopath. Creepy. I'm almost tempted to read it again and see if I can figure out whether he was lying or not.


Prom Night by Libba Bray

Reformed society of teenagers after infection spread to the adults and caused them to attack their children. There is the bleak realization of diminishing resources, but the characters find lightness in their sorry example of a prom. I was worried at every turn, waiting for bad things to happen. It was a good ride. :)


I love how the concept of fear in media and current events has such a relevant impact on each decade and generation. It reminds me that whatever the situation, whatever the threat, it is only the current one that is the worst.

Everything Is Illuminated

4.5 out of 5

I love how the concept of fear in media and current events has such a relevant impact on each decade and generation. It reminds me that whatever the situation, whatever the threat, it is only the current one that is the worst.


My favorite part of this book was the flashback story of Jonathan's family in Trachimbrod. The novel could have been just that strange and fantastic description of the supposed shtetl and it would have been enough for me. I'd actually like to know more about that facet of the story. All of the narration involving Brod and times passed were so alluring, it's all I found myself making note of. Ladended with a unique sarcasm and life.

'Everything was just a thing, mired completely in its thingness.'

'There were so many things to attend to - so much gathering and throwing away; and after gathering and throwing away, saving what was salvageable; and after saving what was salvageable, cleaning; and after cleaning, washing down with soapy water; and after washing down with soapy water, dusting; and after dusting, something else; and after something else, something else.'

The characters of the Ukrainian family were actually captured better for me by the actors in the film, which I'd give an +A.

A Single Man

5 out of 5

I love how the concept of fear in media and current events has such a relevant impact on each decade and generation. It reminds me that whatever the situation, whatever the threat, it is only the current one that is the worst.

I was watching this movie and thinking to myself that the air of sadness was too strong for me to love it, truly. I had the thought that sad things are sometimes perfect in their sadness and moments later the line 'Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty' came up on the screen.

I am a sucker for this kind of British-influenced look at the late 50s and early 60s where a spotlight is shined on the unhappy housewife and overlooked homosexual. A Single Man is intriguing visually, not only in light of my propensity toward the genre, but the hue changes from dull to vivid each time the main character sees something he finds beautiful. I find the meaning to be that he couldn't see the beauty until the day he decided to kill himself and leave the world that is of equal parts beauty and pain.

Julianne Moore's eyeliner, college students smoking in class, chronic cocktail hour, and my least favorite era of architecture.

'I realize that everything is exactly the way it is meant to be.'

I loved it and I'll never watch it again.

Under the Dome, Stephen King

3.5 out of 5

Under the Dome is a harsh book, to say the least. It wasn't the imagery that was startling so much as the increasingly downtrodden theme of the story itself. It shouldn't have surprised me like it did, it is, after all, an apocalyptic tale. There was just such little peace to be found.

My interest lies in the recreating of society after massive catastrophe. Under the Dome described a thousand pages of societal collapse without any justification at the end. It felt like a downward slide into devastation.

I'm not usually a big Stephen King fan; I grow impatient with his slow, deliberate, descriptive pacing at times, but how could I resist such a stylized story in my particular genre of interest?

