Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

This thread is open to discuss My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland.



Synopsis
Angel Crawford is a loser.

Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.

That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue—and that it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.

Before she knows it she's dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she's hungriest!

Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat.

Literally

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hey guys, definitely gonna start this in the morning!

i know this probably makes me sound SUPER creepy but i wish someone would just hand me a job driving around dead bodies and assisting with autopsies without having to do any kind of training whatsoever lol in my defense, my boss never stops talking and corpses are so quiet -_-;

as usual i guess i finished before you guys even started? overall it was pretty fun, although maybe a bit lighter than i was expecting. i'd definitely read the next one though. i'll wait til you guys start commenting to give more in depth thoughts

I didn't realize you already started! I saw your post requesting the thread but didn't have a chance to look for it. And never saw the notifications for the posts on the Ragnarok thread GRRRR :(

I'll start tonight. It looks like a fairly quick read. Did any of you ever watch iZombie? I remember watching the 1st one years ago and this synopsis sounded a lot like it.

Cathy M. wrote: "Did any of you watch iZombi?

I was also wondering if the series was based on the books, since this is book one n a series.

i haven't watched iZombie but I know there are iZombie comic books. i'm not sure if the show is based on the comics or the other way around though

Even though its been a while, I kept felling like I knew this story because of it. Couple similarities with the eating brains and working in morgue but thank god she doesn't get the memories of the people when she eats their brains.

This really is an easy read - Igot thru a good chunk last night and should be done today. SO far I like that its more light-hearted with some humor but it did make me a little sad for her every time she talked about her being a loser and her upbringing. But I don't quite get the zombieness - is she dead or not? Because when she's feeding she has a heartbeat though I gues brains keep her "alive".

Devann wrote: "i haven't watched iZombie but I know there are iZombie comic books. i'm not sure if the show is based on the comics or the other way around though"

I think the tv show is from the comics.

i'm actually not sure if she is 100% 'dead' or not. i'm guessing so since she kind of starts to 'rot' if she doesn't get enough brains? but then there's the heartbeat thing like you said. towards the end when she finds out what happened during the period she can't remember i'm not sure if it said she was 'dead' and the person 'brought her back' or just that she was about to die and they saved her or whatever you want to call it. guess look out for that when you're finishing up lol

Yea it's like those ambiguous things but then again I'm not done yet so...

It's driving me crazy that she's not trying to figure out really how she became a zombie. When she was asking Kang questions, I was like ASK HIM HOW! But nope, not yet... Like that would be the 1st thing I'd try to figure out!

haha yeah, i didn't really feel a huge sense of urgency in the book, either about how she became a zombie or about really trying to figure out who was committing the murders. i mean it's there and she does figure both out by the end but i wasn't like 'oh i gotta know!' and sometimes it seemed like she wasn't either

Definitely no sense of urgency. Until that last like 10%.

I finished and I really liked it! Besides the fact that the initial premise felt a little too familiar, I liked that it was messy - the author didn't try to pretty it up, the characters swore and really did live up to the white trash name in the title. But I liked in the end that Angel really was trying to improve herself. Funny how dying made her become more alive.

(view spoiler)[Her father was a total asshole and didn't think there was any possibility that they would reconcile. That last scene, though it didn't excuse his behavior in the rest of the book which was totally awful, did give me hope that they would do better.

So it was sort of gross whenever she mentioned the brain thing - the brain slushies, brains with tomato soup, brainsicles, the tapioca in the end (that was probably the worst). Bleh!

Didn't think Marcus was the culprit but that was a pleasant surprise. But come on, that explanation that he got RABIES??? That was weird. So is his uncle one as well, or did he just know about how to make a zombie? I liked Marcus and want to see where their relationship goes.

I liked Ed so was disappointed to find that he was the one killing all the zombies. I can't believe he just shot Marcus like nothing, after having been best friends their whole lives. And my earlier question was answered. Guess they really are dead but were reanimated by the human brains. Wonder if Ed will be hunting them again in future books, or if we'll see him again. It would be strange for a cop to just up and leave or disappear.

