Bloody Ceramics

Jessica Harrison adds beautiful work out of found ceramic which leaves you feeling this isn't what Grandma would have on her china shelf. 

Although they don't scream zombie they are truly horrifying and showcase what zombies crave and how fragile our world really is.  Each ceramic is found with Harrison just adding a few creepy add-ons. I have four here, and digging the one with the brains exposed, but be sure to see more of Harrison's weirdly beautiful work. 

Dementor Wasps

As if cockroaches needed to live anymore and survive anything, a new wasp, the  Ampulex dementor, 

Dementor wasps inject venom into cockroach prey, right in the belly, rendering it a "passive zombie," according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.

Sounds like a shit load of pain! It also causes the cockroaches to be able move but in an uncontrollable way, confusing the roach and making it easy prey for the wasp to come and devour it. 

Wanna know more insects that are freaky zombie makers? Click here for my review.

Thanks to Geekologie for keeping me up to date on life's hell on earth. 

Monday Mention: Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature's Undead

WARNING! GROSS IMAGE BELOW

Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature's Undead
by Rebecca L. Johnson

What's scarier than movie zombies? Knowing they actually exist!!!
Okay. Not like the human kind, but there are many creatures in nature that become mindless, crazed zombies all because of some minuscule parasite. 
Read about it all in Zombie Makers. 
The one parasite that creeped me out the most was the Guinea Worm that actually crawls in humans in Africa after being consumed in contaminated water. These worms can grow up to 3 feet long, looking like spaghetti crawling around inside of you.

They crawl to the leg of the host and lay their eggs there causing a painfully sore blister. Often heading to water to calm the pain (the obey command zombie trait), the worm them crawls out causing the gross cycle all over again. Blech! People actually would get this slowly pulled out over the course of days or even weeks. Breaking the worm could leave you crippled, infection and even death. Sounds like a great time! 
So if you want to be grossed out by bugs that turn other creatures into weird zombies then go on and read Zombie Makers. 

4 out of 5 monkey brains

Zombie Horse Mask

So for the last few years buying horse masks has been like a weird fad or meme to do. Super strange in my opinion AND CREEPY. So why not make it more creepy with zombification. And it glows in the dark!

You'll be horsing around in this guy for about $30 

iZombie recap: The Exterminator

The Crime:
There is some Wally Walker case where a guy was killed in the park and someone has been arrested. What appears to be unrelated is some dead guy is killed in a hit and run. Turns out the brain Liv eats is the hitman, Marvin Webster, that killed Walker and now both cases become related. So who killed Webster after he popped Walker? Don Watts, Walkers Angel Investor and who offered the reward, got Webster to kill Walker in order to get a fortune in I'm guessing, insurance or something, then killed Webster since Webster was wanting more money. What a scum bag. 


Zowers (Zombie Powers):

• Hitman numbness
• no empathy
• Gun knowledge
• Unusual facts

Major news: Liv has been feeling bad about about the whole "jumping" majors bones last episode. Major has moved on and on social media a make out sesh with his new GF appears online and Liv sees it. Heartbreaking. 
Major comes in with a teen to get help from Liv's connections to the police to find the teen's missing friend. AWE! Major helps troubled teens! Good man. 

Meanwhile...:
Kids find a "hobo" which ends up being a zombie. Liv and Ravi check it out. Turns out it's an old co-worker of Liv's, Marcie, and she totally does not make it through the test run Ravi tries on her. With Liv's hitman numbness, she ends up killing Marcie in order to save Ravi when he falls in.
Blaine shows up and Liv is still sketched out by him. Should be. Drug dealing in a way. 
Liv and her friend Peyton cross paths over the same case and it makes it a little difficult at one point and it totally screws Peyton's case over. Since Liv ate those brains, she totally doesn't care and this brings out a fight between the ladies.  All forgiven when the catch the right man for the death of Wally Walker. 
Scary dude in the skate park that may have a connection to the missing teens turns out to be BLAINE! What is that guy up to?

