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    Generation Dead
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    Generation Dead
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    Generation Dead
    Ebook362 pages8 hours

    Generation Dead

    By Daniel Waters

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Stephenie Meyer meets John Green in this original supernatural romance!

    Love knows no boundaries . . . even death.

    Phoebe Kendall is just your typical goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent . . . and dead.

    All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn’t want them. 

    The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the 'differently biotic'. But the students don’t want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn’t breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the 'living impaired' from the people who want them to disappear—for good. 

    When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her. But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

    The first book in the bestselling Generation Dead series.

    Also by Daniel Waters:
    The Kiss of Life
    Passing Strange
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateMay 27, 2010
    ISBN9780857071279
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Generation Dead

    3.5/5

    347 ratings51 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book started out hard to get into. There wasnt much info on what caused the zombie outbreak and there wasn't really any resolution at the end either. The action was sorely lacking for this type of book. I finished it, and mostly forced myself too because of how long its been on my TBR.
    • 4/5
      So I went into this book expecting it to basically be a high school book with zombies in it, but it turned out to be much more.Yes, it takes place in high school and there are zombies, or differently biotic, but this book really delves deeper than that. It goes into the political and philosophical conflicts surrounding discrimination. Waters perfectly reflects real world discrimination and applies it to the paranormal theme of zombies. It was amazing. With such concepts as passing, redefining derogatory terms, violent opposition, capitalizing on a movement, and couples from different groups, Waters raises some really interesting points on how we think of the people around us.While the plot was simple and a bit slow, I really enjoyed how Waters pulled from various groups such as the Civil Rights Movement, perfectly personifying the philosophical differences in Martin Luther King Jr versus Malcolm X. The characters were well-developed and even the zombies were three-dimensional and easy to like. I really was not expecting to like this book as much as I did, but the discussions of discrimination were actually very intelligent and interesting to read. A very "smart" book with enough plot to keep it interesting.
    • 4/5
    • 5/5
      A blatant metaphor for homophobia (but with actual queer characters, too), but an interesting twist on the zombie apocalypse genre.
    • 5/5
      Generation Dead isn't your typical zombie book. You won't find rotting corpses nor do the zombies hunt their living counterparts. They may as well be just like you and me, only dead and slower in their speech and movements.
      Phoebe, our main character is a goth, which in this book is kinda odd; seeing as there are dead kids in her school. For some unknown reason the youth of America has been coming back after they die. In Generation Dead, there is no rhyme or reason as to why this is going on, nor does anyone understand why certain teens come back and others don't. And it is only the teens that are coming back, no zombie adults here! The town of Oakvale seems to be one of the best places for the "living impaired" to be, seeing as they are allowed to attend school at Oakvale High.
      Tommy Williams is the "living impaired" kid that Phoebe becomes intrigued by. At first she doesn't want to be anything more than his friend, and even then her "live" friends are kinda iffy about that. Margi is Phoebe's best girlfriend and while she is goth like Phoebe, she wants almost nothing to do with the dead kids. Adam is a football player and while him and Phoebe are friends and neighbors, they don't really hang out or talk much at school in the beginning. Adam is realizing that what he feels for Phoebe may just be something more than friendship, and he doesn't really like the fact that she is starting to like Tommy, although he is more accepting of it and the dead kids than Margi is.
      There is a lot of drama, normal teen-angst and romance in the book, and while most of the obvious questions don't get answered in this installment, I feel confident that we will begin to get some answers int he next two books. The writing is amazing and I could really see the "living impaired' in my head. I felt as though I was at most of the places that the kids all ended up and experiencing what they were. It isn't often that i can get sucked into a book so much that I dream about it, but Generation Dead had me dreaming of Adam and Tommy on the football field for their one game, and dreams of Homecoming with Phoebe in her "moonlight" inspired dress.