That last line made me laugh - "And nothing fell off that wasn't supposed to." How horrifying would that be?! (hide spoiler)]

I'll read the next one, so far it's fun!

i also had no idea who it was (view spoiler)[although honestly a lot of the 'cop dude' characters felt very interchangeable to me so that probably had a lot to do with it. even now i'm struggling to remember what either marcus or ed did earlier in the book. i mean i do like angel and her dad and boyfriend stand out for being kind of loser douchebags but a lot of the other characters did not feel very real to me in this book. i'm sure that will change with some of them in the sequels though. (hide spoiler)]

i wasn't really thinking too much about her putting the brains into different kinds of food but yeah kind of gross. although to me i just feel like brains probably have a weird texture so that is why i think that. i guess it depends on how powerful her little blender is lol. i would not want to be eating some food that was not supposed to be lumpy and all of a sudden there's a slimy brain lump lol

i agree that i'll definitely check out the next one. the narrator is pretty good as well.

Slimy brain lump eww. Barf. That just sounds so gross.

(view spoiler)[Yea, I sort of wrote off Randy pretty early on because she called him her boyfriend but there was nothing there. No chemistry, no relationship really. At one point, I thought maybe it was Randy running around killing the zombies. He has this laid-back attitude but thought maybe there was something hidden there. But nope, glad that wasn't the case.

Marcus though, I think we should've caught on earlier because he always seemed to be around. He would just pop up once in a while, at the hospital, at the cafe, at crime scenes, at her house. But I guess because he was a cop, didn't think twice about him. The rest of the cop dudes were pretty one-dimensional, all with pretty much the same stereotypical attitudes. I think that's why Marcus stood out to me.

And Ed was the paramedic who brought Angel in in the beginning, and then they kept running into each other as well. He was really nice to her which is why I hated that he ultimately turned out to be the bad guy. Though is he really, because Angel & Marcus ARE zombies who eat brains!

I agree, Angel was really the only character fleshed out because we were in her head and there is a lot of room for improvement in that area for the side characters. Do hope/think we'll see more development in the 2nd one. (hide spoiler)]

haha true (view spoiler)[in normal circumstances i guess killing zombies is not a bad thing, although most of them seem to be trying to live pretty non-violently in this universe (hide spoiler)]

True but at the same time (view spoiler)[they do start losing control after not having brains for 2 days and this didn't seem like that big of a town. Wondering what will happen with Kang's other customers. If Kang is out of service, I suspect there will be more deaths. (hide spoiler)]

Trying not to look ahead and read the summaries for the rest of the books in the series....

yeah i was surprised that (view spoiler)[such a small town could apparently support so many zombies. i guess more people die than you think even in a small town, but it still seemed like a lot of people were coming through the morgue. maybe it's like a county morgue and people from surrounding towns all come through there? (hide spoiler)]

haha don't spoil yourself! i hope they continue to be good though because the covers are so gorgeous, although i feel like they are kind of stylized in that i don't think she actually looks like that in the book. like didn't it say she had longish hair at some point or am i imagining that?

I’m finished! I actually enjoyed this book and was kind of surprised. Like I wasn’t sure but it was a nice fast read. It wasn’t that original and the plot wasn’t one of those twisty turns but it was kind of fun. Like you guys said I didn’t get that sense of urgency. I’m also with you guys about how it was super frustrating that she wasn’t more motivated to find out how she got turned. If it was me I would have been going crazy trying to figure it out.

Is it weird I found the characters so much more relatable in this book than the last series we read? Also I always though working a job like this would be cool but I totally don’t have the stomach for it. I like have the weakest gag reflex and I have literally vomited before due to smelling something decomposing. (Like true story I went on vacation and forgot a pot with food in it in the sink and when got back it smelled like ugh and I literally vomited when I threw out the stuff and then washed it). I totally could never work in morgue or those types of conditions.