Nourishment: Wheat crackers with siracha with brains

Brainy lines

• "A teenager posted a picture on his Facebook claims it's a zombie" - Ravi " Is it me?" - Liv
• "Are you cool with me naming our trivia team Piggy and the Brain?" - Liv
• "You didn't say you were marrying Siri." after Liv rambles about some random fact. 

Thoughts

• There are other zombies out there. How many ?!
• Can they be fixed even though Ravi tried? Will he ever be able to help Liv?
• LOL trivia Tuesday.
• Loved Liv's element shirt that read O Mg ! See below.
• Poor Liv having to deal with her past and her killing Marcie and on top of that Major moving on. Glad to see zombies have emotions. 

Monday Mention: My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish (My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish #1)

My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish (My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish #1)
by Mo O'Hara

When Tom’s big brother decides to become an Evil Scientist, his first experiment involves dunking Frankie the goldfish into toxic green gunk. Tom knows that there is only one thing to do: Zap the fish with a battery and bring him back to life! But there’s something weird about the new Frankie. He’s now a BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH with hypnotic powers . . . and he’s out for revenge! - Goodreads

Really this is a juvenile book and it can be read in a day. And if you like reading about fish to your kids or students...well think again.

SO won't be reading the rest of the series. I understand the novel is for elementary kids (I work in a library), and I have no problems checking out what kids are reading, but I really won't be recommending this to anyone. I found too many things that irked me and normally I can move past those and still see a cute read, but not in this one. 
First this book is really like 2 small books into one. That threw me off but I did enjoy the second part better....If I had to choose. 

Second, the word "moron" was overly used which made me feel like I was being verbally abused and that is basically what the older brother(s) were doing to the main character and his friend on top of being dickhole older siblings. Plus be creative with your wording. Repetition makes for a really dull read, even if it is a kids' book.

Third, this "zombie" might be one of the worst zombie concepts I have come across and I have read a lot of smack out there. The zombie goldfish was atleast dead at one point and like Frankensteined back to life BUT basically the fish liked moldy green things to eat, could hypnotize people, and understood humans and was personified quite a lot. Other than the moldy eating and having died at one time, I don't know how this was a zombie.....And why he was called fat. NO FAT SHAMING!
The main character also did too much of explaining himself after he did something. Example, he high-fived his friend and then explained why he thought it was a good time to high-five. Pretty sure those things shouldn't need explaining. What was cute was the misunderstanding of words like perpetrator he thought was PURPLE-TRAITOR. Adorbs! I did enjoy the second story since it was less...mean, I guess. Not too many "moron"s but still overly used. 
No kid besides those in like grade 4 or below should read this so it makes me sad I have seen grade 5 and 6 students take this out and I know their reading levels are higher. This novel doesn't challenge them enough. 

Done rant. 

2 out of 5 monkey brains

Monday Mention: Through the Zombie Glass (White Rabbit Chronicles #2)

Through the Zombie Glass (White Rabbit Chronicles #2)

by Gena Showalter (Goodreads Author)

"Zombies stalk the night. Forget blood and brains. These monsters hunger for human souls. Sadly, they've got mine..." - Ali

First off...that cover. Someone one Goodreads was thinking that it was ugly and it resembled a little too much like White Chicks. YIKES! and lol. That is just the icing on top of this bizarre novel of weird spiritual zombies and ghosts that has nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland more and more. 

So dead on

So the gang is still fighting zombies but Justin, a distrusting dude from the first book, gets bit while out on a zombie run. Within moments he starts to turn and bites Ali. Thus begins the spiral of Ali versus her evil Zombie self that is starting to emerge from within. She sees this evil Ali in her reflection; a hint to AIW. 

Cole thinks there is a spy among the group, zombies are getting stronger, and teen hormones are going nuts!! And that is where I went from wanting to rate this 4 to a 3. SOO much teen lust and horrible "sexy" talk. I kept being disturbed cuz in most of the YA I read it is just more kissy stuff. This was trying to be subtle in some boob grabbing and dry humps. Yup! That happened. (I was going to insert a gif for that but....its too weird out there on the net). Plus these characters are now 17 so I had to keep that in mind when it came to all the sex talk. Cuz there was a lot. And a lot of this on my end..