      I am impatiently searching and waiting for the remaining two books in the series and can't wait to get my hands on them, especially after the sad but happy ending of Generation Dead.
    • 3/5
      Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. First of series, #2 Kiss of Death, #3 Passing Strange (in which Karen, the most "life like" of the dead teens, reveals she's a lesbian, committed suicide after denying her feelings for best friend Monica, and has suddenly gained the ability to heal herself.)
    • 5/5
      This is a book about zombies......teenage zombies. Not only do these kids have to deal with the normal "teenage drama" but they now have to deal with the recently departed coming back to life and high school. Oh, how the whispers fly in this town. It seems that just the teenagers have the ability to come back from the dead. But they are not your normal "zombies". They don't want to eat your brains like the movies portray. They just want to fit back in. Not the easiest thing to do when you don't breath, eat, have a heartbeat, any color to your skin other than grey, not to mention the fact that some differently biotic kids still had the visible signs of their deaths. Which means for some of them, that they don't fit in in their own homes either.
      Trouble really starts when some of the town folks jump on board the band wagon of "zombie destruction". Thank goodness for Phoebe! She is not a zombie nor is she afraid of the differently biotic. In fact she finds them fascinating. So much so that she helps to head up a team of friends to support the safety of her new differently biotic friends. But will she be able to save them all? "Run zombies, RUN!"
    • 4/5
      This book was much better than I thought it would be when I bought it. When I bought it, I expected some sort of silly Twilight knockoff with zombies...but that wasn't it at all. If I had to describe it, I would describe it as a Twilight/Frankenstein (and by Frankenstein I mean Mary Shelly's book, not the dreadful movies) mixture by an author who can actually write. As opposed to Stephenie Meyer (sorry, Twihards). The book was engaging, thought provoking, touching and actually at times heartbreakingly sad, the characters were very well developed (especially for a young adult's book) and the prose was engaging and well written. I will definitely be looking for the second book.
    • 3/5
      Cute, fun, light YA read. Think Walking Dead meets High School Musical without the singing or the brain eating. The book is intriguing, because the platform itself is quite original for a zombie book. In this book, there is a weird phenomenon. Only TEENAGERS rise from the dead, & not ALL of them come back, & there is no way to predict which ones will or will not. Only AMERICAN teens as well, none in other countries around the world. So it was interesting on that unusual premise. Some of them are trying to fit back in to their old lives, attending their high schools, etc. This book is about a cast of characters who has to learn about love & friendships among both the living & the returned.Nicely done for the author's very first book, & the way the ending is written, it begs for a sequel.....which it has!
    • 4/5
      This book was much better than I thought it would be when I bought it. When I bought it, I expected some sort of silly Twilight knockoff with zombies...but that wasn't it at all. If I had to describe it, I would describe it as a Twilight/Frankenstein (and by Frankenstein I mean Mary Shelly's book, not the dreadful movies) mixture by an author who can actually write. As opposed to Stephenie Meyer (sorry, Twihards). The book was engaging, thought provoking, touching and actually at times heartbreakingly sad, the characters were very well developed (especially for a young adult's book) and the prose was engaging and well written. I will definitely be looking for the second book.
    • 3/5
      I guess zombies are the new vampires. There's a strange phenomenon at UMass involving zombies, and there's a zombie Jane Austen book apparently, and so on. I've never been a horror fan and have never actually been interested in zombies but this book was strangely compelling and had a few new ideas. It's doing that Sookie Stackhouse style Civil Rights for Monsters extended metaphor (for what, I'm not exactly sure in either case... maybe LGBT movements, maybe immigrants, maybe people with disabilities). I'm both tired of all these sloppy attempts at monsters as extended metaphors and also successfully hailed by the attempts. I dunno. It's obviously going to be a series, and I imagine I'll read the next one. I don't know Daniel Waters but he seems like a smart guy taking a payday with an almost-real idea. Is it me or is the trace of capitalism particularly obvious in the YA section of any given bookstore? So many series, so many Harry Potter or Twilight ripoffs (aka ripoffs of ripoffs)... How many stories really NEED to be a series of books? And yet also there's so much good stuff coming out under the sign of YA...


