Things just keep getting worse it seems for Phoebe and her friends. Now they have what appears to be a group of mad scientist after them. They are very cunning in their ways to get the "differently biotic" kids to let them "help" them. I can't decide if they are the good guys or the bad guys. They also have Pete Martinsburg to watch out for. He is banned from school due to that fact that he killed a fellow student trying to kill zombies. The fact that the student he killed came back is what kept him from jail time. He is also one of the biggest pieces of trouble the zombies have waiting for them around every corner. He and his band of zombie killing extremists are gunning for them all. He will do whatever it takes to prove to his new leader that he is hell bent on riding the world of all zombies. Even if that means he has to take out a few of the living in the process. ( )

This is a hard review, there was so much in this book that made me just want to throw it against the wall and never pick it up again. Pete and Duke's machinations mostly. The hatred they represented really got to me, at one point making me physically ill. But at the same time I feel "good" writing should make the reader feel something, make an impression, make them think and I cannot deny this book did all of that for me. I could not help but constantly compare this to the civil rights movement here in America not that long ago and can't help but wonder is this the way Martin Luther King Jr thought, is this the way people planned to show they were not going away either and that they no longer would be treated as different? Daniel Waters certainly gave me plenty to think about and for that I appreciate his hard work and hard words. ( )

First of all, Generation Dead is one of my all-time favorite books. I was super super excited to finally read the second book in the series. And I greatly enjoyed reading it.

But honestly, it's not the most well-written book ever. Maybe my standards have risen after taking in-depth writing courses, but I couldn't help but notice a lot of little things that interrupted the flow of the overall story.

I also didn't feel as drawn to some of the characters as I did before. Phoebe is kind of annoying, mopy, and indecisive, but she's not all bad. Margi and Collette are outrageously comedic. Adam is an extreme sympathy-inducing character, poor guy. Karen is interesting, as always. But everyone, especially Karen, makes a big deal about how many people fall in love with Phoebe, which is usually the case with urban fantasy. But really, it's only Adam and Tommy. Little bit of an exaggeration there.

All of that aside, I did enjoy it. There are so many plot progressions, which I LOVE. I love that the world of Generation Dead is getting bigger and expanding and getting complex and dangerous and revolutionary. I love how horrifying some of these things are. However, there are lots of things that were hinted at that weren't followed up on. Maybe they'll come in in a later book, but I kept wanting to know more about George and Karen, specifically. It's pointed out how "zombified" George is, with his eating habits and weird shuffling. And then it's pointed out how "human" Karen is. I really want to know what's going on with that.

Okay, I feel like I've read way too much into a lot of this book and criticized it in way too much detail. But this just shows how much I care about it... I just find the Generation Dead world so interesting. ( )

I read the first one of these books a couple months ago and absolutely loved it. This one was also good, although maybe not quite AS good. Probably because some of the novelty had worn off, and because it's a middle book - quite obviously waiting for its sequel. Nonetheless, this is still a very good series of books. I like the social commentary inherent in them, and I like the fact that the author can actually write. I'll definitely be looking for the next one. ( )

The Generation Dead series is about what happens to teenagers who die and come back to life as zombies. At the end of Generation Dead, Adam had been shot and killed saving Phoebe's life from his former friend Pete the night of the prom. In the aftermath Phoebe must deal with her feelings for both Tommy and Adam as she and her differently biotic friends negotiate a world that is increasingly more hostile towards them.

Waters work continues to over written and angst riddled. There are certain allowances that one often makes for a YA novel simply because working with teenagers as characters means that maturity of thought and or behaviour at times is extremely immature; however Waters quickly pushes through that tolerance with an angst level that is enough to drive adults to throw themselves on a bed and cry about not being understood.

As with Generation Dead Waters seeks to tackle oppression of zombies by using the oppression faced by historically marginalized bodies as a framework. This of course amounts to appropriation and belittling of what marginalized people face on an everyday basis. In Generation Dead Waters dealt with the word zombie as a slur and specifically discussed reclaiming this word. In Kiss of Life Waters ups the anti by having a traditionally biotic person complaining about the inability to say the word zombie without facing retribution.

"I got a detention yesterday for saying the word zombie. Everyone in the room, even Tommy who Phoebe hadn't seen crack a smile since homecoming, seemed to think that was pretty funny. Alish laughed out loud, unmindful of his daughter's warning glare." (pg 28)

Of course they laughed. It's not like slurs hurt or stem from a historical method of dehumanizing minorities or anything right? This is specifically why the word zombie regardless of Waters intent should never be considered a slur even in a fictional sense. Then Waters decided to double down on his error by having the character complain about losing his girlfriend because of his relationships with differently biotic people (pg28), and in response the zombies only laughed. This is not a realistic response to this sort of appropriation and anyone who had any experience dealing with a slur would know that.

For the first time, we have the introduction of a gay character. Popeye is artistic and the mastermind behind the zombies social protest, though he does at time play second to Tak. We first learn that Popeye is gay when he makes a comment about how short Karen's skirt is and Tak wonders, "if Popeye got away with his innuendos because he was gay." (page 147) We quickly learn that not only is Popeye gay but he is in love with Tak who has hinted that he has no hope. "Popeye, he knew, wasn't really deterred. That was one curse that didn't leave when you died. The curse of hope". (149) I don't know about you but I am pretty sick of the trope that involves a gay character mooning over a straight character. There is no reason why Popeye could not have been given his own love interest.

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