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Generation Dead | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel Waters
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
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Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 31547
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Library Binding
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 142310921X
EAN: 9781423109211
ASIN: 142310921X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
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Product Description
Phoebe is just your typical goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent.and dead.
All over the country, a strange phenomenon is happening. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same-they stutter, and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best to fit into a society that doesn't want them.
Fitting in is hard enough when you don't have the look or attitude, but when almost everyone else is alive and you're not, it's close to impossible. The kids at Oakvale High 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 differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear-for good.
With her pale skin and Goth wardrobe, Phoebe has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids. Not her best friend, Margi, whose fear of the differently biotic is deeply rooted in guilt over the past. And especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has just realized his feelings for Phoebe 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?
Generation Dead is a sharp, funny, and breathtakingly original novel from an exciting new talent.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Pretty Decent December 17, 2008
Generation Dead was a decent book. I enjoy all sorts of fiction, sci-fi and romance novels so when I saw this at target I picked it up. It is an interesting idea for a story and with some additional imagining I could enjoy it. I would have liked some additional description of characters and scenery as well as character development. Most of the characters were rather flat. I did like the idea of the story though and I will pick up the sequel when it comes out.
 Great cover, Great book December 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In Daniel Waters first YA novel, Generation Dead, American Teens are dying and returning as the undead. Call them what you will; living-impaired, differently biotic (the new PC term) or zombies, they are definitely considered a minority at Oak Vale High. Most of the living-impaired attend this school because it is considered to be the most progressive of schools when it comes to educating the living-impaired and they have the largest population of living-impaired students in the US (which is like 7 kids). History repeats itself as the zombies and those who befriend them have to endure prejudices and discrimination the likes of which no one should suffer.
Phoebe and her friend Margi, aka the "weird sisters", were the strangest girls in school, until the undead started arriving. Along with their popular football-jock friend Adam, they become friends with Tommy, a differently biotic kid. Tommy joins the football team and attempts to fit in with the traditionally biotic (living) kids at school. As hate crimes are being reported throughout the country, some of the students at Oak Vale High treat Tommy and his living-impaired friends as hated outcasts. Because of their friendship with the living-impaired, Phoebe, Margi and Adam find themselves being targeted as zombie sympathizers.
Generation Dead is a tale of ignorance, discrimination, hate, love, friendship and acceptance. It shows the good and bad sides of people and highlights important social issues while entertaining you with humor, wit and zombies.
What I liked: I am not a fan of zombies! But, this book presents zombies in such a different light that I actually felt sympathetic toward them and I believe I would be friends with several of them myself, if given the opportunity. In this book zombies "is good people". Well, most of them anyway.
Oh, and I know the old adage, "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover", but this cover is awesome! It is the whole reason that I even bought the book in the first place. A zombie cheerleader, what could be better?
What I didn't like: This book ended right after the climax of the story. I would have liked to read a little more about what happened to Tommy, Adam, Phoebe and Pete after their confrontation.
Last word: I would recommend this book to any young adult or even adults for that matter. Mr. Waters tricks you into thinking you are just reading another cool zombie story, when in fact you are reading about social dynamics and relationships.
Reviewed by Christel
With a book this long, you kinda expect it to at least HAVE an ending December 11, 2008
Generation Dead is about a group of Zombies- American teens who have died and come back to life. They long to fit in with their fully living peers, but it is harder than it seems. When best friends Pheobe, Adam, and Margi get to know the Zombies at their school, they take radical action to help get their new friends the rights they deserve.
I loved the plot of Generation Dead. But come on! The author rambled on and on for a good 300 pages with useless dialog and banter that had nothing to do with plot development, yet he couldn't be bothered to write a freaking ending? This book could have been half as long and there would still be some nonsense left in it. I understand the ending was set-up for a sequel (which I just checked and book 2 is over 400 pages long! Great), but this is not Harry Potter, it's a cutesy little YA novel. There is absolutely no reason for the book to be over 300 pages long.
I did like the plot though. The concept is unique, and it had some really good parts. Character development was definitely thorough, and the characters were relateable too- even the Zombies. This book had so much potential. I really wish I could unread it, wait until the author re-writes it, and then read it again.