    • 3/5
      A student loaned me her copy. I enjoyed the story and by the end started to care for the characters, but there was just something missing. I felt like every character had three names and I was constantly rereading to figure out who was talking.
    • 3/5
      In the book Generation dead Phoebe was the main character. Phoebe was an outcast. But she was surrounded by zombies. In her generation most all teenagers who die come back to life as zombies. This decease was not common for anyone under 13 or over 19. When these people came back to life as zombies they would not be the same, they would not only be pale but they would walk very slowly and their brain processed things a lot slower than the average human. When a teacher would ask a zombie (other wise known as the living impaired) a question it would take them 20 times longer than someone alive would take to answer the same question. This book in the beginning was good but as it went along it was hard to "want" to read it. It seemed the same the same thing every chapter. For me it was not worth reading, but for some it is very good. Overall I would not recommend this book to most people only because it was hard to be interested in the book.
    • 5/5
      Second Time Reading:It's difficult to sort out all the thoughts left with me in the first few moments after finishing a book as good as Generation Dead. There's a lot of internal squeezing, and a lot of simply mindblown-ness at the whole thing. When listing the genre of this book, I was slightly appalled that it's "urban fantasy" or "romance". Because it's so much more.True, there's the ocassional typo, and I'm pretty sure one character's name got changed several times (Harris Morgan -- Morgan Harris? Which is he?), but Daniel Waters has still managed to write one of the most -touching- and -thoughtful- books I've ever read. I hate using those clichéd words, but it's true.The beauty of the story aside, the mystery aspect has me throroughly enthralled. What are the zombies hiding? What will happen to Karen and Colette and Adam and Phoebe?
    • 4/5
      I enjoy Waters books in this series. Captivating young adult, teen book about a world where teenagers can become zombies (perhaps the intake of fast food? the scientists just don't know). If you have an interest in paranormal fiction books, this one is for you!
    • 4/5
      Cute, fun, and interesting! No other book about zobies can be quite this good. Young children and teens start coming back from the grave. They just want to fit in, and are like any other kid except for being dead, slow, and missing some body parts. No one seems to understand them but thats soon gonna change! Teaches how mean society can be and how hard it is to fit in.
    • 3/5
      Mixed reactions on this one. The YA specialist liked it a lot, while the Romero aficionados were less impressed (but then they rarely like the thinking zombies).
    • 4/5
      Generation Dead is the first of a YA series about teenage zombies. For some unknown reason, teenagers who die are coming back to life. At Oakville High there are a few zombies or 'living impaired' students that are trying to get back to 'living'. Phoebe, a gothic-looking live girl, is intriqued by Tommy, a high functioning 'living impaired' student. Much of Oakville High, and the rest of the country, have a hard time with zombies mixing with the living. But that doesn't stop Phoebe and her friends, Adam and Margi, from befriending the undead.I thought Generation Dead was a very interesting take on zombies and not what I expected. Unique fantasy novel about ignorance and acceptance.
    • 4/5
      I didn't know anything about this book when I picked it up and certainly wasn't looking for it as I walked by the Twilight-infested Young Adult section of my local bookstore, but the cover image of a decidedly dead cheerleader sprawled out on a wooden bench did manage to catch my eye. Add to the fact that I thought the author, Daniel Waters, was the same Daniel Waters who wrote the film Heathers (he's not) and I picked up the book on pure impulse. It's a quick, entertaining read about high school kids who are forced to face up to the fact that their deceased classmates are coming back to school. That's right, I'm talking zombies. But not the stereotypical shambling, brain-craving ghouls of the George Romero school. These zombies, or "differently biotic" kids, as they are classified, try to move on with their "lives" as best they can. While a select few have some lingering effects of death holding them back, their main obstacle is the ridicule and fear they experience at the hands of their classmates. Luckily there are a few compassionate characters who don't want to form a torch and pitchfork-weilding mob to wipe out their misunderstood, undead peers. Those who were ostracized during high school will be able to relate, and even those more popular kids might have their eyes opened by this book. This is the first part of a series and the second book - Kiss of Life - has just recently been released. As I enjoyed the first, I'll most likely check out the sequel.
    • 3/5
