Over A Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen

The Blurb On The Back:

Based on the true story of Jeanne, an 8-year old girl who survived the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the only member of her family who did. Here her adoptive mother Hanna Jensen retells her story with a clarity and honesty that is at once moving and inspiring. It was one of the world's most recent and bloody periods of history.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

It feels churlish to say that this is an 'okay' book when it deals with a serious historical event that doesn't get a lot of 'play' in YA fiction. However, that's what it is - okay. Perhaps it's because it is dealing with recent history that makes Jansen pull her punches when it comes to describing the atrocities committed (something that's shown up by the depictions of suffering inflicted in Holocaust based novels such as The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ), but there is definitely something lacking in the text, which makes it very difficult to connect with what's happening to the young heroine.

Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry

The Blurb On The Back:

Seattle. One minute you're drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that's just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle's undead scene with style (mortuary-grade markup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don't judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.

Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters - not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo - isn't easy. And the minute one of Amanda's undead friends disappears after texting the word, "help" (the undead - so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.

Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle's undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Worth a look, particularly if you enjoy zombie books (it's effectively Sex and the City meets Night of the Living Dead). There are a couple of structural issues that I think come from the fact that this is a debut novel and which I think won't be a problem going forward in the series (notably in terms of backstory introduction) but it's funny, gory and imaginative.