Generation Dead By Daniel Waters Review #41

Author: Daniel Waters
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Pages: 400
Rating:
All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn't want them. The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the "differently biotic." But the students don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the "living impaired" from the people who want them to disappear--for good. When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her. But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

Summaries can be deceiving, and I don't mean that in a bad way against the book. In a matter of fact I probably would never have read this book if my friend hadn't pestered me into reading it. I have seen this in the store before, many times (even though I borrowed it from the library). I have read the bio many times as well, and each time I put it back down because it didn't grab my attention. Though that isn't the reason I say the summary is deceiving. I say it, because a lot of the things mention in the bio don't really feel like they happened in the book. Now if I point out where it's going to be sort of spoiler-ish. An example would be probably the whole Phoebe-Tommy relationship, and that kind of goes into a opinion that I have. Something that I'll bring up later. So when I was deciding on what I was going to rate this, I was crossed between a 5 stars and 3 stars. I came to a agreement, to myself, that it should be rated 3 stars. Now don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant, amazing ideal, realistic metaphor to how teenagers really act. Daniel Waters captured teenager life and spun it into a tale using zombies as outsiders. It was simply, pure genius and I adored the thought and imagination that went into this. But I felt, giving it 5 stars would be a lie to people about how I felt about the book. The story & everything was so well crafted and beautifully done, but I really didn't enjoy it. I found it to be really slow and lacking action or events happening. I felt that even though all the characters POV (told from Pete's, Adam's and Phoebe's POV) were well put out, they lacked in natural thought. They were more in narrating. The most well crafted character was probably Pete. You understood him the best and saw him develop from being a jerk to stepping the line of of the things that haunted him. The second most developed character was Adam, and then came Phoebe. Adam's love for Phoebe really became understandable by the end of the novel, you certainly felt for him. But the book lacked in showing love between character relationships. The emotion in the book was always right on, you always felt what the characters felt. But the love issue was clearly not developed enough and was not brought up a lot, even though it became the main focus of the ending. You don't really see Adam's love for Phoebe clearly. At the end, you do. But that's the only time. With Phoebe, I didn't really feel that she fell in love with Tommy. It seemed more like a friendship, which is why I thought the bio seemed wrong. You also don't really understand why she fell for him or what she likes about him. I thought the whole relationship between Tommy and Phoebe was really undeveloped, and there was not enough chapters or times when they were together to develop there relationship. I also started to hate Tommy by the end of the novel, it seems *and this thought will probably continue in the sequel* like his purpose for dating Phoebe is to feel cool. It's like he's using her, and I really hated that. He also hesitated *can't tell you where because it will be a spoiler*. Adam didn't hesitate. Adam proved his love for Phoebe at the end, making me cheer for him. Also we don't find out what happens to Pete at the end, making you want to read the sequel to find out. My favorite two characters were probably Karen & Takayuki. Read the book and you'll understand why Karen is my favorite, you'll just love her personality. Takayuki seemed so mysterious and mean. You don't really get to see much of him in the novel, but by the looks of the preview of the second book, it seems he has a bigger part in the sequel. Which makes me want to to read the sequel for him.

Generation Dead was a amazing piece of work, that is truly original like nothing you've seen out there. But you probably won't be thinking about two weeks after you read it.