My Life As a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

My Life As a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

First in the White Trash Zombie series

5 stars

Angel Crawford is a loser and has always been one. She lives with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana; she’s a high school dropout with a pill popping habit and a criminal record who’s been fired from more sucky low-paying jobs than she can count. Things start to take a turn for the odd when she wakes up in the hospital being told she ODed on pain killers. She remembers being in a car accident but doesn’t have the scars to prove it. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there’s a job waiting for her at the local coroner’s office and that if she refuses she’ll be thrown in jail. She starts to develop a sickening hunger for brains, the ability to lift things that are ten times her weight, but all these new perks come with a the Hunger. To add the horribleness, the morgue is filling up with headless corpses when ever she’s the hungriest and it doesn’t hurt that there’s a hunky cop that always seems to show up. Angel has to grow up and grow up fast or she’s dead meat. Literally! Ever since I discovered My Life as a White Trash Zombie on Amazon while browsing for new books I’ve wanted to get my hands on it. I finally have! This book is perfect for me. I’m not the biggest fan of zombies, but if it’s done right I love them. It’s definitely done right in this book. It also doesn’t hurt that I’ve found a book set in Louisiana the whole entire time. They don’t have very many of them, but I usually read most of the paranormal ones I find.

The main female character is Angel. I loved Angel. She was funny, witty, and strong. She proves that you don’t need a high school diploma to be smart. As someone who has quite a few members in my family who haven’t graduated with a diploma, it’s nice to see a portrayal that’s actually real and relatable. She even talks a lot like me. I’ve never realized how Louisiana dialect sounds until we started learning about voice patterns in Speech class, but let’s clear this up. People in Louisiana don’t talk like the people on Swamp People.
 

We don’t sound like that unless we are joking around and doing impressions. There are also no swamps everywhere you turn. My backyard is not a swamp and no I don't travel to school in a boat (someone actually asked a student at my school that). Now that we got those misconceptions cleared up. Angel may be considered white trash, but at least she’s real and easy to relate to. I can’t really discuss her pill popping habit because I’ve distanced myself from it. Yes, people do it, but they do it in other parts of the world too. Angel is probably one of my favorite characters I’ve ever come across and I liked her from the very first sentence. She’s an interesting zombie, who can think with her head and her gut when it comes to crimes. I’m glad she was able to fight all her battles trying to pull her back down and I can’t wait to read more about her.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 10

The main male character is… well there really wasn’t a main love interest for Angel until the very end, but her love interest is Marcus. I like Marcus and it may or may not have something to do with the fact that he’s Russian. Marcus is actually a really good guy and it’s obvious that he and Angel will start to have more. I can’t wait to learn more about him.

Swoon Worthy Scale: 8.5

The Villain- The villain was actually a shocker for me. I had been thinking the whole time like Angel or that may be Kang, but boy was I wrong. I totally didn’t see that coming and I wonder if he’ll come back in the next book. Just shows that people are quick to judge based on their experiences and will exact revenge if it's a negative experience.

Villain Scale: 8

There is a really long cast of character from Randy, Angel’s loser on-again-off-again boyfriend, to Nick the Prick, a fellow co-worker, to Dr. Leblanc, the head coroner, to Derell, Angel’s partner, to Angel’s dad and to a bunch of other characters that will probably be more prominent in the upcoming books.


Character Scale: 9

These zombies are a lot more interesting than you’re regular run-of-the-mill B movie zombies. They are dead, but the brains they eat keep them looking like regular breathing human beings. If they don’t eat brains within three days their flesh starts to peel, they become slower, and less human. This book was zombariffic, yes I made that word up. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book and delve more into the world of Angel Crawford.

Cover Thoughts: The cover is absolutely kick-ass and one of my favorite covers. Everything about it is perfect. The colors, font, picture, and artwork; it’s my kind of cover and it’s what had me curious in the first place aside from the strange, but awesome title.