      Awesome title, isn't it? I liked how it focused on the whole "zombies are people too, and we should not segregate" issue ... yes, I am writing that line as if zombie discrimination is a cultural issue we face in today's world. *snigger*The love story was a little bland, and strange at times. To be clear, this book is very thought provoking, and has an important message I hope filters through. It's interesting (this is about to get gross) but technically if you fall in love and have sexual relations with a zombie it becomes necrophilia ... who's grossed out now?! I had that realization in the middle and struggled to finish because I kept thinking ... "please let her choose the human and not the zombie", and usually when I read a paranormal, I'm on the supernatural love interest's team.Anyhow, good book, a little slow some places, but nice if you get tired of reading about zombies as brainless, well, brain eaters.
    • 5/5
      A strange phenomena is happening all across across America. Certain Teenagers are dying... then coming back from the dead. Phoebe is willing to accept this and get to know the 'Zombies' but others, like Pete and Margi, are finding it more difficult. Margi feels the most guilt after ignoring one of her closest friends when she came back.When Phoebe first meets Tommy, she finds him really intriguing and writes a poem about him, giving it to him on impulse. Can a dead kid and a living girl ever be accepted by society? Adam is in love with Phoebe and he hates seeing her with the 'Dead Kid' and had to deal with Pete's lecherous ways towards Phoebe. And Pete hates the 'Dead Kids' and wants them dead... forever. And he might just achieve that. A thought provoking story that leads to a dramatic and shocking ending in the first book in the Generation Dead series, this book will leave you wanting more...This is one of my favourite books this year (2010). I started reading it fully expecting not much at all and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that this story was really well thought out. The Living Impaired kids are being killed off by various gangs and a mysterious white van that we don't discover about just yet, dying (again) in horrible ways. Legally, too, as there is no law that states that a 'Zombie' has rights. They cannot vote, they can be killed, they can't even have a library card. I'm interested in the Politics of this as the series progresses. I'd like to see if the laws the Zombies want are put in place, because even the Government seem to be against them.I read somewhere that the characters were 'cardboard' but I believe that this is incorrect. They have personalities, I can connect with the characters, so for me personally they are not cardboard.Pete, oddly enough is one of the characters I felt the most sorry for. He had a friend, Julie who died and he feels so much hate towards the Zombies because she never came back. He attaches himself to Phoebe because she reminds him of Julie, even accidentally calling her Julie occasionally.Adam, I admit, is a little cardboard. He's a Jock who's fallen in love with his best friend. He follows her around like a puppy and rather reminds me of Jacob from the Twilight books.Tommy is an interesting character. The story has three narrators, Phoebe, Adam and Pete but I would have liked to see Tommy's side of the story too. He seems like a nice person and all but I think he's just using Phoebe to make a statement.
    • 4/5
      I've read a few zombie novels now, and am loving them. Some are post-apocalyptic and scary (Forest of Hands and Teeth), some are classic-funny (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), and others are a bit of a social commentary. Generation Dead is more of the latter. It's not the most plausible, but it is interesting.The plot almost reminds of an integration story. Zombie teens (created after death from a combination of a mysterious brain fungus and teen hormones) are now a part of society in the United States. So, they are starting to want to do normal things, like have jobs and go to school. Some parents are accepting of their "differently biotic" children; others are not. There is discrimination and bias and there are stereotypes and violence.As typically biotic children and the undead start to mingle, relationships start to form. This is true of the main character, Phoebe, and her love interest, Tommy. He catches Phoebe's eye when he tries out for the football team. Of course, there are protests and anger and outrage at a zombie trying out for football. The living do not want their children mingling (or showering) with the undead.But Tommy's just trying to prove a point. The he can do what the living can do. That the undead have rights that did not end when their hearts stopped beating. This whole civil rights aspect of this novel definitely made me think of other struggles for equality and acceptance. Certainly, I was reminded of the Civil Rights Movement, but also of more current issues like the fight for equal rights for gays and immigrants.I loved this parallel. I did not get upset that there was little of the typical zombie stuff in this book. There were no zombie teens craving brains. No humans fleeing from the undead. If anything, the zombies were more at-risk from the breathers in this book. It's definitely a different take on a fairly typical paranormal subject, and it's one that I enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      This book was good. Really good. I’m a total zombie fanatic so when this one popped up I had to get my hands on it as quick as I could. Despite it’s thickness it was definitely a fast read