I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues
by
Diana Rowland
horror, urban fantasy in Paperback edition on July 3, 2012 and has 312 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Wild Side: Urban Fantasy with an Erotic Edge, Mark of the Demon, Blood of the Demon, Secrets of the Demon, Sins of the Demon, Touch of the Demon, My Life as a White Trash Zombie, Dangerous Women, White Trash Zombie Apocalypse, Fury of the Demon, How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back, White Trash Zombie Gone Wild
Second in the White Trash Zombies comic horror urban fantasy series and revolving around Angel Crawford, a white trash victim who became a coroner’s office body wagon driver. It’s been about a month since My Life as a White Trash Zombie, 1.
In 2012, Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist.
My Take
No kidding it’s blue! And Angel has a lot to be blue about in this one what with the isolation and feelings of inferiority that permeate this story. Losing the position that gives her a sense of self — and dinner! — as well as the lack Angel feels about herself. It’s a time of angst and growth in with the conspiracy theories.
Even with the frustration and anger, Rowland cracks me up from the get go on this one. I love that Angel acknowledges the hypocrisy of her own thoughts out there at her storage unit. Nor is the excitement lacking what with body snatching, cruel medical experimentation, brainwashing (hmmm, could have different connotations in a zombie story), libel, ambushes, chases, betrayals up the wazoo, kidnapping, the most unlikely of rescues, and a surprising rally.
I love the thought processes Angel goes through in this. All the worrying and wondering as the existence of a zombie mafia is revealed. That meet-the-parents do that Marcus insists on. The confidences Marcus doesn’t give her and his controlling approach, but only with her. And there’s her progress as she comes to some good conclusions. Although, Angel and Marcus’ ideas of foreplay…ick.
The characters are great in this. Those close to Angel on the job are warm and supportive — even Nick! Her dad is a hard dose of reality, but making an effort. The politics at the office, *eye roll*, how can one avoid those? It’s real life characters with a zany setting.
Nice bit of foreshadowing with the dead guy at the factory, lol. Oh, lord, laughing about a dead man who probably died horribly…*eye roll*…that’s bad.
Derrel has some ideas on what should have happened when Angel had her trial. Sounds like that public defender needs to be shot. We also find out what causes zombieism and why Ed thought zombies were so horrible.
The one negative? It surprises me that the pathologist will take on anyone as an assistant without any training. Yep, the only negative I could find (or remember) because I was too absorbed in reading the story — I love it!
The Story
It’s a routine pickup for Angel, except the dead guy doesn’t smell right. The number of things that don’t “smell right” simply escalates, but what’s truly bad is…no one believes Angel. No one.
It gets worse yet with that meeting with her probation officer coming up. That incident with the theft and her own earlier issues are coming back to haunt her as someone is working very hard to slander her in the press. She’s supposed to be working on her G.E.D. and even the truly dead are coming back to life!
The Characters
Angel Crawford is coping with her new “life” as a zombie and morgue assistant for the St. Edwards Parish Sheriff’s Office. Getting the brain supply issues straightened out. Testing her new relationship with her dad. Freaking about that upcoming appointment with her probation officer. Her dad’s been out of work on a disability and drowning his pains in alcohol and beating on Angel. But after My Life as a White Trash Zombie, he’s been trying.
Deputy Marcus Ivanov is Angel’s boyfriend. And her maker, for he’s a zombie too. Pietro Ivanov is Marcus’ uncle, very wealthy, very snotty, and a zombie. The one who turned Marcus when he was bit by a rabid raccoon. Nathan and Morena are Marcus’ parents.
Derrel Cusimano, a former linebacker for LSU, is the death investigator with whom Angel works. Dr. Leblanc is the parish forensic pathologist. Dr. Duplessis is the parish coroner and Angel’s boss who is coming up for re-election. Allen Prejean is the chief investigator, and he hates Angel too. Nick is a fellow van driver who taught Angel in My Life as a White Trash Zombie.
Ed Quinn is Marcus’ childhood friend who tried to kill him in My Life as a White Trash Zombie. Marianne is Ed’s now-former girlfriend. Kudzu is her cadaver dog. We learn more about Drs. Sam and Dawn Quinn‘s murders — she was a neurologist experimenting with the brain — and how it plays into today’s story. Dr. Kristi Burke was a colleague of Ed’s parents and Dawn’s partner.
Detectives Ben Roth and Mike Abadie; it seems Abadie doesn’t hate Angel. Captain Pierson is the head of the Sheriff’s Office Investigations Division. Major Hall is Marcus’ boss; seems Marcus can’t be dating a felon on probation. Sean is a crime scene tech. Tracie is in the crime lab.
Mr. Garza is Angel’s probation officer. Zeke Lyons is one of the zombies who were beheaded in My Life as a White Trash Zombie. Randy is Angel’s jerk of an ex-boyfriend and Clive was his “best bud”. A drug dealer who expected Angel to steal drugs from the dead bodies she carts back to the morgue.
NuQuesCor Lab
The lab is a private corporation working on a variety of secret projects, some for the government. Norman Kearny appears to be a security guard there. Dr. Sofia Baldwin is an old friend of Marcus’ from high school. Dr. Charish is Baldwin’s boss and the lab director. Walter McKinney is their head of security. Philip and Aaron Wallace are volunteers.
The Cover and Title
The cover is so perfectly Angel. She is white trash, and I love this profile of her sitting on the can with a cigarette in hand, pondering the future, resting her elbows on her tattered black tight-clad thighs, those blue and white striped kneesocks coloring her calves, her feet clad in heavy black ankle boots with untied shoelaces. This time around, Angel is sporting a blue mohawk with hardware dangling from her ears and blood dripping from her thigh and smeared on her white wifebeater. The title and author’s name is beautifully painted as graffiti, lol, on the stall wall. I just love it!
The title is perfect and the cover color bears it out, Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues as Angel ponders her future.
