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October 02, 2006
"Undead and Unpopular" by Mary Janice Davidson
MJ Davidson's "Undead and ..." series is a nice, light read. After all, how can a newly minted vampire queen named Elizabeth Taylor - Betsy to her friends- with a shoe fetish be anything less than entertaining. This book, the 5th in the series, is readable in and unto itself but I recommend starting at the beginning of the series and taking it sequentially so that you'll get all the humor.
Betsy is turning 31, or she would be if she were still alive, and she's trying to plan her own surprise birthday party, give up drinking blood (because it's "icky"), and organize her upcoming wedding to her consort, the "yummy" Eric Sinclair. A delegation of European vampires arrive on the scene at about the same time that Betsy figures out that her best friend is seriously ill. Throw in a zombie in the attic and a local vamp who is hell-bent on killing the member of the European contingent who first turned her, and a lot of fun, chaos and confusion ensue.
As a stand-alone, this entry in the series isn't as action-packed as some of the previous novels. Instead it focuses more on relationships among the central group of characters. Unfortunately, deep, meaningful character development would go against the general grain of Anderson's humorous storytelling style and break up the feel of the series. Anderson does a great job of sticking with her strengths and keeping up snappy dialog, but the result is that not much happens. In short, it's not the strongest of the set, but still well worth reading.
ISBN: 0425210294
Jennifer, reference
Posted by jnardine at October 2, 2006 04:07 PM