Name: Happy Hour of the Damned
ISBN: 9780758225221

Mark Henry

Amanda Feral, a newly turned zombie trying to make her way through Seattle's undead scene while satisfying her craving for human flesh, discovers that someone or something is determined to turn the underworld into a place of true terror. Original.

Happy Hour of the Damned

Sarah Sammis

I read Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry as part of my resolution to read books from my wishlist. I added this one to the list because it's the first of the series and I thought the second book, Road Trip of the Damned sounded good. Unfortunately my experience reading the first book has made me take the rest of the series off my list without attempting to read any further.

In this disjointed paranormal chick-lit mystery, obviously named Amanda Feral, zombie, gets a call from a succubus friend of hers and goes to help. That begins a missing persons mystery that has ties to a big evil with equally big plans.

The first thing that bugged me about the book was the extended flashback after the first chapter. Instead of jumping into the mystery, Amanda decides to stop the story and instead tell me all about how she became a zombie and how she learned to "live" with her new state of undeadness. Frankly, I don't care. Just tell me she's a zombie and I can accept that as the premise of the book. I don't need yet another origin story!

The second thing that bugged me is directly related to the first: Amanda learning what her limitations as a zombie are. Seriously there are some gross extended scenes about how to continue eating human food that involve adult diapers that I don't need or care to read. All it does is stall the real start of the plot.

The third thing that bugged me was Amanda's brand name dropping. I don't care what she wears. I don't care about her fashion sense or her favorite foods. Yes, I get that's set in Seattle and some of that is local color but a little name dropping goes a long way.

Finally there was her non stop chatter. She never shuts up. Her nonstop chatter is shallow and annoying. It's not even funny. It's just there to fill dead air and perhaps to make the book seem more chick-litty. It doesn't work.