YA Review: Passing Strange

This is kind of a bonus review, because I'm trying to start doing a review every Monday, but this one seems to fit really well in October. So here it is!

WARNING: This review, maybe even just the summary, WILL contain spoilers for the previous books in this series, Generation Dead and Kiss of Life. I suggest skipping this one if you haven't read Generation Dead and Kiss of Life.

Onto the review:

Passing Strange by Daniel Waters (Generation Dead Book 3)

Published: June 1st, 2010 by Hyperion
Genre: YA science fiction / fantasy
Binding: Paperback (mine's the UK copy - I'll explain the cover thing later)
Page Count: 386
Part of a series? Yeppers.
Amazon link.

Summary (from goodreads): Karen DeSonne always passed as a normal (if pale) teenager; with her friends, with her family, and at school. Passing cost her the love of her life. And now that Karen’s dead, she’s still passing—this time, as alive.

Karen DeSonne just happens to be an extremely human-like zombie. Meanwhile, Karen’s dead friends have been fingered in a high-profile murder, causing a new round of antizombie regulations that have forced them into hiding. Karen soon learns that the “murder” that destroyed their non-life was a hoax, staged by Pete Martinsburg and his bioist zealots. Obtaining enough evidence to expose the fraud and prove her friends’ innocence means doing the unthinkable: becoming Pete’s girlfriend. Karen’s only hope is that the enemy never realizes who she really is—because the consequences would be worse than death.

Review: This is my absolute favourite book of the series. When I finished this one, I immediately wanted another one, and not because loose ends or anything, because it felt pretty well wrapped up, but because I fell in love with the characters so much.

And (because I'm skipping right over plot) speaking of...

Characters: So for two books, we've spent most of the time in Phoebe's head. Well, that's over now. Meet Karen DeSonne. Confident, great sense of fashion, gorgeous... zombie. She's telling things now, in a casual, conversational voice that I loved. Being in her head was awesome. And with her thoughts being in 1st person and the rest in 3rd, it wasn't confusing or anything. Karen has always been my favourite character.

While in previous books I had issues with connecting to some of the characters, this one shifted to focus more on the zombies and I really enjoyed that.

Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: The only I had problems with was that the font in my copy had really, really small print and since I was really, really sick... those things don't mix so well. But that's really not the fault of the author, of course.

PG-13 stuff: Language-wise, this one is pretty clean. I don't remember there being much for swearing at all. But it is a pretty mature subject.

Cover comments: I have the UK cover (seen below) which I really like. I love the covers of the flower and how sharp they are against the black background. But I wanted to use the US cover in my review to make them match. And I also really like it (I firmly believe that's Karen on the cover).

Conclusion: Like I said before, Passing Strange is definitely my favourite of the series and I want another book. Not because there were loose ends because I enjoyed this one so much. Four and a half roses.

UK cover (my cover):


Other notes:

- "My writing looks weird" <-- I blame this on the Nyquil and possible fever.
- Hey, anyone who's read this one. You know Tak? Anyone else think he's kinda hot?

Peace and cookies,
Laina