Book Review:Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

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. (From Goodreads)

I may have drawn this conclusion from the cover, but I was expecting Bad Taste in Boys to be a silly zombie book, where the zombies don't really pose a threat. Yeah, I was incredibly wrong about that. Harris didn't shy away from violence (although, there isn't too much), and it was actually quite scary.

Kate is smart, snarky, and already has a plan for her future. This plan involves working as a trainer for the school football team...it gives her experience before college, and a chance to check out football star Aaron. She's definitely a take charge kind of character, especially after she realizes that she may have played a role in the zombification of a large percent of the football team. The football star wasn't a jerk, hurrah. I was happy that Kate didn't spend her time crushing on a guy who was going to treat her badly. I also think that Jonah, Kate's brother, may have been my favorite character. He tried to protect his family, and was both dorky and awesome.

I don't think it's too spoilery to tell you that not everyone survives. I won't say who/how people perish, but it actually made it an interesting zombie book. I mean, it really isn't that fun to read about a zombie epidemic that doesn't actually have consequences. I feel that I should also mention that the zombies were slow. Personal preference, I hate fast zombies. They scare the living daylights out of me.

I will say that this one was really short. I read it within a few hours, and I wish there had been more. On the other hand, everything fit really well into the story, so adding length would have been unnecessary, and may have altered the flow of the story. Overall, it was a zombie book that was both surprising and entertaining.

Bad Taste in Boys
By Carrie Harris
Published by Delacorte Press more details...
256 pages
Release Date:July 12, 2011
Review from Around the World ARC Tours
Rating: C+

Teaser Tuesday (March 1)

What is teaser tuesday?
It's a meme hosted by Should Be Reading and here are the rules:
Grab your current read...
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page
Don't include spoilers.

"The EMTs looked back and forth between Mike and me, trying to determine whether they ought to be treating the butt groper or the screaming hysteric. Mike got to his feet with a noise somewhere between an exhalation and a moan and threw the CPR mask at me."
-Bad Taste in Boys, page 36, by Carrie Harris