I heard wonderful things about the third Amanda Feral, Battle of the Network Zombies by Mark Henry, which lead me to give it a shot. However zombie books have never been my thing, and honestly this didn’t change my mind. I went into this with an open mind, and hoped that it would change my mind, but honestly I never got into it.
In Seattle’s undead circles, Amanda Feral is one of the beautiful zombies. Of course, when you’re socializing with werewolves, devils, and rampaging yetis, there’s not that much competition. Still, Amanda has a stylish rep to maintain, which is getting tricky now that her tanking ad agency is obliterating her finances. The fastest way to make some cash: appear on a new reality show, American Minions, hosted by lecherous wood nymph Johnny Birch. Classy? Maybe not, but a girl’s gotta eat.
With zombie gal pal Wendy posing as her bitchy agent, Amanda settles in to “Minions Mansion,” crowded with 24-7 video cameras and undead fame whores. When Johnny is found incinerated in a locked room, Amanda decides to channel her inner Miss Marple (minus the fugly cardigans) and find out who’s responsible. Was it Hairy Sue, the white trash stripper yeti? Tanesha, the glamorous trannie werewolf? Angie, the Filipino vampire with a detachable head? Unveiling the culprit in a heart-stopping finale won’t just save the show from cancellation, it might just keep Amanda alive—or as close as a ghoul can get…
Stylish Amanda has found herself with a major funds problem, not surprising considering her fashion sense, plus when a zombie gets a gash or anything that doesn’t heal, they must turn to the reapers to patch them up, which is very expensive. I liked the idea of reapers coming to fix the bodies of zombies. In previous books I have read with minor zombie roles, the bodies just fall apart and stay that way, which I am not a fan of.
Amanda is invited on to a supernatural reality show (American Minions) by Johnny Birch, a dirty wood nymph to help him find bodyguards. Amanda reluctantly agrees, after seeing the potential of a nice sum of money to be made. But she gets more then she bargained for when the host is murdered, and she must take over the camera. I have to say that the idea of a reality show is a bit over done. Maybe not so much in books, there are so many reality shows on TV, that I guess I just never got into the whole thing; but I did like the spin on it, and the different characters on the show. All different types of species and attitudes trying to win was entertaining.
I enjoyed the relationship between Scott and Amanda even though their relationship was rocky. In my opinion, Amanda seems self centered and shallow. She didn’t value what she had with Scott and I have to admit that I found it a little odd that Scott, a werewolf, would be in a relationship with a zombie. However, Scott did his best to show Amanda how she was treating people. I liked the love story between them and found myself rooting for them.
I have to admit that Battle of the Network Zombies had witty parts and I found myself laughing at different times throughout the book. I think this series definitely brings something new to the urban fantasy genre and is different then anything on the market. If you are looking for something funny, new, and don’t mind zombies give this book a try.
Read Order:
Happy Hour of the Damned
Road Trip of the Living Dead
Battle of the Network Zombies
Also reviewed by:
SciFiGuy
Shambles and Grumbles
Smexy Books
Sidhe Vicious Reviews