On the up-side, it's definitely a better read than that crap-fest Twatlight.
Good beginning, but ending a let down September 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Generation Dead intrigued me from the moment I saw the cover, and most of the book was very good. I liked the new spin on the zombie story, since I have always found zombies to be rather pointless and boring. But the last thirty pages or so really let me down. It feels like the author ran out of ideas and could not find a way to bring the story to a conclusion. I would give the book more stars if the ending had not been such a disappointment. For a first novel it was very creative and I enjoyed reading most of it. Even though I did not like the way the book ended, I hope to read more from this promising author.
 Zombies Searching for Acceptance and Tolerance Instead of Brains August 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In its Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. The schools for whites were often superior to their counterparts for black students and consequently the separate schools offered very different educational opportunities. This ruling was key to the civil rights movement and efforts to end segregation.
On September 3, 1957, nine black students were barred from entry into Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. By September 23, after another court decision ruled that Arkansas' governor could not keep them out, the Little Rock Nine were able to begin their school year in the white high school. President Eisenhower also sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to help protect the black students from harassment that ranged from insults to acid being thrown into one student's face.
Eight of the Little Rock Nine finished the school year at the Central High. In May of 1958 Ernest Green graduated from the school, the only minority in his graduating class of 602 students.
Fifty years later, Daniel Waters' debut novel Generation Dead offers a new take on integration and the fight for civil rights. In Oakvale, Connecticut parents and students alike are worried about the new students transferring to Oakvale High to benefit from the school's program of integration. Some of the new students are minorities, some of them are not. The reason all of the new students prove worrisome to some locals is more fundamental: The new students are dead.
All over the country, dead teenagers are waking up and rejoining the living--more or less. Called "living impaired" or "differently biotic" by a politically correct society, many of the undead kids prefer the term "zombie." No one knows why some teenagers come back and some don't. The only certainty is that everything changed the moment these zombies began trying to reconnect with the world of the living.
Unfortunately, some (living) people would prefer to have the zombies stay dead. Permanently. Everyone child knows that names can never hurt them, but for undead teens that don't heal sticks and stones suddenly seem much more dangerous, especially when the government has no laws to protect differently biotic citizens. After all, citizenship is supposed to expire when the citizen does, isn't it?
In Generation Dead integration doesn't start with a court decision detailing undead rights. Instead it starts with Tommy Williams trying out for the football team. Dead for about a year, no one expects Tommy to survive tryouts, let alone make the team. Except that he does.
Suddenly, the zombies don't seem quite so different. Phoebe Kendall, a traditionally biotic (albeit pale) student, realizes that better than anyone as she begins to observe Tommy and the other living impaired students at her school including Tommy and Karen (the girl featured on the novel's cover and possibly this reviewer's favorite character). The more Phoebe sees of zombies like Tommy and Karen, the more they seem like any normal teenager, well mostly.
No one questions Phoebe's motivations for befriending Tommy until it begins to look like the two of them are more than friends. Margi, Phoebe's best friend and fellow Goth, can't understand what Phoebe could see in a dead boy. Every time her neighbor Adam sees Phoebe with Tommy, he can't help but wonder why she doesn't feel the same way about him when he's actually alive.
Eventually Margi and Adam come around, forming their own tentative bonds with the zombies in their midst. Meanwhile, other students at Oakvale remain hostile. Determined to make sure that the dead students invading their school stay dead for good this time, they set a vicious plan into motion that will irrevocably change everything for Phoebe and her friends--dead and alive.
Written in the third person, Waters alternates viewpoints throughout the novel. Each of the main characters mentioned here, specifically Phoebe and Adam, have sections of the novel related from their perspective. The novel even features narration from one of the students strongly opposed to the zombie presence in Oakvale. This technique, aside from demonstrating Waters' masterful writing skills, offers a fully informed perspective on the events of the novel with its variety of viewpoints.
Upon first glance, this book looks like a quirky but not necessarily serious book. A cover with a dead cheerleader wearing biker books can have that effect on readers. And yet, even though the story is about zombies, it isn't just another fun book. Filled with smart writing and an utterly original story, Generation Dead also adds to the ongoing conversation about tolerance and equality suggesting that people often have more in common than not. Even with zombies.
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