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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Book Blog: Zombie vs Unicorns by Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Maureen Johnson, Carrie Ryan, Scott Westerfeld, Meg Cabot, Garth Nix, Kathleen Duey, Margo Lanagan, Naomi Novik, Diana Peterfreund, Libba Bray, and Cassandra Clare

Wow, what an interesting title. And the cover is equally as...lovely.

I noticed that this book brought a lot of attention when I carried it around in public. Everyone would glance at what I'm reading, then looked at me with a weird look in their face, and then ask me what team I was on.

Every single person I asked said that they were on team unicorn. Not a single zombie? Isn't that funny? And when I asked why, they said that zombies were gross (Keep in mind that I asked this to dudes too) and unicorns can stab people with their horn. Which is absolutely true.

So, here's the thing about this book. It's actually twelve mini books all bound together. At first, I thought it was a stupid idea to have all these authors writing stuff until I realized that it gave me the opportunity to read other authors' writing styles.

Since there ARE so many books in this one, I thought it'd be best to grade each on individually.

The Highest Justice by Garth Nix

TEAM UNICORN


I've read Nix's book before and I wasn't a big fan. But I did know that he has the ability to write and that he was a good author. It's kind of like classics; they aren't your favorites, but there's value to them. His lovely unicorn story was a great start to the book. I like how he made the unicorns stab all those people; it shows the more violent side to our pure, fantasy creature.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson

TEAM ZOMBIE

This was one of my least favorite short stories in the whole book. First of all, what's up with all the f-bombs? C'mon people, what every happened to variety? We get that your main character wants to...do things to other characters, so we don't need to be reminded ten times throughout the whole thing. And I hate her writing style. Johnson is going to cost Team Zombie.

Rating: 1 Star

Purity Test by Naomi Novik

TEAM UNICORN

Novik's stereotypical unicorn story is funny, lighthearted, and easy to read. I absolutely love the Voldemort reference. This has to be one of my favorites of the twelve.

Rating: 4 Stars

Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan

TEAM ZOMBIE

This is the very first zombie story I've actually like so far (which isn't that big of a feat considering the fact that there was only one other zombie story before this one). There was action, there was love, and (best of all), there was the twist ending. I was sitting around, telling people around how sweet it was with the little love scene at the end and then...then THAT happened, and I was just sitting there in shock. I absolutely love these endings so I proudly reward Ryan a perfect score.

Rating: 5 Stars

A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan

TEAM UNICORN

Although I like the depth of story (I'm sure I missed something), the point-of-view changes were very confusing. I thought it was funny that both character in the Purity Test and this one are suffering the effects of drinking. Just something I noticed, y'know?

Rating: 3 Stars
Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson

TEAM ZOMBIE

This one was really, really erie. It kind of freaked me out with the little zombie children. And it had one of those no hope endings. But what really, really bugged me was that the actor wasn't given a name. Any name would have been fine, even a fake one. 

Rating: 3 Stars

The Caring and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund

TEAM UNICORN

"I'm blindingly fast and scarily strong." This quote totally reminded me of Edward! The title is very...creative. But there wasn't anything special about it.

Rating: 3 Stars

Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld

TEAM ZOMBIE

Westerfeld is one of my favorite authors, so I had high expectations for his zombie story. But I was very disappointed.  There wasn't enough development and WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THE F-WORDS!!!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot

TEAM UNICORN

Somehow, Meg Cabot was able to create a unicorn story in the most normal, casual way possible. This story was obviously Cabot's style. I'm not a big fan of Cabot's books because I think that they lack depth, but the story was interesting enough.

Rating: 4 Stars

Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare

TEAM ZOMBIE

As much as I don't like Clare and her books, I must admit that her short story was very interesting even though it almost completely revolved around love. And I can't help but think of Jace when I see James's name. But, as much as I hate to, I have to give it a decent rating.

Rating: 4 Stars

The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey

TEAM UNICORN

I think its very creative that Duey decided to use a unicorn POV. But I couldn't help but cringe at what our dear unicorn was trying to do to itself. It made me really sad.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Prom Night by Libba Bray

TEAM ZOMBIE

Our concluding zombie story was a big downer. It was really, really boring to the point where I can't even tell you what it was about or how it ends.

Rating: 1 Stars

So, to figure out what team I'm on, I've totaled up the number of stars per team, and which ever one has the largest number of stars wins.

Team Zombie: 17/30
Team Unicorn: 22/30

I'm Team Unicorn!!!!

It's obviously the better team anyway. 

And finally, for the total book rating, I have averaged all the scores. So, drumroll please, I am rating it...

Rating: 3.2 Stars!

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