Talkin' Bout Libba Bray

One of the few criticisms I've heard of Libba Bray lately is that she attempts to tackle too many concepts in each of her books. Well I agree--partially. That is, I agree that Bray bites off a whole heck of a lot with every book she writes but I am of the opinion that she does it with grace and humor. I've read a few things Bray has written, from her short story in Zombies vs. Unicorns (which I loved) to the series that originally made her famous--the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Now, I mean no offense to Miss Doyle and her delightful Victorian sidekicks, but I'd say that Bray has really hit her stride with her two most recent novels: Going Bovine and Beauty Queens.

Beauty Queens is sort of Lord of the Flies meets Sweet Valley High with a dash of 007 thrown in for good measure. When a plane of teenage beauty queens crashes on a desert island en route to the final pageant, the girls are stranded with nothing but their wits, some straightening irons, and their competitive spirit to survive on an inhospitable island, complete with giant snakes, quicksand, and hallucinogenic berries. Oh, and did I mention that an evil corporation also uses the island as it's super-secret base for arms dealing with some Very Bad People. Now include characters like a former-beauty-queen-turned-Presidential-hopeful (nudge nudge wink wink) who is also in bed (literally) with the aforementioned Very Bad People and a transgender former boy band pop sensation and you are only just beginning to glimpse the casserole of awesome that is Beauty Queens. It's wild but somehow not confusing or jarring, despite the half a dozen or more POV's used to tell the story. What's more, Bray somehow touches upon gender identity and roles, racism, consumerism, trust, and basically what it means to Be a Person Today. Of course, all of this post-modernism is peppered with periodic commercial breaks for Maxi-Pad Pets ("the revolutionary fashion maxi-pad that makes you feel like you've got a special friend in your pants").

Best Beauty Queens Quote--It's a toss up between these two:

"Miss Congeniality is an ambassador of smiles."

"Really, being a librarian is a much more dangerous job than you realize." (You said it, sister.)

Going Bovine is slightly less uplifting than a dozen or so marooned beauty queens but no less complex. Cameron has been diagnosed with a rare but fatal disease. He is going to die. Soon. So when a punk rock angel named Dulcie tells him he can be cured if he goes on a quest, he goes. Because that's what you do when you're going to die at sixteen years old. Along for the ride are Gonzo, a grumpy hypochondriac dwarf, and Balder, a former Norse god imprisoned in the body of a lawn gnome. But the absurdity of the journey leads Cameron to wonder whether this whole crazy trip is nothing but a fever dream as he lies in his bed at the hospital. The book begs the question, "What exactly is reality? And how is your reality any better than mine?" Well, that and, "Where is the best place to go for Spring Break?" It's a dark, surrealist comedy that should read a bit like an existentialist Russian novel--main character is deathly ill and questioning the fabric of reality, losing faith in a higher power, and generally shaking his fist in the face of the universe--but Bray's trademark blend of sincerity and sarcasm manage to ensnare young readers in a way Nikolai Gogol rarely can. Going Bovine also won the Printz Award in 2010.

Best Going Bovine Quote--This gem from Dulcie, in one of the few serious moments in the book:

"You people slay me. Always worrying, 'What will happen? What's next?' Always everywhere but where you actually are. You just don't get it. ... This is it, cowboy. The whole ride. Pay attention."

Though the stories are wildly different both are somehow touching, complex, and hi-freaking-larious. I listened to both as audiobooks and frequently laughed out loud, drawing wary, "are-you-going-to-murder-me-and-freeze-my-body-parts" glances from people near me. I love Libba Bray because she has the same caustic and sarcastic sense of humor that I do although she is, of course, way funnier than I am. (Feel free to disagree at any point here.) And then there's that whole fame and fortune thing. That can't suck.

(Because seriously, how could you not love this chick?)

The Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies are taking over the world. Seriously, they're everywhere. It seems hardly a week goes by when I don't hear about some new zombie book for teens or kids. So what's up with that? With their slow, clumsy gait and below average intelligence, they hardly make for the most terrifying monsters. An individual zombie all by its lonesome isn't so fear-inducing but the thing about zombies is that they're almost never all by their lonesome. They band together into masses of shuffling inevitability; they're always coming closer and there's always another zombie to replace the one you've just decapitated. Zombies are, quite literally, death personified--dark, cold, and inescapable. Whoa. Described thus, zombies become absolutely the most fracking terrifying monster in existence (other than giant spiders and Cthulu, of course).

(Because Cthulu is just wicked creepy. Seriously. Thanks for the nightmares, H. P. Lovecraft.)

So where did it all start? Wikipedia is a little unclear about the true origin of the zombie but it seems to stem from the voodoo traditions of West Africa and Haiti (or vodun or vodou, respectively). They didn't get much attention in popular culture, though, until the middle of this century with the horror classic "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). And let's not forget "Thriller," of course--the millions of teens attempting to imitate Michael Jackson's swivel-hipped zombie must not be lost. Since then, zombies have gotten a pretty constant stream of B-horror appearances and a few big hits.

But that meant maybe a few films a year, most of them ignored by the masses. The last half-decade has produced dozens and dozens zombie books, games, and movies and they're books, games, and movies that people are paying attention to. The redheaded stepchild of the horror genre has been shoved into the spotlight. Really, it's difficult to say what tipped the scale. Perhaps it was the sudden popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies," the hugely popular and totally addictive game. Or even before that with Simon Pegg's "Shaun of the Dead," which boasts a cult following in nerd culture (take that, "Zombieland").

I could give you lists of the dark and disturbing books for YA and many of them have been very worthwhile. For example, Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth has been very well received. (I am currently reading it so I will reserve judgement until a later date. Review to come.) Also popular right now, Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin, which tells the delightfully violent and bloody story of a boy coming of age just after the zombie apocalypse.

Personally, though, I like my zombies with a healthy dose of irony. Two of the best (read: my favorite) examples of these are Zombies vs. Unicorns, an anthology edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, and Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio

ZvU contains stories from YA powerhouses like Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, and Scott Westerfield (all of Team Zombie), who write stories of what a world with zombies might look like. Some of the stories are serious, some are funny, some are a little creepy--but in a very good way. Of course, the Unicorns are present, too. The book alternates between stories of zombies and stories of unicorns but the unicorn stories aren't all sweetness and light. Some of them are downright, disturbing, too.

I also picked up Zombie in Love recently. It's a children's book about a zombie named Mortimer searching for love who just can't seem to catch a break. He tries to give girls jewelry (with body parts of the original owners still attached) and they run away screaming. He takes ballroom dancing lessons (with a skeleton for a dance partner) but no one seems impressed. Will he ever find his zombie love? This was an adorable story for kids that had me laughing out loud. And when Mortimer finally does find the walking lady corpse to make his dreams come true, it's "love at first bite." Seriously, that's how the book ends. How can you not love that? Plus, you know, it shows kids that there's someone for everyone and that even flesh-eating creatures that go bump in the night deserve love. But mostly, zombies are just cool.

This post would not be complete without a mention of a new wildly disturbing trend, as well: zombie romances. Apparently it wasn't weird enough to fall in love with dead guys who had wicked pointy teeth and thirsted for your blood. Now we've got to fling ourselves at dead guys who want to gnaw our limbs off? Gack.

And one last word of warning: always, always, check the expiration date on your milk. Because you never know what might just set off the zombie apocalypse.