Zombies Vs. Unicorns, Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Something terrible has happened. I was totally Team Unicorn going into this book. I just really wanted to read about some awesome killer unicorns. And there were indeed some awesome killer unicorns. But I found myself completely seduced by Team Zombie! All of my favorite stories from this anthology are zombie stories.

As you have probably gathered, Zombies Vs. Unicorns is a short story anthology in which editors Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier pit their respective supernatural creatures against each other. Sadly, these two ladies (who are two of my favorite authors) did not write stories for this collection. However, they did write introductions to each story, which are full of smack talk about each others' teams and help bind the stories together.

Holly Black leads Team Unicorn, which includes Kathleen Duey, Meg Cabot, Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Naomi Novik, and Diana Peterfreund. Team Unicorn presents us with some traditional unicorns with healing powers, some ironic hearts-and-rainbows unicorns, and lots of killer unicorns goring people with their horns. My favorite unicorn story is Meg Cabot's "Princess Prettypants", which takes a kind of traditional coming-of-age story and adds a humorous unicorn who glows and farts flowers, and then helps the protagonist get revenge on the boys who have hurt her and her best friend. I also love Diana Peterfreund's story, "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn", which takes place in a world in which unicorns are going extinct, but they are considered nasty, bloodthirsty monsters.

Heading up Team Zombie is Justine Larbalestier, and shambling behind her are authors Libba Bray, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Carrie Ryan, and Scott Westerfeld. Carrie Ryan's story "Bougainvillea" is my favorite of the entire anthology. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, since as the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth series, Ryan is the zombie queen of YA right now. I love how she uses dual timelines to introduce us to the protagonist, Iza, and jump into the action simultaneously. The best part is the way she subverted the romance novels that Iza loves to read into an ending where Iza is a kick-ass girl who rescues herself instead of needing to be rescued by a man. Alaya Dawn Johnson's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a funny, sexy zombie story, which is something I never thought I'd say. And "Prom Night" by Libba Bray is a very clever take on a typical teen trope. In Bray's story, the adults have all been infected with the zombie virus, so the teenagers have driven all the adults out of town or killed them, and are running the town by themselves. It's a bittersweet story that takes place on a night when most teens want nothing more than for their parents to go away.

Zombies Vs. Unicorns comes out on September 21. Go Team Zombie!

Behemoth Cover

Scott Westerfeld shared the UK cover of his upcoming book Behemoth (sequel to last year's Leviathan) on his blog today. I love it! It almost makes me wish I was in the UK, because I prefer it to the American cover. I love the Darwinist elements -- the tusks and tentacles -- which mirror the Clanker gears on the Leviathan cover. I'm not crazy about the US cover for Behemoth. I think the photo-realistic style used on the cover counteracts the lovely ink illustrations in the novel, in a bad way. The two have drastically different looks, most noticeably in the skies: the UK cover has a clear, sunny sky, while the US cover has a dark, stormy sky. I'll definitely be interested in seeing which the tone of the book seems to match. Which cover do you prefer? (Left, UK cover; right, US cover)

That said, I'm eagerly anticipating the release of Behemoth (October 5), because Leviathan was just fantastic! But cover art is so interesting to me, and very important to me as a reader. Expect to see more posts discussing cover art on this blog, and a review of Behemoth when it comes out!

Next up: Zombies Vs. Unicorns

Coming up later this week, my next review will be the short story collection Zombies Vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. I got my advance copy signed at BEA by Holly and Justine, as well as contributing authors Scott Westerfeld and Alaya Dawn Johnson! I am loving it so far. Something is troubling me, though: while I initially thought I was Team Unicorn, I fear I am being swayed by Team Zombie! I don't want to become one of the shambling masses! Team Unicorn, don't fail me.

Countdown to Mockingjay

Only a week now until Mockingjay comes out! It's no secret that this is one of my favorite series in the past few years, so I'm very excited! Are you counting down, too?

Matched by Allie Condie

Matched is one of many in the slew of dystopian YA novels being released this year. I totally love dystopian fiction, and there’s been a ton of it released since The Hunger Games came out and was such a success. Hooray! And Matched has been getting a ton of good press, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on an advance copy.

We are introduced to our narrator, Cassia Reyes, just before her matching ceremony. Cassia lives in a world set many generations in our future, known as The Society. Citizens do not seek individuality, but betterment of The Society, so they do not own property or many possessions, they eat meals that are cooked for maximum nutritional benefit (not taste), and they marry the person they are Matched with. Cassia is overjoyed to find out that she has been Matched with her best friend since childhood, Xander. However, when Cassia gets home and plugs in the microcard with more information about her Match on it, Xander’s picture doesn’t show up -- Ky Markham’s does! Could The Society have made a mistake, or was Cassia meant to be Matched with Ky? This question haunts Cassia for the rest of the book as she discovers that The Society is hiding things from the citizens, and that they may not have the best intentions.

I wanted to like Matched more than I actually did. I enjoyed reading it, but I was expecting more political turmoil, more acts of rebellion, more anger. There’s not much action until the last fifty pages or so, and until then, I found myself frequently wishing that the pace would pick up. It turns out the book is actually more of a romance than anything else, and if you love romances, maybe you’ll like Matched more than I did. While I like a romantic story on the side, I am not a straight-up romance fan. The romantic element just wasn’t enough to hold my interest: for one thing, Xander and Ky are nearly interchangeable besides their family histories, so I didn’t have strong feelings about who Cassia ended up with. For another thing, author Condie introduced so many cool sci-fi elements that she hardly even touched, and I ended up spending a lot more time thinking about these things than Cassia’s Match.

First are the pills. Everyone in The Society carries a pack of three pills with them at all times. The blue pill provides enough nutrients to keep you alive for several days, as long as you also have water. The green pill is to “calm” you, and you’re allowed to take one a day. Nobody knows what the red pill does. The idea of these pills is so fascinating to me: why would such a seemingly perfect and self-sustaining society even think that its citizens would need the blue pill? In what situation do they imagine anyone would need to use it? The green pill reminds me of Brave New World, in which everyone is always doped up and happy. The green pill is clearly there to keep everyone from getting too worried or emotional, which keeps them under control, because happy people don’t question their government. When you find out what the red pill does, the reason for it is obvious. But nobody questions having to carry or take a pill when they don’t know what it does?

The Matching system seems surprisingly simple: Matches are determined based on personality and genetics, with the aim of producing the strongest, healthiest offspring. (This goal is paralleled by the work Cassia’s mother does at the Arboretum -- she breeds plants to create stronger hybrids.) Everyone seems to be happy with their Match. Cassia says that her parents love each other, and never mentions divorce or an unhappy marriage, which left me wondering if The Society is actually very good at creating happy marriages, or if people just deal with it (and take their green pills) because they’re afraid of causing problems. You can choose to be a Single, but apparently you have to decide that before your Matching Ceremony at 18 and don’t have the option to change your mind.

So what’s the final verdict? I was really intrigued by the premise and the world that Condie set up, but I was disappointed by the pacing and some of the characters lacking real definition. The book ended on a somewhat open note, and I’m pretty sure there will be a sequel. I just hope that in her next book, Condie explores the world outside the city where Cassia lives more, and delves into The Society and what their real purpose is, because there’s so much there to play with. It has a lot of potential, but if this was a stand-alone book, I wouldn’t have been satisfied. So here’s to hoping Condie has another book or two up her sleeve!

Matched will be released on November 30, 2010 and is available for pre-order from booksellers now.