Review by KCWolf -- Undead Redhead by Jen Frankel

[Karen Crumley]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Undead Redhead" by Jen Frankel.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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While Undead Redhead was an enjoyable allegory of isolation and loneliness, I can only rate it two out of four stars. This is mostly due to glaring errors and misspellings, head-hopping, and chapters in which the story kind of drags.

To summarize, the story of Undead Redhead follows our protagonist Sharon as she wakes up in a coffin on the day of her own funeral. Her mind is filled with memories of the last day of her life at a so-called friend’s wedding. She starts to put the pieces together and realizes she is now one of the undead. She comes to terms with being a zombie gradually and finds ways to deal with her new existence.

The feelings of isolation and rejection continue to plague her in her zombie state. Yet, her horrible death and the circumstances surrounding it, the carelessness of those around her lead her to a journey to find love, acceptance, and the one person who doesn’t shrink away from the coldness of her touch.

I liked that the character Sharon was likable, believable, and not a “Mary Sue.” I found it easy to relate to, with all of her insecurities and social awkwardness. I liked that her cruelty-free vegan lifestyle even carries over into her undead status, and she eats rotten fruits and vegetables rather than human flesh and brains. There are a lot of humorous, lighthearted moments as well.

The story brings a certain truth to light; that the “in crowd” is not necessarily the right crowd. That we outsiders find love and acceptance with other outsiders. It also points out the phonies in society that rely on their looks or social status, and feel it is okay to treat others like crap regardless of people’s very real feelings. It also exposes the illness that is social media gratification (the ‘who cares as long as your posts and selfies have 200 likes’ mentality.)

I liked the stream of consciousness narrative of this book, but felt that time jumps and head hopping made for a little bit of confusion. Also, there were parts of the book which caused the story to drag. For example, one chapter was nothing but social media commentary about Sharon’s demise from her shallow frenemies. I feel this chapter was unnecessary because we already knew what was going on in Sharon’s life-before-death, and that she was somewhat of a social outcast.

Also, errors such as “best best,” instead of best bet, and “winkening” instead of whining were a distraction from the story. An extra proof-read could have really polished up the prose and illuminated these small misspellings and typos. Incomplete sentences and head-hopping added some confusion to the story.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read for lovers of sweet paranormal romance.

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Undead Redhead
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Like KCWolf's review? Post a comment saying so!

[TheRVMom]

I definitely agree with you about the editing. That was a distraction. I didn't mind the time hopping as much, but then again, I've been reading a lot of time hopping books recently. Maybe I'm just more used to it. The characters were fun. I would have liked to have had more backstory on Malcolm and also on Morgoni. I wonder what happened with Dorri?

[Karen Crumley]

You're right, a backstory on characters like Malcolm and Morgoni would have helped flesh the story out a bit more. I wondered what happened to Dorri as well.

Thank you for the comment.