Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an eARC of ZomRomCom in exchange for an honest review.
Hijinks and wacky bits are my love language, and I absolutely loved Olivia Dade’s purely unapologetic poke at four genres in a trenchcoat. We open with Edie rushing to fight a zombie (the fast and deadly 28 Days Later brand, not the slow shufflers) armed only with a burrito, to save her sweet but oblivious stoner neighbor, Max. Of course that doesn’t go well. (Impulse control, Edie. Get some.) Lucky for her, Max isn’t quite as helpless or clueless as he seems.
This has so many of my favorite things! Max is such a grumpy fussy snob, and Edie is a feral raccoon made of sunshine, so the clash between them had me laughing so hard I couldn’t read it in public. Edie REALLY knows how to lean into the bit, and the absurdity of the third or fourth song or horrifying gremlin food really sold it for me. It was a commitment to cringe I aspire to on a personal level. Edie GETS me.
Zomromcom crams horror, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and romcom into a single book. As a result, the pacing, SFF world-building, plot, genre elements, and character motivation got a little muddy and ungrounded. That’s fine, because the shenanigans and absurdities (esp. Max’s long suffering sighs over Edie’s song and food choices) carried me through to the end. If you’re a fan of horror movies and urban fantasy, and love a genre-aware, over-the-top, unhinged send-up of classic tropes, this is your book. There are easter eggs scattered throughout, including nods to the classic Romero films and other old-school horror. (I would absolutely love a list of all the references and inspirations, because I’m sure I missed some!)
The latter half of the book focuses on set up for a series that I hope will bring the same level of pure, irreverant joy.