It wasn't all gloom and doom. If you avoid the rape scenes completely (yuck), the characters had wonderful depth and many aspects of a modern-day community ostensibly cut off from society caught me off guard. Shocking to see how a small town could decay is such a short period of time: political manipulation, mass hysteria, environmental impacts all piled up on the expected questions of fuel, food and water resources.

~~~

I'm sure I say this after ever book, but certain portions spoke to me. You find what you look for.

There was a character struggling with chronic back pain, dependent on medication. In one paragraph she mused over the mind-body connection of addiction: 'I think that when it comes to drugs, the body and the mind are co-conspirators. If the brain wants drugs, the body helps out. It says, "Don't worry, don't feel guilty, it's okay, I really hurt."'

In the months since I've read Under the Dome, that idea has really resonated with me.

SIERRA CLUB Guide to Close Up Photography in Nature, Tim Fitzharris

3 out of 5


This book is hard to review because it is way over my head in terms of photography knowledge.

The pictures are beautiful. The information on nature was harsh, being from the point of view of The Sierra Club, after all.

I am concerned with the environment, but sometimes it's nice to just enjoy nature without considering all the travesty that goes with it.

I will have to pick this book up again after educating myself on my camera. :)

20th Century Ghosts, Joe Hill.

3.5 out of 5

Contrary to the title of this book, it's very light on ghost stories. Out of the 16 stories, including the hidden one in the Acknowledgments, only three were about ghosts.

The book was interesting and although I struggle to find contentment with short stories, as I've mentioned before, I enjoyed them and wanted to know more. Joe Hill is particularly good at adding insult to injury for me by ending some of the tales rather abruptly and in an odd manner.

Also, his writing style reminded me a lot of Neil Gamon; main characters of young boys, frightening father figures, sexual honesty that I can't relate to, and an air of creepiness that leaves me grateful that I am only reading about such situations.

I really enjoyed the story Pop Art even though it had such a strong vein of sadness. As with many of the titles, Pop Art is a sneaky, misleading title. At least three of the stories involved baseball. which I always enjoy. There were tales of supposition of Bram Stoker's sons, the manager of a major league baseball team, and even the filming of a George Romero movie. The mention of Lovecraft caught my attention early on in the book and easy comparisons could be made.

My favorites where Pop Art, 20th Century Ghost, The Cape, Voluntary Committal, and Scheherazade's Typewriter. All in all, the book had interesting characters with intelligent writing squeezed into brief packets of ghastliness.

I'm not sure I can give this book the rating it deserves since I find myself so irritated with short stories. :(

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

3.5 out of 5

This is a cute young adult fantasy story. I was familiar with the tale, but hadn't ever read it, so I was surprised to find that A Wrinkle in Time is just the first book in L'Engle's time quintet.

The book introduced the idea of time travel via the fifth dimension of tesseract. Familiar with the string theory and the concept of time and space as a big sheet that can you simply bring two points together (a straight line between two points not being the quickest route), this was the first I had heard of a geometric explanation for it.

Beyond the theme of light versus dark, there was also the subject of global (and in this case galaxial) responsibility. In addition to the scientific concepts and ominous tasks, the story had a lot of levity. Silly and flamboyant characters who spoke only in quotes, mythical creatures, and two dimensional worlds.

The only reason I have scored this book so low is that the review is based on how I felt, not necessarily the merits of the work. I found myself getting impatient, like I do with young adult works and fantasy.

~~~

Isn't it funny how you find just what you're looking for, no matter where you look? I'm highly interested in quantum mechanics as an explanation of faith. This book reminded me of conversations I have had in my own life with topics like existence and limited human understanding; accepting that things exist without understanding them.

'...there's very little difference in the size of the tiniest microbe and the greatest galaxy.'
- Mrs. Whatsit, the comforter.

Shade's Children by Garth Nix

5 out of 5

Garth Nix, a young adult fantasy writer, is easily my favorite author over the last few years. I just reread Shade's Children in an effort to sate my interest in his short list of novels. Although Nix's other books are all classically characterized as fantasy, I found this one more intriguing since it fell a bit over the line of science fiction in my opinion. I enjoy science fiction more than fantasy because it begins with a tangible basis in subjects and places I am familiar with. Fantasy can be disorienting.

I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to dystopian chronicles, but this story was exactly what I favor; featuring the the abandoned earth, after the 'Change', as a playground for otherworldly creatures. There is no human left alive over the age of 14 except for the refugees who find shelter with a resonance of human personality left in a computer by the name of Shade.

Children are the easy resource of the invading creatures and thanks to the 'Change Talents' they now possess, some escape, survive and resist. Shade is an eerie benefactor though and you get the distinct feeling throughout the story that there is no safe place.

I fell easily in love with the characters (although the underdeveloped grammar of the character Gold Eye can become tiring) and found myself physically rigid in anticipation of their safety. I was drawn in by the survivalist theme and the unraveling reasoning behind the occupation of the creatures.

All in all, I would call this book a page turner, as with everything I've read of Garth Nix. I'm not sure I can be deterred by any theme or genre Nix chooses, I just enjoy the writing too much.