Review: Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

Title: Bad Taste in Boys
Author: Carrie Harris
Publisher: Delacorte
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Series: Kate Grable #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Gift

Someone's been a very bad zombie.

Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steriods are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town . . . and stay hormonally human.

Bad Taste in Boys is a fun mixture of horror and humor.

Kate is a mostly likable protagonist. She considers herself a geek who recently began blossoming out of her geekdom. She's an epileptic who has finally been having some success at keeping her seizures under control. Her voice is enjoyable in an awkward, genuine sort of way. The only complaint I have there is that she refers to herself as the geek too often. Her friends aren't around that much but are also likable and have personality. Aaron is a worthy love interest. He's cute, he's quarterback of their terribad football team, and he seems like a regular, genuine guy. Jonah, Kate's little brother, is much geekier than Kate but is also pretty adorable in how he cares for his sister.

The zombies and Kate's reactions to them are hilarious, but it is difficult to explain why. Sometimes she's very nonchalant about it all. She's surprised and scared, but it's kind of like, "Well shit, now there are zombies. Guess I better do something about it. Oh here's a foot. Probably I can use that." It's just FUNNY. The zombies are so dumb! But still will eat your face off. And people just seem to accept it and be like, "You can borrow my car to go fight that zombie, but I'm not going with you because I have tryouts." I laughed so much at all of this. I was almost sad once the resolution started forming, because I wanted more amusing zombie scenes. It just isn't as funny once things start getting back under control. How could it be when the zombies are the main source of the entertainment? But the resolution is alright and the ending is pretty cute.

Bad Taste in Boys is a short book (barely over 200 pages), and the pacing is fast. Combine that with the humor and the zombies and it makes for a quick and entertaining read. It has been the perfect book for me to break up all of the scary stuff that I've been reading this October by injecting some lighthearted zombie humor in there with it. If a funny zombie book sounds like something that you'd like, then you should definitely read this one. It won't teach you the meaning of life or anything, but it will provide you with a few hours of entertainment.