Review: Wonderful!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2014
'Zombie Boyz' is an anthology containing three separate stories, each co-written by two authors. As a zombie fan lover who is ready for the zombie apocalypse, this book was definitely right up my alley. Considering it features some of my favorite authors, it was a no brainer that I was going to be reading it.Guess Who's Coming At Dinner by Ethan Day and Geoffrey Knight"But this is what people had to do post-PTA. They started mending relationships, putting aside petty squabbles, and living in larger groups, because everybody knows that the family who hoards and boards together remains uninfected by the undead together."I absolutely love Ethan and Geoffrey and that quote is a stunning example of why. They have such wonderful senses of humor that I'm constantly kept laughing. Their story is about Chandler, a nineteen-year-old young man, and Zane, his zombie boyfriend. Just to be clear, Zane wasn't a zombie when they met. Oh no. Zane was a regular high school kid in the same class as Chandler, although in Chandler's eyes there wasn't anything "regular" about gorgeous, muscled, quarterback Zane. And there definitely wasn't anything remotely normal about Zane when the PTA (Pandemic Transviral Apocalypse) occurred.Nobody really knows what started the PTA, although it became known as Beefcake Fever on account of it starting at Beefcake Bob's, the fast food restaurant where Chandler worked. Chandler's best friend, Dong, was showing him a video of killer cows in China the same day their entire world fell apart, so it stood to reason that tainted beef was responsible. On his way home from school that fateful day, Chandler sees Zane, looking like death warmed over (pun totally intended), and in a moment of fate, Zane saves Chandler from being run over by an ambulance.So, Chandler takes the soon-to-be zombie to the hospital and has to leave him. In the coming months researchers speculate on many things, one being that anyone infected while they were madly (HA!) in love, seem to be able to reject the symptoms of the disease, if not the disease itself. I was wondering how the authors were going to get around the whole "I want to eat your brains" thing.How Zane comes to be with Chandler and his completely insane family, I'm not telling. You have to read the book to get the details. But Zane remembers Chandler when they meet again because Zane loves Chandler and that has stayed prominently in his diseased brain the whole time. This was hilariously funny and, at the same time, wonderfully tender and sweet. I absolutely loved it with all the wacky and zany humor and the sweet and gentle love that Zane and Chandler share. I totally recommend this story and it gets a big A+ from me!Surviving Sin City by Ethan Stone and Daniel A. KaineCan you imagine doing a routine pizza delivery and watching the zombie apocalypse begin, right in front of your face? That's what happens to Kaleb and he's pretty much terrified. Even worse? He goes home to find his mother has turned into a zombie. What is Las Vegas coming to?Cooper is on vacation in Las Vegas, alone, because of a fight with his partner back in England. When the news reports begin about people attacking and biting others, Cooper knows the zombie apocalypse is starting and he tries to get back to the airport so he can get home where he's prepared for this eventuality. His friends and neighbors might call him crazy, but he's stockpiled weapons and supplies for just this occurrence. When his cab driver tries to eat him, Cooper is left alone wandering blindly in an unfamiliar city until he meets Kaleb. Reluctantly pairing up with Kaleb (only for the night), Kaleb leads Cooper to an abandoned and secured bookstore where they can hide. Cooper is pretty disgusted with the Yank's ability to survive and Kaleb wonders how he got stuck with the arrogant and pissy Brit.Luckily for Cooper, Kaleb isn’t as inept as Cooper believed. Kaleb knows where to get weapons and they weren't at legitimate gun stores. So even when Cooper takes off on his own leaving Kaleb sleeping, Kaleb finds transportation and weapons before he tracks the crazy Brit down and saves him from three zombies attacking. Of course Cooper isn’t about to thank Kaleb. Sheesh! They do end up working together to take a back road on an ATV to try to get Cooper to the private airport in Henderson, and much to Cooper's relief, he and Kaleb are a great team together. Well, except for Kaleb's nosiness about what happened between Cooper and his boyfriend.You're going to have to read the book if you want to know whether they made it safely out of Vegas or if Cooper found a way back to England, leaving Kaleb to fend for himself. This story was packed full of excitement and a distinct level of gruesomeness that I reveled in. It was definitely a little more down-n-dirty than the previous story and I adored that. Great job Ethan & Daniel!Ghoul's Gym by TJ Klune and Eric ArvinThis story begins with Jake and Uly who've been together a year and just bought a home together a few months ago. Something is going on with Jake, though, and it's worrying Uly because he won't talk about it. Uly works at a gay muscle gym and he and his friends are all gigantic ripped men. Jake is tall and lanky and constantly feels like a shadow next to Uly even though Uly always tells him he loves him just as he is. The fact that Uly's boss, Stephen, is constantly hitting on him and making snide remarks about Jake, while Jake is standing there, isn't helping Jake's mental health. So, in an attempt to bulk up, Jake makes a stupid decision, without Uly's knowledge, to buy steroids. Jake tries to back out of it when he sees what this "new, military grade stuff" has done to some other guys, but one of them attacks him and injects him anyway. Uh-Oh.It came as no surprise that Stephen is the one providing this zombie-making drug and when Jake discovers that he heads to the gym to keep Uly safe, bringing Dusty and his Alphabet twinks who are all infected along. Meanwhile Uly is dealing with his own problems at the gym. *snort* Really, guys? The shower scene? EEEEWWWWWW! Apparently there are quite a few members who've been taking Stephen's new "supplement" that will make them crazy monster big. He had no idea how true that was. Poor, poor Griff. Bad idea to let the Alphabet twinks loose in the gym. HA! Okay, so it was crazy gory and I loved it. It made me think of really bad B-rated slasher films. And, yes, I'm just sick enough to have laughed. Seriously? The pool? The water polo team? Poor Thad. *grins*Jake is trying to find Uly in the midst of all this madness while simultaneously keeping the "bite, tear, kill" thoughts from taking over. He's doing everything he can to remember the love he shares with Uly in an attempt to retain his humanity. "Even as we move, I try and find something, anything, in the recesses of my mind, something that isn't buried in rage, something that can still be my own. Something that happened the way I remembered it happening. Something about me and him. I push through all the memories, but I can't find anything free. Anything clear. Nothing."Trust my TJ and Eric to not do the predictable with the ending. Oh no. They made me cry and it was a hard cry, one that kept creeping back up on me throughout the day. The whole story was sweet, sad, funny, bloody, and heartbreaking. They also left me with some questions and I really hope they plan on answering them. *hint, hint* I loved 'Ghoul's Gym' so thank you to my guys.