(view spoiler)[

I liked Angel. She was hilarious. I also l8iked the character growth she went through as the book wnet. I laughed out loud when she yelled out “Zombie Super Powers, activate” like a magical girl anime at the end when she fought Ed.
I was also sad that Ed turned out to be the bad guy because I liked him to. I was a little surprised to find out Marcus was the one when turned her and was also a zombie. Like I hadn’t suspected him at all. I also figured it out at the diner when Ed saw what she was investigating. Probably as we were meant to figure it out.
So the dad made her tapioca with brains in the end so does that mean he figured out on his own she was a zombie? I was kind of confused by that.
. (hide spoiler)]

Devann - You know I don't remember her mentioning anything about her hair, and tried searching for "hair" and couldn't find any references except that it was frizzy. So thinking back, can't picture the character on the cover as Angel... Plus, she mentioned that she had no boobs so that definitely couldn't be her :P

Claudia - I get that about the characters here being more relatable. Even with the zombie factor, they were more "real" and typical characters. And haha that's happened to me too! Though I ended up throwing out the pot because I couldn't stand the smell. I get grossed out really easy so I could never imagine watching an autopsy. It takes a special type of person to be able to do a job like that!

At the end, she was with Marcus who made the tapioca :) Her dad is still clueless. And the "Zombie Super Powers activate!" was awesome!

@Claudia to me personally it's weird that you found them more relatable lol because i really liked the last series and this book so far was just light fun for me, but of course which characters you relate to is all subjective so i totally get it. i guess i probably do like angel more than amy at this point if we're just comparing main vs. main, but i liked the supporting cast of IBTF better, although at this point the supporting cast here has not done much lol. but loki is like one of my favorite characters ever so i feel it's unfair for me to compare other random characters to him anyway. i guess the characters here are more 'relatable' in that they are all ordinary people as well, but i still didn't really connect with any of them emotionally so far.

i would probably get some nose plugs if i did have a job like that lol but i wouldn't necessarily mind the blood and guts and stuff. although i guess there is still poop in your intestines when you die which is like ...ick. i'm good with pretty much any type of bodily thing except that. i did kind of change my mind while reading this because she has to interact with cops too much for me lol maybe i should hang out with the other zombie guy at the funeral home instead of with her at the morgue.

@Cathy haha good point about the no-boobs thing. i get that covers are meant to be stylized and look pretty but also i wish more publishing companies spent more time making the people on the covers look like the people in the books. i especially hate the ones where the main character is specifically stated to not be white or there's always references to how dark their skin is and then the cover is like *super pasty white girl* and i'm like #great lol but yeah this cover, while awesome, i feel maybe made me think the book was going to be a bit edgier than it actually was? i mean i still like both the cover and the book but there's a bit of a disconnect.

also i figured we could just keep using this thread for the next book, or maybe even the whole series depending on how it goes. we don't usually do that many comments and with towers going on it's sometimes hard to get a new thread up.

@Devann I think what I mean by relatable is that as a main character Angel came across as more real. Like I get why Amy was a naïve cinnamon roll but I just couldn’t relate to her at all. I also didn’t find it believable at all that she reached the age she was being that innocent and naïve. Angel had the whole depressed cynicism down along with self-worth issues and actually underwent small bits of character growth. I also kind of found it realistic that she only underwent the changes she did because she was forced into it but then continued on with it for herself. I’m kind of interested to see if her character will keep evolving you know. I do agree that the supporting characters need more fleshing out but maybe that will happen in the coming books?

I don’t think nose plugs will work because I’ve also thrown up from seeing things. Also like maggots freak me out. In the book she had to touch a body with maggots and then later flicked one off her arm that was crawling on her. That was like just a great big nope for me. I’m also with you that that much interaction with cops would make me feel unnerved.

I’m good to keep using this thread for the books. When do you guys want to read the next one?

I've been lingering and reading ya'll's comments as I've listened to the first two books. I will probably jump in on the third one once you get to it!

