Flight into Fantasy

I’ve come to the conclusion fairly recently that my appetite for horror novels is not nearly as strong as it used to be. And not being a twelve-year-old boy, my tolerance for scatalogical humor isn’t all that high, either. But for some reason, Mark Henry works for me as an author. I absolutely adore his Amanda Feral series, of which Road Trip of the Living Dead is the second.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read my review of Happy Hour of the Damned, the first book in the series.

In this installment, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend Gil has started a vampire-making business. It goes horribly wrong, however, and the vampire he’s just made vows revenge. Plus, Amanda’s received news that her mother may be on the point of dying. So she, Gil, and their friend and fellow zombie, Wendy, embark on a road trip which turns out to be more exciting than any of them could have predicted. Along the way, they meet a hot werewolf, a creepy family, some cultists, and a moderately accurate psychic, as well as a host of others.

If you liked Happy Hour of the Damned you’ll like this installment. Amanda is still snarky, the jokes are often scatalogical, there are footnotes, and Henry still inverts and deconstructs urban fantasy tropes with aplomb. This time, Amanda gets a real love interest–or at least a lust interest, this being Amanda–which will complicate her life quite a lot. In fact, the requisite sex scene was absolutely hillarious, something I don’t find all that often.

I don’t really want to say much more about the book than that. Amanda should be experienced without my biases coming into play, and if I went into further detail, I’d be entering slavering fangirl mode, and nobody wants that.

There is a new book in this series, Battle of the Network Zombies which I have already purchased and plan to read. This series is great fun, and totally unlike anything else out there, as far as I know. A- for this one.

Other Opinions

• Love Vampires
• Tez Says
• The Book Girl

In which Amanda Feral herself is way cooler than I’ll ever be, and yet I found her charming rather than annoying.

Title: Happy Hour of the Damned
Author: Mark Henry
Genre: Urban fantasy
Excerpt: here
Reason for Reading: Mostly a lot of hype, and I was curious about a zombie heroine.
Synopsis:

Seattle. One minute you’re drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that’s just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle’s undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don’t judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.

Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters–not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo–isn’t easy. And the minute one of Amanda’s undead friends disappears after texting the word, “help” (The undead–so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.

Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle’s undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death…

My Thoughts: I have a love/hate relationship with urban fantasy. That is, I feel like I should hate it, and yet, most of what I’ve read has been quite good. I think my prejudices about the genre stem from the backlash to Laurell K. Hamilton, and so I keep expecting to encounter books featuring heroines who save the world with their magic koochies and bitch constantly about how life is soooo freaking hard what with a harem of men. And, actually, most of what I’ve read hasn’t fit that trope at all.

This book really doesn’t, either. It’s got a first person heroine, and she’s beautiful, but for the most part, that’s where the similarities end. Because saving the world? Not part of Amanda Feral’s busy schedule. It would probably make her stop being so glamorous, and that would be awful.

This book isn’t for everyone. If you’re at all squeamish, or you find off-color humor offensive, you might not appreciate Amanda’s often blunt, often gory account. Actually, I’m kind of squeamish, and I don’t find off-color humor funny in real life, though, and I loved this book, so take my advice for whatever you can.

Amanda is just a lot of fun as a narrator. She’s shallow and self-absorbed, but the intimate feel of the prose made me warm up to her quickly. I felt like I was having a chat with this woman… er… zombie… and the chatty style was a big factor in my connecting with Amanda.

The secondary characters aren’t nearly so vibrant, but they’re fun in their own way. The reader comes to care about them because Amanda does. Some of them are pretty stereotypical (the eventual villain is kind of transparent), but some of them are just fun. (Gil, Amanda’s gay vampire best friend) is a great parody of the emo vampire trope.)

The plot takes a while to get going, and Amanda often pauses in the action to exchange random asides. But the story is full of surprising tension, once Henry gets around to the main point. And it’s all very original. (I liked how, for example, instead of having a harem, Amanda gets one lousy sex scene, and one relationship ends badly because she does what zombies do best.)

Final Verdict: This is an awesome start of a new series I will be following slavishly. A for this one as well. Pick it up if you haven’t already and enjoy. Especially enjoy the footnotes!