Began reading: 17.4.2017
Completed reading: 24.4.2017
Overall rating: 4 stars
The enemy has risen from the grave.
Together we slayers must stand, or one by one we will fall.
Ali Bell's crew of zombie slayers thought they'd won the war against Anima Industries, the evil company capturing and experimenting on zombies to discover the secret to immortality. In the last epic clash, the slayers lost many of their crew and friends. But Frosty, the ice man himself, has not recovered from one casualty - the love of his life, Kat Parker.
On the path to self-annihilation, Frosty receives a message from beyond - Kat's spirit returns, insisting he partner with rogue slayer Camilla Marks. Frosty will do anything for Kat. Except that. Camilla's betrayal caused Kat's death.
But when Anima rises from the grave stronger than ever, Frosty, Camilla and all the slayers will have to work together to survive. And one broken slayer will learn that sometimes the line between hate and attraction is blurred... and the road to redemption may mean letting go of the past and grabbing hold of the future.
A Mad Zombie Party by Gena Showalter is a fictional young adult novel that contains fantasy, paranormal and romance themes. It took me a little over a week because I had that time off uni for Easter. I would have finished it sooner, but I had an essay to complete. I really liked the conclusion to this series, and I’ll explain all of the reasons why as we go on.
Following the battle with the evil Anima Industries, Frosty is forced to deal with the loss of Kat – the love of his life. When Kat begins to appear to Frosty, she urges him to help the person responsible for her death. Frosty, willing to do anything but that, has no choice if he wants to continue communicating with Kat. After being exiled from her slayer team by her brother, Milla has become a rogue slayer and tackles the hordes of zombies alone. One night while battling the undead, Milla realises that she is over her head. With Frosty’s grudging assistance, the pair successfully defeats the zombies, but are told that Milla will one day save Frosty’s life at the cost of hers. Choosing to stick together for each others’ protection, the pair begin to get to know each other and recognise what they have in common – and attraction begins to blossom. But with another battle against Anima Industries and the mixed reactions to the pair from the other slayers, forming a solid relationship is going to be difficult. Can what they have together be enough to last through the upcoming battle, or will the thoughts of their friends be enough to break them apart for good?
As expected, the Showalter’s writing was great despite a few spelling and grammatical errors. The use of sarcasm, metaphors and tone added a good deal of depth and realism to the plot. After reading the three previous books, it was easy to imagine being in the world of zombies and slayers. As usual, there were also some great quotes, including:
A girl has to be prepared for anything (p. 53).
‘Intentions mean nothing. Actions mean everything’ (p. 55).
I frown when I notice jagged, raised flesh underneath several of her tattoos. Scars, and lots of them.
The thing is, when scars show on the outside, scars are usually hidden on the inside (p. 117).
‘The truth isn’t always easy or pretty, but it’s the truth’ (p. 134).
Fun only lasts a little while. Consequences are a lifetime (p. 135).
Fear is a drain and it can empty an ocean of faith in seconds (p. 207).
Letting go of the guilt won’t do me a bit of good. It has claws, and they’re buried deep in my heart (p. 227).
More quotes from the book can be found here.
I have mentioned this in my reviews for the previous books, but I’ll say it again. The range of secondary characters is one of the reasons why I like this series. Though there weren’t any new characters introduced, there were still enough secondary characters to keep things interesting with individual plot lines. I really enjoyed reading about how the other characters are going, rather than just focusing on the primary characters and their plot line.
I found the plot of this novel to be just as interesting as those of the previous books. One of the reasons was because the narrative was told in two perspectives, rather than one. This change in discourse made the plot more interesting, as we were able to gain multiple perspectives throughout the text. Discourse refers to the way in which the events of the story are told – the use of flash-backs to uncover Frosty’s and Milla’s pasts are just another example of how Showalter used discourse to tell the story. I also liked the insight into how Frosty is coping post-tragedy. My heart really broke for Frosty in the last book and it continued into this book.
One more positive thing that I have to say about this book is the epilogue. It provided so much information, which was good for closure. The epilogue answered so many questions that I didn’t even know I had, except: what happened to Justin? Pretty much all of the characters were at least mentioned, but not Justin. Did he find a girl? Is he happy? I need answers! The issue that I had with the epilogue was that it felt like a list – as though everything was in bullet points then strung together into sentences. It didn’t feel smooth, which bothered me.
Now, we move on to the things that kinda irritated me. *WARNING: SPOILER* In the previous book, Ali erased Milla’s memory as punishment for betraying the slayers to Anima Industries. This book picks up almost instantly after the last one concludes, so I have absolutely no idea how Milla was able to recover her memory. She mentioned that the erasure could be reversed, and Rebecca Smith mentioned that she was able to recover her memory with the help of her assistants. Milla was all alone after being exiled by River, so she couldn’t rely on anyone to help recover her memory – so how did she do it? This question plagued me throughout the novel and the fact that the answer was never given really bothered me!
Another issue that I had with this book was one of ‘voice’. The past three books have been told by Ali, and since this one was told by Milla and Frosty, I was expecting a different and individual voice from these two. Unfortunately, the way these characters spoke was almost identical to that of Ali – they used the same phrases, had the same sense of humour, and even referred to spanking, which was something that should have been unique to Ali. Similarly, Ali spoke in a way that was very much like Kat’s. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that it’s important for every character – protagonist or otherwise – to have a distinct voice.
My favourite character was Ali. Like I said in the previous review, she has grown on me, which was unexpected, given how little I tolerated her in the past. In this book, she was sweet and fair, but also feisty, sarcastic and a straight-up badass. Milla was a notable character.
I didn’t agree with Ali and Kat trying to interfere with Frosty’s love life. I understand that they are wary of Milla, but even I know that it was none of their business. They should have realised that if Frosty wanted to risk everything to be with Milla, who were they to stand in his way? As far as I can remember (correct me if I’m wrong), Frosty did not interfere with Ali’s relationship with Cole. I don’t think he’s ever warned Ali to stay away from Cole. Anyway, I’m glad that Rebecca FINALLY gets killed. I know that sounds bad, but if they wanted Anima Industries to be defeated once and for all, she had to die. How did the slayers not know that she (or someone else) was likely to continue Anima’s plans to destroy the slayers? Just glad it’s finally over!
My favourite parts of the book include the Ali and Cole scenes, and Milla’s plans involving her ‘imprisonment’ and espionage against Anima. Ali and Cole are just so adorable, so I was happy to see how they were going. As for Milla’s scenes with Anima, it was so sneaky and cunning. I love a bit of espionage, especially when it’s done in a clever way.
Recommendation time! If you like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, the Reaper Diaries series by Michele Vail, and The Callahan Chronicles by J.B. Thomas, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes The Walking Dead tv series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series, Dawn of the Dead, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
My reviews for Alice in Zombieland, Through the Zombie Glass, and The Queen of Zombie Hearts can be found by clicking on the titles.
Happy reading!
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