BOOK REVIEW: Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe

I felt a bit embarrassed to be looking at books in the Young Adult section of my local library, but I had heard that Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe was hilarious. It was pretty funny and I even laughed out loud a few times while reading - something I rarely do.

Margot Johnson is the typical teenage outcast: a chubby brunette with a skinny blonde enemy and dreams of being popular. In middle school, along with her best friend Sybil, she devised a manifesto for high school, setting goals to become the most popular girl in school and to have a boyfriend. When the student body turns into zombies - with the exception of Margot, Sybil, the principal and the gym teacher- Margot uses it to her advantage, achieving her goals. With no other girls around, she becomes the "queen bee" of the high school and lures popular zombie jock Dirk into being her boyfriend. Coexisting with zombies goes great until Margot and Sybil realize that someone is trying to turn them into zombies.

From the first page of this novel, I was transported back to high school. Being an outcast myself, I too had a crush on a popular jock, hated (some of) the snooty popular girls, but still dreamed of being popular. I'm shocked that this book was written by a man because he gets into the head of a teenage girl so well.

The main character, Margo, was well-written and I could see myself (or at least me when I was in high school) in her. But her selfishness and her tendency to whine got on my nerves. And the book was told from her point of view, making some of the characters seem flat since we are only given her one-sided opinion.

The zombies didn't make an appearance until about 1/4 into the novel. Up until that point, the book is just about Margot trying to score a date with Dirk. But once you get through that part, the novel becomes hilarious with the zombie interactions and the principal's "Rules for Surviving a Zombie Uprising".

Overall, this was a pretty funny read, but probably more enjoyable if you're a teenage girl.

Rating: 4/5