Review: Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Title: Generation Dead (#1)

Author: Daniel Waters

Published: April 7, 2009

Pages: 401

Series: yes

Source: purchased

Amazon Summary: Phoebe Kendall is just your typical Goth girl with a crush. He’s strong and silent…and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren’t staying dead. But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn’t want them.

The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the “differently biotic.” But the students don’t want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn’t breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the “living impaired” from the people who want them to 

disappear—for good. When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her. But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

**REVIEW**

There was something about ‘Generation Dead’ that made me want to find out more. From the description it was clear that this was a different, new-thinking and surely not an intricate story about zombies. All pros for me. And I was just too damn curious about how the Phoebe and Tommy deal was going to play itself out - it had potential to be major (so maybe I'd been thinking of a certain insanely hyped supernatural romance..)

However - I was so bored. Two chapters in, five, ten, fifteen, twenty.. I could barely keep one eye open. I was struggling my way through, contemplating to stop reading altogether but then I wouldn’t have been able to write a true review and I was really hoping something BIG would happen if I just kept going. So I kept going and going and going. La la la. Treading water, treading water. Oh, it’s the end.

I prefer reading in first person point-of-view because you get to know the protagonist on a personal level third person obviously can’t do. But I normally don’t mind third person POV, it’s fine, as long as the author don’t go including characters you don’t care for or have any interest in and make you read about them.

I picked up the book to read about Phoebe and her encounters not, for example, Pete. I was appalled by Pete’s character and even though I understand Waters wanted the readers to learn about both sides of the zombie issue, I was just over it and eventually raced through Pete’s parts, only catching significant dialogue.Whether it was the third-person deal or not I felt distant to all the characters, like trying to overhear someone else’s conversation from afar, if that makes sense.

 As for the Phoebe-Tommy relationship I’d had such high hopes for. Well, nothing. I didn’t get how it came to be in the storyline. From point A to B they made no process at all. I wanted to finish the book and crave my own zombie boyfriend (yes, ridiculous) - it didn’t come anywhere near a mile of that but only made me raise an eyebrow and go, is that all?

Aside from the non-existent romance or relationship developement (which I can’t really overlook, but still..) I would’ve at least settled for the story being about dead people coming to life and trying to function in the world again. Simple. But Waters had wanted to present such a different, unlikely, and far-fetched backstory that it opens all these lids to questions that never gets answered and it all just made me roll my eyes a little. Like, really? There are only teenage, certain-states, American zombies, and it may or may not have something to do with fast food consumption? Interesting.

So at the VERY END it just barely starts to get exciting before the book ends. This is understandable since ‘Generation Dead’ is a series and Waters wanted to leave off with a cliff-hanger and have the readers purchase the next book but for me it’s a no-go. Unfortunately.

I’ve never been a person to consider the price when wanting to read a book thus never felt like a book wasn’t worth my money. But I guess there’s a first for everything and ‘Generation Dead’ was oh not worth my 12 dollars, I’m sorry to say. This turned out to be a real struggle for me and I skimmed the last chunk of the book.

My disliking the book had nothing to do with the author's writing skills.

(1.5/5)