for me. The plot was pretty good, but had some inconsistencies that made me blink twice. Although the book stated that the living impaired was only limited to the USA (such as the quote below):First: “Apparently neither did teenagers in Uzbekistan, Burkina Faso, Sweden, or Papua New Guinea for some reason. But kids from Oklahoma, Rockaway Beach, the Big Apple, Arkansas, or the Big Easy all bore at least a chance of winding up living impaired as long as they croaked during the teen delicate years”YET you get this later on in the novel: “And there are two dead kids in Canada now”.um..ok? so..is it a phenomenon worldwide? or is it only in North America? last time I checked Canada wasn’t part of the States. Was it a spur of the moment for the author to have the living impaired issue spread throughout the continent? This bugged me. A lot. Although it didn’t take me away from the novel but this sort of mistake does look bad. Perhaps I’m being too picky, but to me, the error is rather obvious and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Especially when you have this (via the Amazon website) from the back cover of the novel:"All over the country, a strange phenomenon is happening. Some teenagers who die aren’t staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same—they stutter, and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed “living impaired” or “differently biotic,“ they are doing their best to fit into a society that doesn’t want them." Consistency, please. Either have it all over the world, or in one country or continent and stick with it. Don’t change it around to suit your purposes. I will praise the characters in the novel though. They were all different, and each had a distinct personality (even the living impaired did!). Out of all the characters, I liked Karen DeSonne. She stood out to me as the most mature, and even though she didn’t have a big role in this book, I felt as if I wanted to know more about her, and her side of the story. On the other hand, I really hated Pete. Now I know the characters in this book are very close to their stereotypes (you have a Goth, some jocks, some of the popular girls, etc) but Pete is your typical Jock Jerk (notice the caps yes?). Everything about him was so vile I almost wanted to clean my eyes out whenever he leaves a scene. He sums up everything I hated about these kinds of guys in high school. He’s just so horrible you either want to spit in his eye or punch him in the face, or both if you’re feeling extra generous. As to the Phoebe/Adam/Tommy triangle, I’m not sure what to say. I like both Adam and Tommy so I’m not sure which “Team” I should root for. The ending of this book shocked me and I didn’t see it coming, which means, obviously, I will be reading the second book of this series. Readers will see obvious comparisons and ideas drawn from the Civil Rights movement (which may be good and may encourage readers to read more on the issue). Despite its flaws, I still found it a great read - it’s perfect for teens but also equally enjoyable to those of other age ranges as well.
    • 4/5
      When it comes to paranormal, I think the furthest thing down on my list of interests would be zombies. I like them, especially in Romero's movies, but reading about them has never been something that I've caught on to. Then why, oh why, did I pick up this book? Easy ... the cover. I seriously think it was the boots the cheerleader was wearing - I kind of have a fetish for boots that look like that. Guilty pleasure.From the first paragraph, I was absolutely hooked. There were a few slow places, but it always managed to pick back up and hold your interest. I was absolutely enthralled by the characters. They were developed brilliantly -- especially Adam, who you could see changing practically right before your eyes. He was an absolute delight. But Adam's not the only one ... I like that Phoebe was not concerned about what people thought and actually gave the zombies (or "differently biotic") a chance. Karen was also a great character, evolving as the story went. She made a true effort to become more like the living than some of the other characters. Tommy was the unofficial spokesperson of the living impaired, and he really had a way of teaching you about them, as well as gaining your empathy. The character that I didn't think developed enough was the token bad guy, Pete, but I think that's just because we don't really know enough about his past ... so, his actions seem a little extreme. I'm not a huge fan of the ending. I know there's a reason for it and it just seemed inevitable when you read closer to the ending, but I didn't want it to happen.Overall, this is a wonderful read. I'm really glad that I picked it up at the library and I look forward to reading the sequel ... which looks like I'll have to purchase since our library system doesn't have a copy. The writing is wonderful, the plot is good -- except for the ending -- and it's a pretty decent read. Not the quickest read out there, being almost 400 pages, but it honestly doesn't seem like it's that long.
    • 5/5
      Let me start out by saying I love the idea. I love the way the author justifies turning the teenagers into zombies, it was absolutely genius. That being said, I loved the rest of it too. It was an interesting story that I devoured.
    • 4/5
