Review: Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart

Title: Eat, Brains, Love

Author: Jeff Hart

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: October 1st, 2013

Pages: 352
Audio Length: N/A

Genre: YA Horror
TW: Zombie violence. Duh.

Series: Eat Brains Love book 1

Source: E-book

 

Two teenage zombies search for brains, love, and answers in this surprisingly romantic and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel with guts.
Jake Stephens was always an average, fly-under-the-radar guy. The kind of guy who would never catch the attention of an insanely popular girl like Amanda Blake-or a psychic teenage government agent like Cass. But one day during lunch, Jake's whole life changed. He and Amanda suddenly locked eyes across the cafeteria, and at the exact same instant, they turned into zombies and devoured half their senior class.
Now Jake definitely has Amanda's attention-as well as Cass's, since she's been sent on a top-secret mission to hunt them down. As Jake and Amanda deal with the existential guilt of eating their best friends, Cass struggles with a growing psychic dilemma of her own-one that will lead the three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

Anyone who knows me knows my love of all things B-list. Especially horror. So as soon as I saw that Jenn had gotten it on Edelweiss I knew I needed to read it. The title is what immediately made me think B-list horror movie, I love the play on the title, I'm sure you've all already figured out that it's a play on Eat, Pray, Love. And I love all things zombie so I knew this one would be right up my aisle. 

I decided to go ahead and buy it on Amazon and I finished it in about a day and a half. Then I decided to buy the second one, because I needed to know what happened. 

Here are my thoughts on Eat, Brains, Love. 

That cover though! I love how it looks like a tray and how the word "brains" looks like ketchup/blood. For some reason that part really caught my eye. 



This is a very interesting take on zombies. How they're still mostly human until they get hungry and then they become... well... blood thirsty- brain thirsty- zombies. 

I also really liked the fact that the government was covering up zombies, because I love reading conspiracy theories and this one is kind of awesome. Obviously the thought of zombies really isn't awesome, but anyone who reads/watches/plays games with zombies secretly wishes it would happen. 

This isn't your typical zombie apocalypse book, and I think I really liked that part of it. It wasn't really horror, it was almost like a teenage Shaun of the Dead/Zombieland type of thing. Where it's more comedy with zombies, than it is actual scary zombies. And as much as I love a good horror, sometimes I need something.... light to break up the dark. 

The only weird part was that this virus was spread by STD, and that to me is just a little weird. I watched a movie where they became zombies because of an STD and it was weird even then. I feel like this is not the way to go when writing a zombie book.



The pace is done well, yes there are a few moments where it's a tiny bit slow, but it's more of a build up than actually being slow. 
Other than that it was a constant go go go the whole book, from when they turn into zombies and eat their classmates up until the end. 



The writing does seem a bit juvenile at times, like this is almost meant for a younger audience, even with the subject being about blood thirty zombies. It was written very... simple. I haven't read any other books by this author, so that might just be his writing style. 
But that made it a very quick, brainless (pun intended), read, which I did enjoy. 



Oh how I love these characters. 

Jake was incredibly lovable, even with being a lazy stoner. He made everything funny and relaxed. I feel like if I was in their situation that being around him would make me feel safe, like everything would be okay. He was incredibly sweet and I actually kind of maybe fell for him a little bit while reading this.

I also really liked Cass's friend, who's name completely escaped my brain right now. He really cared for Cass and was incredibly sweet and kind of funny. 

I liked Cass well enough, she was really awkward and I related to that. I also don't know how to talk to people my own age lol.

Amanda is okay. She grows on me but I feel like Jake is too good for her. She's snarky but not in a good way and I feel like even as she grows closer to Jake that she still feels like she's too good for him. 

I also very much feel like the "romance" in this book is a little ridiculous. It feels forced and I could have done without it to be honest. 



The author did a good job in making sure that you knew where they were and what was around them. It was just our world but you know, with zombies. 



The ending of this book was great, it was kind of a cliff hanger, which I didn't care for. But because I read this book way after it came out I was able to immediately go to the second one.
Obviously it did a good job in making me want to read more. 




This is a fast paced, quick, and fun read. I highly suggest for anyone who likes zombies and dark comedy. 

And that’s where I saw my first real, live zombie. He was naked. That’s what I noticed first, which I know is stupid, but I hadn’t been expecting to see a nude middle-aged man that afternoon.
- Jeff Hart, Eat, Brains, Love

Jeff Hart is originally from Rochester, New York, and now lives in Brooklyn. He is also the author of Eat, Brains, Love.