A New Favorite Character Has Been Solidifed!

 

TITLE: White Trash Zombie Gone Wild

AUTHOR: Diana Rowland

PUBLISHER: DAW

PUBLISHING DATE: October 6, 2015

PAGES: 336   

SOURCE: Own

FROM GOODREADS: Angel Crawford has buried her loser past and is cruising along in undead high gear--that is, until a murder-by-decapitation sends her on a hazardous detour. As Angel hunts for the killer, she uncovers a scheme that would expose zombies to the public and destroy the life she's built, and she's determined not to rest until she finds out who's behind it. 

Soon she's neck-deep in lies, redneck intrigue, zombie hunters, and rot-sniffing cadaver dogs. It's up to her to unravel the truth and snuff out the conspiracy before the existence of zombies makes headline news and she's outed as a monster. 

But Angel hasn't quite escaped the pill-popping ghosts of her past--not with an illicit zombie pharmaceutical at her fingertips. Good thing she's absolutely sure she can handle the drug's unpredictable side effects and still take down the bad guys...or maybe she's only one bad choice away from being dead meat--for real this time. 

Angel knows a thing or two about kicking ass, but now the ass she needs to kick might be her own.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the fifth book out of six in this series so I will try to keep my thoughts as spoiler-free as possible.  Angel and the crew have returned home from the big showdown in the last book which definitely created a massive shift in this zombie-verse.  Angel had to rely on a new pumped-up medication to enhance her zombie abilities in order to escape alive and save her team.  In this book we see how the use of that medication has once again fueled Angel's past substance abuse issues, and it's an extra boost that one of the side effects is that it helps with her dyslexia, which has become a big barrier now that she has started college classes.

The town is celebrating the release of the new zombie movie which was filmed in the last book with a week of festival activities, and there is also a concern that the FBI has been sniffing around the morgues and funeral homes investigating issues with disappearing organs - mainly brains.  It is feared that the zombie population may have to go into hiding which means Angel will be leaving her father and some new friends behind.  Who knows what will happen (so read the book and find out) but with Angel involved, it's bound to be a hell of a ride.

This series just keeps getting better and better.  This book introduces some new characters, such a Bear the Survivalist and we learn that more people actually know what Angel is hiding than she initially thought.  I will also say this book is VERY Angel-centric and it worked so well.  Because most of the team is off dealing with the FBI stuff, it is mainly up to Angel to figure out the newest chaotic catastrophe and fix it before it blows.  Angel's ex-boyfriend Marcus if away on business and I enjoyed him not being a constant presence.  This allowed the author to showcase Angel's coworker Nick more and I loved seeing his character development and seeing what he could add to this universe.

This series has yet to disappoint and reading book six next month will be bitter sweet.  Angel is a highly flawed, highly likable character and my only regret it that I didn't "meet" her sooner.  She will forever be an all-time fave!

MY RATING: 5 PAWS