      This wasn't a bad little Young Adult read. This will be compared to Twilight, but it's so much better. Instead of vampires like Twilight, this has to do with zombies. As I said this is much better. The Plot: The plot is pretty interesting to read. The students at Oakview High have an interesting problem. The students that die, don't stay dead, they rise up. When they rise, they resume their lives (or lack of their life). They go to school and some are on the sports teams, an d not all of the jocks, students and coaches like it. The zombies are seen and treated like second class citizens, the scum of the Earth. Phobe is into the entire Goth scene and really doesn't have a problem with the zombies..... and might have a crush on Tommy, the leader of the undead. How will people around her, friends, family, and other kids at school treat her for liking Tommy? You have to read this to find out. I can promise you won't be sorry. Now these zombies aren't your parents rotting flesh, lumbering around, brain eating, and horrible stench zombies. Actually, they pretty much look and sound like regular people. They just talk a bit slower. They're not really called "zombies" or "undead", but rather "living impaired" and "differently biotic". What I liked about this is the parallels to racism. The zombies are treated differently just because of their undead living status. For me, this really stuck out and kuddos to Walters for making that subject line in the book Outstanding! This is so much better than Twilight. If you start this book, I can promise you won't be sorry. I know I wasn't.
    • 3/5
      Summaries can be deceiving, and I don't mean that in a bad way against the book. In a matter of fact I probably would never have read this book if my friend hadn't pestered me into reading it. I have seen this in the store before, many times (even though I borrowed it from the library). I have read the bio many times as well, and each time I put it back down because it didn't grab my attention. Though that isn't the reason I say the summary is deceiving. I say it, because a lot of the things mention in the bio don't really feel like they happened in the book. Now if I point out where it's going to be sort of spoiler-ish. An example would be probably the whole Phoebe-Tommy relationship, and that kind of goes into a opinion that I have. Something that I'll bring up later. So when I was deciding on what I was going to rate this, I was crossed between a 5 stars and 3 stars. I came to a agreement, to myself, that it should be rated 3 stars. Now don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant, amazing ideal, realistic metaphor to how teenagers really act. Daniel Waters captured teenager life and spun it into a tale using zombies as outsiders. It was simply, pure genius and I adored the thought and imagination that went into this. But I felt, giving it 5 stars would be a lie to people about how I felt about the book. The story & everything was so well crafted and beautifully done, but I really didn't enjoy it. I found it to be really slow and lacking action or events happening. I felt that even though all the characters POV (told from Pete's, Adam's and Phoebe's POV) were well put out, they lacked in natural thought. They were more in narrating. The most well crafted character was probably Pete. You understood him the best and saw him develop from being a jerk to stepping the line of of the things that haunted him. The second most developed character was Adam, and then came Phoebe. Adam's love for Phoebe really became understandable by the end of the novel, you certainly felt for him. But the book lacked in showing love between character relationships. The emotion in the book was always right on, you always felt what the characters felt. But the love issue was clearly not developed enough and was not brought up a lot, even though it became the main focus of the ending. You don't really see Adam's love for Phoebe clearly. At the end, you do. But that's the only time. With Phoebe, I didn't really feel that she fell in love with Tommy. It seemed more like a friendship, which is why I thought the bio seemed wrong. You also don't really understand why she fell for him or what she likes about him. I thought the whole relationship between Tommy and Phoebe was really undeveloped, and there was not enough chapters or times when they were together to develop there relationship. I also started to hate Tommy by the end of the novel, it seems *and this thought will probably continue in the sequel* like his purpose for dating Phoebe is to feel cool. It's like he's using her, and I really hated that. He also hesitated *can't tell you where because it will be a spoiler*. Adam didn't hesitate. Adam proved his love for Phoebe at the end, making me cheer for him. Also we don't find out what happens to Pete at the end, making you want to read the sequel to find out. My favorite two characters were probably Karen & Takayuki. Read the book and you'll understand why Karen is my favorite, you'll just love her personality. Takayuki seemed so mysterious and mean. You don't really get to see much of him in the novel, but by the looks of the preview of the second book, it seems he has a bigger part in the sequel. Which makes me want to to read the sequel for him.Generation Dead was a amazing piece of work, that is truly original like nothing you've seen out there. But you probably won't be thinking about two weeks after you read it.