Book Review: Dearly Departed

TITLE: Dearly Departed
Book 1 in the Dearly series
AUTHOR: Lia Habel
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: zombies, dystopian, steampunk, adventure, romance
PREMISE: In a future that mixes technology and old victorian customs a girl and a zombie meet...
MY REVIEW: Okay I won't lie to you: the zombie as a love interest IS a bit wierd and takes some getting used too. I also give there could have been a bit better developement on the romance front. But I honestly find myself not really caring because I for one LOVED THIS BOOK. Seriously, I was grinning the whole way through.
Yeah okay, Nora is a bit Sueish. But she's an enjoyable Sue so she's tolerable. Actually all the characters are enjoyable in this, particularly my favorite characters: Chas, Tom, and Renfield who should all totally have their own show where they discuss things like on the View; it would be awesome. Habel clearly isn't going for deep stuff here (though I say there are one or two little interesting morsels in there) and is obviously trying to just entertain people and by golly she succeeds. She has fun characters you can't help but grow to love, a great concept slightly along the lines in tone of Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, great dialogue (the "vampires are just zombies with good PR" line will never cease to amuse me) and she has a good pace going. I didn't even honestly mind the romance even if again, not very developed (but how awesome is it that they don't even talk about romance till like three-thirds through the book? DO YOU KNOW HOW RARE THAT IS IN YA?).
In short this is a entertaining romp with zombies once you get over the zombie as a love interest idea (which you should be able too after a bit because Bran is so darn fun). No, it's not deep nor will it win any literature awards but if you're looking for fun entertainment with zombies I whole-heartedly rec this book. You'll be in for a good time.
WHO SHOULD READ: zombie fans, steampunk fans, fans of the Parasol Protectorate series
MY RATING: Four out of Five stumbling zombies