@Claudia haha i've known people that age and way older who are just as naive as Amy was so i guess i don't find it THAT unrealistic. although with her living in chicago it does maybe tip it over the line. but yeah i agree that angel is more relatable than amy in general. although i do feel like at times maybe angel was a bit TOO jaded. like i get that there was a reason for it but i'm glad she started getting her shit together on her own terms after awhile.

i'm good with seeing gross things but yeah there are some smells that definitely make me gag, although i don't think i've ever actually thrown up because of something gross.

i'm good to start the next one whenever. we could wait until sunday/monday to do one a week or we could start right away.

I have a project due on Monday so won’t be able to start until Monday night if that’s cool with you guys. Or you guys can start earlier and I’ll catch up as usual ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Monday sounds good to me!

haha yeah monday is fine. or maybe i'll try to wait until tuesday since i always finish right away -_-;

i like how now goodreads is recommending me a bunch of zombie books and i'm like listen i don't actually usually like zombie stuff soooo lol

That would probably be better Devann :) You speedy reader!

Hahaha same here. I try to stay away from zombie books...

Did you guys start yet?

I started and am thru Chpt 11 - it's a pretty quick read again. (view spoiler)[I love how Angel has a great support system in Dr Leblanc and Derrell - even when she's putting herself down they aren't having any of it. Exactly what she needs.

Glad that there's a cop who isn't the stereotypical cop character and not a complete asshole to Angel.

Was a little disappointed that her dad was still drinking, though their relationship seems a lot better than in the last one. For some reason didn't expect her to still be living at home with him, but then again, not a lot of time has passed since the end of the 1st book.

The one person though who I'm not liking very much - Marcus. It's like he regressed! He has that whole hero worship of his uncle (who I really thought would be a better character), and doesn't seem to think very highly of Angel. Well fuck him, she deserves better! I'm so disappointed because I thought he would be a character I'd eventually love :( He could turn it around but right now I'm so not feeling the love. (hide spoiler)]

i actually did not start yet, although i will try to tomorrow. you are probably gonna be the one to finish way ahead this time because i just caught up with the magnus archives yesterday and it has fucked me UP i'm finding it hard to focus on anything else lol

Awww, that good huh?! What are the Magnus Archives? Graphic novels?

But no worries, I'm reading 4 others right now so I'll put this on hold for a day or two so I don't finish too far ahead of you or Claudia! I'm finding it hard to put aside The Chestnut Man - might have to just read thru to the end.

no it's a horror podcast and i listened to all 160 episodes that are out so far in the past month and also am WAY too attached to the main character and of course everything is horrible for him so i'm just like aaaaaaah what do i doooo. also now it's on hiatus until april so ...that's great lol

i was going to try the chestnut man but it not really my usual thing anyway and i definitely don't think i can do it now lol

do you guys read graphic novels? i usually reread the lucifer graphic novels every year / every other year and i haven't done it yet this year so i was thinking i might once towers is over.

Holy crap that's a lot!!! Talk about dedication! No graphic novels aren't really my thing, though I haven't tried one in years. Any good ones you'd recommend?

Devann wrote: "i actually did not start yet, although i will try to tomorrow. you are probably gonna be the one to finish way ahead this time because i just caught up with the magnus archives yesterday and it has..."

I started tonight but only did first 5 chapters. Are the magnus archives good because a friend recommended it and I added it to my podcast app but haven't listened to it yet.

I read graphic novels. I recently bought the deadly class graphic novels and they're on my to read list.