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book in Generation Dead series by Daniel Waters. Right now, I believe that 5 books are planned. The 2nd book "Kiss of Life" came out May 2009 and the third book "Passing Strange" is planned to release in May of 2010. I really liked this book. The book itself deals with deeper issues than the somewhat hokey cover would lead you to believe.Suddenly American teenagers who have died are coming back to life. There is only a small percentage of them that return to life and no one knows why. Phoebe's high school is considered to be one of the better schools for the "living impaired" or, more politically correct, "differently biotic," teenagers. When Phoebe meets Tommy, she is fascinated by the fact that he is dead but still very intelligent and very focused. When Tommy tries out for, and makes, the football team he meets Adam, one of Phoebe's best friends. Tommy joining the football team upsets a lot of people who believe that the "Dead" kids should stay dead and buried. Then a research foundation asks for kids to join a study work group focused at helping relations between the traditionally biotic (trads) and the differently biotic (zombies). Suddenly Adam, Tommy, Phoebe, and a few others who join the study group find them selves targets for violence and are ostracized.When I started this book I was concerned that this would be just another young adult high school drama but with zombies. It is a lot more than that. Waters creates characters that are very personable, engaging, and believable. Phoebe is a wonderful sweet and smart girl; who communicates very effectively with her parents and her friends. Adam and Tommy are also great characters. In fact every single character in this book is very well developed and interesting to get to know. This isn't a story about some crazy zombies, it's a story that talks about how society deals with things that are different.I was also impressed with how Waters treats the living impaired teenagers. This book is approaching un-death as a disability or a new race. As such many social and political aspects of society are realistically dealt with in surprising depth. Many questions about how having a new race of un-dead teens affects family life, school life, social life, and the world as a whole are dealt with.So, overall I thought this was a surprisingly well-done book. Of course, you do have the standard things a lot of teen books have. You have a love triangle between Tommy, Phoebe, and Adam to create some tension between the characters. You have a prom dance, and you have the standard jock jerks that try to make everyone's lives miserable. These things were dealt with tastefully though.The only thing I didn't like about the book was the middle of it. I thought that the story started to drag a bit in the middle. The whole portion where they are forming the support group could have gone a bit faster. Also it would have been nice to have more urgency to the plot and maybe something urgent happening. You have the whole impending sense of doom that something bad is going to happen to the undead kids, but other than that there isn't a ton to the plot. That being said, the beginning and ending of the book kept me pretty hooked; given the ending I wish I had "Kiss of Life" in hand so I could start reading it now. I will definitely be keeping up with this series.
    • 5/5
      Hello, i went to the sheffield childrens book awards it was fabulous, just like this book, i love the book and have currently started the next one (22/01/10)I am loving it so far, gotta read goodbye
    • 4/5
      I'm in two quite separate minds about this book. On the one hand, the story is solid, the characters are sympathetic and one cares about what happens to each and everyone of them. The social and anthropological observations re: human (specifically, teenage) interaction are touching because they are plausible - were actual dead youngsters to return as zombies and attempt to reintegrate themselves in a school setting, reactions would be as complex and contradictory as they are portrayed here. Also effective is the multi-perspective narrative: though the book is written in the third person, we are taken inside the minds and hearts of several of the characters in turn and gently urged to consider their point of view. Even the main baddie, while being too far gone into evil to be felt sorry for, is given enough psychological depth for the reader to understand just why he is evil. On the other hand, the writing is a bit repetitive, editing becomes rather sloppy in the latter part of the book (missing punctuation, inverted words, that kind of thing), and the I'm-such-a-cliffhanger-you-must-now-buy Book II ending vexed me. As it happens, I do intend to buy Book II aka The Kiss of Life, because the story and the characters warrant such an investment, however as Generation Dead is less well-written and edited than its topic deserves, I didn't get the must-buy-Book II-now withdrawal angst I got straight after finishing (say) Gregory Maguire's Wicked. All in all: there's enough good in here for me to recommend it, but bear in mind that this is a book with more plot than style - if, like me, you like voluminous vocabularies and uniqueness of expression, you will on occasion become annoyed at all the wasted potential.