Thursday, March 10, 2016

Review: The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever - Jeff Strand

First, thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an ARC.  A few months ago I received a package from them with only one book in it, and there was a flyer in it that said there should have been three more books there.  So when I emailed the publisher they said they'd send out the other three books.  I was very happy because one of the books missing from the original package was this one, and I had really wanted to read it.  Overall this was a very funny read. 

The main character that we get the story through is Justin.  He is an aspiring film maker, having already made a few with his friends and then posted on YouTube.  Out of the blue, Justin and his two best friends, Gabe and Bobby, decide their next movie is going to be the "greatest zombie movie ever".  The main problem is that they have to do it before school is out in a month, because they won't all be around for the summer.  Next they need people to star.  Justin has the girl that he's had a crush on, and out of nowhere he gets the guts to ask her to be in the movie.  She agrees, as long as he helps her with two things she wants to convince her mother to let her do, one of them being a mohawk, the other being face piercings.  So now, they've got their main star, and they have to write a script.  In a weekend.  They split the parts up, and of course hilarity ensues.  The next thing needed is money.  For special effects, etc.  So they must find a donor. They find one, a relative who agrees to give them $5,000. But this relative is a pretty big stickler about making sure they get something back on their investment. 

Finally they get all their actors, but then other things begin to fall through, the location of filming, sickness, actor issues, fires, etc.  As I said before, this is a fun story.  So many of the sarcastic comments made me laugh out loud. 

The only issue I had is that it did seem a little younger than I'd normally read.  But it would definitely be a good book for upper middle school students.  Definitely should be one that boys will like as well.  While it isn't a real "zombie" story, it is only about kids making a zombie movie, it definitely had some interesting parts about the zombie movies that are already out there, as well as talking about the special effects that would be needed.