Anyways, still enjoyed the plot probably better this time since I knew what to expect with the zombie spirit stuff. Will read the next one for sure. Gone this far.

3 out of 5 monkey brains

here is from my first review  White Rabbit Chronicles #1

Monday Mention: Zom-B Gladiator

Zom-B Gladiator (Zom-B #6) 

by Darren Shan (Goodreads Author)

Again lots of filler in the beginning but I enjoyed the excitement at the end and it got a bit mushy too. *AWE*

So B is back at the safe haven with Dr. O. still doing some training with the group now out on the streets. They meet a young lady and her child and while off collecting some items for them, B is captured by someone she knows. Le gasp!

Barnes takes her to some messed up royalty family on a boat and is forced to fight other zombies. The more senseless ones. Her incentive to fight: some idiot child killer will kill the 15 or so kids he has locked up for his play things. Wtf? I know. What a bunch of psychos!

Soon B becomes...the gladiator. The whole Dan Dan, border line mentally challenged child killer in a 3 times too small sailor outfit is an ingredient for nightmare fuel. And killing for sports? That's some white privileged crap right there hard at work. So what's next for Becky Smith? Well not everyone was captured at the end so I'm sure run ins with some royals or even owl man and the clown are in the future.

3 out of 5 monkey heads

 
I keep on reading this series and there are still 6 more according to Goodreads. I'll be leaving this series alone for a little while.

Zom-B Angels

Zom-B Angels (Zom-B #4) 

by Darren Shan (Goodreads Author)

After following some 'z' arrows, B makes her way to Dr. Oystein and his facility of "angels". Dr. O is some 200 year old zom head dedicating his infinite time to helping revitalized zombies and repairing them and to train them....for a war against humans and zombies. B is repaired by being naked in a tube of special slime for weeks. When she comes out she sees a few familiar faces and one that she wants to kill since he was a dick and killed all her friends at the underground facility. B has to learn to get along with others, train, and learn about Dr. O and his Nazi horror past. Dr. O is a wacko in my opinion who believes "god" had him come back to finish his work since Dr. O believes a reckoning is upon them. That is why he has his Angels. But there are also evil things, like a maniac clown zombie....

So...I guess there are less random things happening and more explaining done as to why there are zombies and how B is how she is with other teenage zombies. I was shaking my head at the whole "god" idea of Dr. O's and even the characters were. I feel this was more of a filler book than one that was jam packed with action. I did learn these revitalized zom heads can't feel sexual needs so good to know no romance will happen. This also brings up a lot of questions I have.... 

3 out of 5 monkey heads

I went on a binge reading marathon of these this summer so expect to see more! 

Life After Beth movie review

Back in July I posted about about the movie Life After Beth about a young lady (played by Aubrey Plaza) turning into a zombie and her bf Zach finding out which at first makes his broken heart mended until Aubrey starts acting a little cray cray. And she ain't the only one! 
I saw this at a film festival in my city, preceded by a zombie walk, and although the crowd was small it was a fantastic experience and film to watch.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
The zomromcom had some strange and hilarious moments in it like Beth getting tied to an oven and falling down the side of a hill, awkward moments you can't help but laugh at, the fact that dead people were coming back and trying to get back into their homes, John C Reilly and Molly Shannon as strange parents, and great dialogue like:

Zach Orfman: We're going to go for a hike.
Geenie Slocum: Not a hot idea.
Maury Slocum: In broad daylight? Zach, are you nuts?
Geenie Slocum: Wait till nightfall.
Beth Slocum: Why?
Maury Slocum: Because, baby, it's safer.

 It was a little awkward and slow to start but as Beth starting becoming more and more extreme in her zombism and Zach getting more freaked out, the events turned out to be hilarious with a touch of romance but not enough that you wish you were dead. I loved the scene with the bros in their underwear and how Beth is put down. Most hilarious moment! I took my fiance to it and he enjoyed it just as much as I did. I really hope to see more and more of zomromcoms.

Although it was not a box office hit since it premiered at most film festivals, I'm giving Life After Beth a ZD rating of 4 out of 5 monkey brains.