Zombies Don't Cry-Rusty Fischer

Zombies Don't Cry
Rusty Fischer
Medallion, May 1 2011. $9.95
ISBN: 9781605423821

Maddy Swift is just an ordinary teen; content to stay in the shadows unlike her BFF Hazel who wants to join the in-crowd of Barracuda Bay. She has a crush on Stamp and hopes he will ask her to go with him to the Fall Formal Dance. On her way to meet Stamp, lightning strikes Maddy. When she regains consciousness, Maddy realizes she has no heartbeat and is not breathing. She concludes she has turned into a zombie; and learns so has some of the mean teens in her class.

She is taken to the Elders and Sentinels; they warn her to follow the rules of only killing the insane zerker zombies. Bones and Dahlia try to convert Maddy into a zerker. However, Dane and Chloe mentor her to keep her from turning into a zerker as she struggles to adapt. With her two friends, Maddy becomes resolute in stopping the zerkers who has a weapon to prevent the trio from succeeding in that they possess Stamp. She can kill the teen she cares about, change him into a good zombie with her bite if she wins the fight of her enimies, or let him change her into a zerker.

This “Living Dead Love Story” targets the Twilight teen crowd, but other zombie fanatics will enjoy the thriller too. Flashes of humor such as the zombie rules of orders and becoming zombies by a lightning strike brightens up for the most part this dark tale. Maddy adapts to her life change perhaps too easily, but this is partly due to her inner goodness. Still readers will wonder whether she joins the berserker side to be with Stamp, gets her beloved to join her team, or either (or both) dying permanently.

Harriet Klausner