@Claudia god it's so good and it fucking tricks you! like oh here's a series of unrelated little creepypastas this is fun OH NO IT WAS ATTACHED ALL ALONG AND ALL MY CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER. seriously impressive though, i usually think horror short stories are absolutely awful and the dude has basically written 160 of them and they're all good. every episode has the 'statement' that is the main part of the episode and then there's the real-time character development that comes before and after it kind of as 'notes' to it. last season starts in april so now is probably a good time to get started if you're gonna be a normal person and NOT listen to the whole thing in a month lol

@Cathy i guess it depends on what you want? lucifer is my favorite series and it's definitely good as an urban fantasy story that weaves a LOT of world religions and mythologies together. the crow is my favorite standalone and that's more like urban fantasy/horror i guess. but i mean there's all kinds of stuff. like if you wanted something that is lighter lumberjanes is really good or for contemporary giant days is good.

i'm through chapter 7 so haven't looked at cathy's comments yet but i just wanted to say that marcus is being a little bitch lol (view spoiler)[i mean i get that he totally isn't meaning to but i'm definitely on angel's side right now with all this. i would be so mad if my boyfriend didn't tell me i was going to a huge super fancy party beforehand and then all the other stuff ~for her own good~ isn't great either. like she said it ended up being a good thing that he made her a zombie and got her on the right track but it definitely causes a power imbalance in their romantic relationship and he seems to be just trying to make that gap bigger all the time. (hide spoiler)]

through chapter 11 now and i've gotta say marcus (view spoiler)[is looking more and more like a dick with every passing second. on the one hand maybe i'm jumping the gun because i didn't really like him that much to start to with and i honestly don't want him to be the main love interest for the series, but god he's condescending. (hide spoiler)]

Yes Devann, thank you! (view spoiler)[I don't think you're jumping the gun because I feel the same way about Marcus. I can take the surprise meeting of the parents and taking her to the fancy party, but the condescension, nope. Not doing it. Funny because I was hoping he would be the main love interest at the end of the 1st book, thought he had so much promise :(

Also forgot to say, anything zombie related usually falls in the virus category, but the explanation on how here it is a parasite is actually interesting. (hide spoiler)]

i'm on chapter 21 right now and about marcus (view spoiler)[at this point i'm still not sure if he is in on the whole thing with the rest of his family or if he really is just that naive about the whole thing, but either way he is on my shitlist and weirdly ed is actually redeeming himself lol

and yeah i guess the parasite thing makes more sense for how they function in this universe and with us trying to figure out if she was actually 'dead' or not in the last book. although i'll admit my eyes did glaze over A BIT during the explanation ;) (hide spoiler)]

Wait is this a miracle? Am I the first to finish and comment on the ending of the book? I read the first five chapters yesterday and then listened to the rest of the book today.

(view spoiler)[ Marcus was like the worst in this book. Like I know at the end he tried to redeem himself but he was kind of a condescending asshole the whole book. It was super frustrating. Like I wanted to punch him the face a few times. The way he ambushed her with the party and people who would be there and then staying silent while his uncle was basically an asshole made me kind of start to dislike him but then also his not acknowledging the points she made about him trying to make decisions for her or thinking he knew better. Then even after agreeing to not do it he went and did it again. I was like ugh.

I was also totally with Angel and her views about Pietro and Marcus being part of the zombie mafia. I think Marcus may be more involved than she thinks but part of me wonders if he’s just blindly doing what his uncle wants not realizing it.

The whole science behind the zombie virus is hilarious and I am kind of glad they went a different route with it. I kind of wonder if by the end of the series they will find a cure or better way to manage it. I like the idea of a parasite better.

Was anyone else kind of happy there was Ed redemption in this book. Like I really liked him and was kind of disappointed he was the”bad” guy in the last book (though let’s be honest is killing zombies really bad?). I can see how they could have manipulated him slowly giving him incomplete puzzle pieces through at the same time I have to wonder why he never questioned it. Like he said he would watch them a while before killing the zombies so wouldn’t he have noticed they weren’t killing or harming anyone?

I was upset that Marianne was killed and even Sofia as well. I totally am happy that Angel killed McKinney and ate his brains. Is rooting for the zombies bad?

Is anyone else disappointed that Dr. Cherish got away? Like I really wanted Angel to kill her. She has it coming. Also there is now a mutated zombie strain/species out there because of the faulty artificial brain formula. I can’t wait to see how that’s going to play out. (hide spoiler)]

haha i actually finished earlier today but didn't stop by to comment again yet.

