The Kari AnnAlysis

The A to Z Challenge was my very first challenge. I chose to do the Title Challenge. I didn’t find out about the challenge until the summer, but thanks to blogging, I was able to remember which books I’ve read this year.

This challenge opened me up to a lot of books I probably wouldn’t have read. Once I got to the point where there were 7 or 8 books I still didn’t have, I made a trip to Borders and skimmed the shelves until I found them all.

My favorite books I read for this challenge were Killer Cruise, Gentleman in Room 205, The Quickie and Zombie Blondes. Believe it or not, 3 of those were ones that I just found because I needed a book with a specific letter title.

My least favorite books were Son of a Witch and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.

To check out all of my books I read for this challenge, click on the icon at the top of the page!

I bought this book because I needed a book that started with Z for my A to Z Challenge. This was the first one I ran across and actually, I enjoyed it.

Hannah’s dad has had trouble ever since he turned in some dirty cops. Now he and Hannah move around every 1 to 6 months to stay away from bill collectors and harassment for his past.

Their newest town? Maplecrest. It seems like a ghost town driving in. Houses are For Sale everywhere.

Hannah makes a new friend at school, but he’s not the most desirable. He’s a bit of a freak, to put it nicely. And within the first day, Lukas is warning Hannah of the “it girls”.

They are the popular girls. They are the cheerleaders. They are beautiful. Super skinny. Electric blue eyes. Ghost white skin. And all of their names start with M.

Hannah would do anything to be one of the popular girls, but as her dream starts to come true, she realizes it may be more of a nightmare.

The title pretty much gives the point of the story away, but that didn’t ruin the book for me.

It was very well written and quite the page turner. And although the plot is obviously not realistic, I imagine most teenage girls could relate. High school is all about popularity and to be popular, there aren’t many boundaries.

One thing that I didn’t like about this book – even though it was a pretty big part – was all the girls names start with M. I understand the concept, but throughout the book, I never knew who anyone was. I know Morgan is the mean one. Meredith is the nice one and Maggie is the leader, but it took me until the end of the book to figure it out.

I’m very much a “series book” kind of girl. I liked the ending of this book because it left it open for a series if James would ever want to write one. And he left it with a lot to work with.

I enjoyed this book and although I’ve heard it hasn’t gotten many good reviews, I’m going to give it 4 bookmarks.

As I am reading Zombie Blondes I am reminded of my favorite childhood Nintendo game, “Zombies Ate My Neighbors.”

If you’ve never played this game, you’re definitely missing out.

You can either be a girl or a boy.

You have to go around and save your neighbors from the zombies. You have a certain amount of neighbors you have to find and save before the zombies get them, sending their souls to heaven.

You have to fight everything from muscled dudes with chainsaws, werewolves and even a blown up baby. Not to mention the zombies!

You die when the zombies get to the neighbors before you do. I must admit I’ve never beaten this game, which makes me sad. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten an entire game.

I borrowed this game from my cousin, and we kept it for years. When I was in college, my roommate and I hooked up our Super Nintendo so we could play Donkey Kong. I looked for Zombies, but my brother gave it back.  One of these days, maybe I can find it on EBay and go after those Zombies once again.  Maybe Mikey will be able to help me beat it

It’s Tuesday which means it’s time to head over to Should be Reading and check out some teasers and see what everyone else is reading.

Ok, before I tell you the title, I don’t want you to laugh. I spent a couple of hours in Borders one day looking for books to go with my A to Z Challenge. When I got to Z, I looked forever and could only find one title:

Today’s teaser for Zombie Blondes by Brian James comes from the back of the book. I’m not too far into it and so far haven’t found anything great to tease.

“A lot of houses were for sale and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes she ran into a group of cheerleaders – the most popular girls in school. The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful and deathly pale.”