Title: Happy Hour of the Damned (Amanda Feral, Book 1)
Author: Mark Henry
Release: March 1st, 2008
Buy Kindle version: here
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 4 Stars

Confession Time: Zombies. Totally not my thing and not sexy. I think this could be the very first zombie book I have read, but it won’t be the last! Contrary to popular belief zombies do not always walk around chanting brains. If they are lucky enough to be “made” zombies, like Amanda Feral, they can continue to function as they did before death, mostly. The exception being the devastating (and totally gross) side effects of eating real food, pale skin even a spray tan won’t fix, and the desire for human flesh. Other than those minor things, they can carry on with their lives as usual. Amanda Feral is trying to do just that, refusing to give up her designer clothes, power career, or warm blooded boyfriend just because she is dead. Unfortunately the afterlife isn’t so easy for her when one of her friends seemingly goes missing and she finds herself in over her head in someone’s attempt to stage a world takeover, one Starbucks at a time.

Amanda Feral and friends are quite possibly the most foul mouthed, snarky, and sarcastic group of characters I have come across yet. They are dirty ~ and I don’t mean “spank me” dirty, I mean “depends” dirty. Their brand of humor is not for the easily offended or light of heart. Living with an experienced master of inappropriate jokes and sarcasm, aka my husband, I figured I was up for the challenge. A few times I found myself cringing because Mark Henry holds nothing back, gore and bowels are not off limits. However, most of the time I found myself silently snickering and snorting along at bad jokes and hilarious storytelling. Mark Henry seems to have the unique ability of making the gory act of zombies eating humans perfectly normal, if not funny.

I have only one itty bitty complaint…footnotes. Happy Hour of the Damned is filled with footnotes, giving you little tidbits of info sure to make you snort out loud. Because I didn’t want to miss any of the funny, I wasn’t about to ignore their existence, but I did find them a tad distracting when reading it on the Kindle. Obviously, this is not the fault of the author, but this may be one of those series that are better off read in paperback where you can flip back and forth easily (*gasp* yes, I did indeed say that… mark your calendars!). Being a diehard Kindle lover who avoids dead tree books if at all possible, I did come up with a method that was workable and figured I would share because I am a generous girl like that.

Because of Mark Henry’s foul mouthed crew of comediens I give Happy Hour of the Damned 4 stars. It was fun to read an urban fantasy with main characters who were not battling with moral dilemmas and ethical questions. I can’t wait to see what else Amanda Feral can get herself into. Next up, Road Trip of the Living Dead.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was purchased by me.

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