(view spoiler)[i agree that even though marcus wasn't aware of everything bad going on he's still kind of on my shit list. i'm glad that she decided to kind of dial their relationship back a little bit. and if him and his family are going to be a large part of the series going forward i hope the books continue to deal with what classist jerks they are

i really have no memories of ed from the first book before the big reveal where he was the bad guy at the end, but i thought it was hilarious that he used goth/emo as a disguise so for that alone i did enjoy his reappearance in this book lol

but yeah him and marcus both seem very naive in that they just blindly do what these other people tell them to without thinking about what might really be happening or the consequences at all. hopefully we'll be dealing with that more in the future.

i feel like dr. cherish is being set up to be a recurring 'bad guy' in the series or at least maybe for a few more books so i'm sure they will get her in the end but i get the feeling the author wants it to be a bit more of a chase. (hide spoiler)]

also i did end up liking this one a bit more than the last one and gave it a technical 3.5 but rounded up to a 4. i think the pacing was much better and i was actually invested in finding out who was behind what was going on

Funny, I started 1st and will be the last to finish. Should finish later tonight!

And finished!

(view spoiler)[Ok so Angel has grown on me a lot. Maybe because I'm liking her more, I'm getting more of her humor. She's actually pretty funny. "Zombie Super Powers, activate, you fucking bitches." :)

I so did not buy Pietro's explanation that he just thought Charish was going to feed Angel the fake brains. I mean, come on. Like really?! He just thought Angel would get sick? Pu-leeze... I don't trust that guy. He can take his fake apology and fake sentiments and stuff it.

Marcus was just too clueless. I don't think he saw what Pietro was doing, or has the backbone really to stand up to Pietro. I think he's just blindly doing whatever Pietro tells him, though with what happened with Angel, think he'll actually stop and think now (or maybe hoping). Not like he can do a lot about it though. Pietro is his brain supplier/zombie father, and also uncle, so you know where Marcus' loyalty will lie. So yea, Marcus is on my shit list too which is so disappointing. Hopefully he does redeem himself in the next one. Or at least we see if there really is anything between him and Angel since they really don't have a lot in common. Maybe he'll be better in the role of friend/confidant.

I'm with you Claudia on Ed. Love that we got the explanation for why Ed did what he did, and hope that they'll get him off those charges so he won't have to keep hiding. But I agree, why didn't he question who was sending him those messages? Or when he was watching them? It was pretty suspicious so how did he not catch on? His parents died 10 years earlier so it's not like those wounds were still fresh so he was blinded by those events.

When Angel had to turn Philip, I was thinking, how the hell does Angel know what to do? Not like Marcus went into detail or anything! But ahh, instinct kicks in. So how come it didn't work with Aaron? Because she didn't really want to, or because he wasn't close to death then? So glad that she killed McKinney. That guy needed to die. Technically we're rooting for the good guys, even if they are zombies, because it's not like they want to kill or spread the virus. Angel's just trying to live her life.

But ugh, Charish getting away... I agree Devann, Charish and her flunkies will probably be the evil villains for a couple more books. It's probably the overall series arc. (hide spoiler)]

i do hope she's going to say 'zombie super powers activate' for the big showdown in all the books because like it's dumb but it's also hilarious

agree that i totally don't trust pietro and am interested to see where all that goes.

not sure really why her turning the second guy didn't work. it would have made sense if it was 'too soon' but then the first guy turned made several other zombies right away ...although they were messed up and that might have just been because of the fake brains?

whenever they shot the guy in front on her and she was like OH I HAVE TO SAVE HIM! i was like lmao girl, i get that being nice is like one of your things but you totally don't. yeah he's dying but he literally signed up to become a zombie so that he can go ~kill people for america~ so i would have no problem sitting there and letting him die rather than turning him. but maybe i'm just an awful person. i mean maybe it would be different if he was a random dude they pulled off the street but he knew and he volunteered and he did it particularly to become a ~super soldier~ soooo not much sympathy from me.

when do we want to do the next one?