“My Life As A White Trash Zombie” Review

Warning: If you have not read “My Life As A White Trash Zombie” by Diana Rowland, do not read this review if you want to avoid spoilers. If you don’t’ mind spoilers or already read the book, feel free to read this!

Another book review is here, and this time it’s “My Life As A White Trash Zombie” by Diana Rowland! Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“Angel Crawford is a loser.

Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she’s a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who’s been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.

That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn’t have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there’s a job waiting for her at the parish morgue—and that it’s an offer she doesn’t dare refuse.

Before she knows it she’s dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she’s hungriest!

Angel’s going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn’t, she’s dead meat.

Literally.”

Angel was an amazing protagonist. She doesn’t take crap from anyone who anyone who dares treat her with disrespect such as when she didn’t hesitate to dump her boyfriend when he was being horrible to her. When confronted with other characters that tried to threaten her safety or just be up and rude to her, she didn’t hesitate to fight back, and I really enjoyed her fighting spirit. It was also really funny to see how she adapted to being a zombie and all as well, as she had to get used to eating brains and then also trying to get some herself.

Angel’s adapting to becoming a zombie was one of the main subplots, and also the most interesting. She grapples with the idea that yes, anyone can die at any time, regardless of how good or bad that person is. This especially comes into play at one point in the book where she ends up eating the brains of someone she considers a nice person because Angel needs to survive. It doesn’t go without feeling a bit guilty about it, but this contemplation over death through it all was nicely explored.

The shaky relationship she has with her father was an interesting subplot as well, especially when she got sick of his abuse and left the situation. Had she stayed, things would’ve gotten worse, and she knew that walking away was the best thing she could do. What I also liked about that particular plotline was that officers and other people such as Marcus also knew that it was probably good for Angel to walk away from that abusive situation and encouraged and supported her in that. Given that Angel’s father reappeared at the end of the book and Angel decided to stick around and give him one more shot at things, it will be interesting to see if Angel and her father can repair their relationship and if Angel’s father can actually stay sober this time around.

The main plotline of figuring out who was the killer was really interesting to read as well. The plot twist regarding it was something I wasn’t expecting, and I enjoyed it. I would elaborate on why it wasn’t something I expected, but then I’d spoil a rather major part of the book.

The worldbuilding around the zombies and how they function was also quite interesting to read as a whole. They all quite literally need brains because they literally cannot live without them. As awkward and horrible as that situation may seem, it really plays into the subplot of Angel adapting to being a zombie and adds agency to that situation.

Overall, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars for a well-written protagonist, good worldbuilding and interesting plotlines. I look forward to reading the sequel to this if there is one!