Hardcover, 432 pages
Rating: 4/5
Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Humor, Horror, Short Stories
Summery: It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths--for good and evil--of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?
Overall Review: Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier butt head, and minds to decide which is better, Zombies, or Unicorns, so they decided to make a book of short stories, with the help of other authors, for you to decide which is better. I love this book, it has some really fun stories. I love the banter between Holly and Justine at the beginning of each story to introduce them, I also love the reasons they give for why they love, or hate the stories. The banter was very funny, and made the book that much more enjoyable. Also if you're looking for stories that are Team Zombie they have a zombie on the outside upper corner of the story, and if you're looking for Team Unicorn stories they have a unicorn there instead of a zombie, which I also enjoyed. I also love the illustrations on the cover of this book.
On to the reviews of the short stories, I wrote each review after I finished reading the story.
The Highest Justice by Garth Nix (Team Unicorn)
16 pages
Pages 3 - 18
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: This story is about a princess, Jess, taking care of her mother, the queen's, last request. I enjoyed the fact that this story had both zombies and unicorns, I lilked Jess, and Piers. It was well paced, Garth Nix gave a good story with enough backstory to understand what was going on and why, in only 16 pages. I enjoyed it.
Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Johnson (Team Zombie)
27 pages
Pages 21 - 47
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: This story is about a boy infected with a disease, and falls in love. Though it wasn't one of my favorite stories, I enjoyed it. The characters weren't great to me, but they were still enjoyable. My favroite part of the story was the little bit of backstory about how Grayson got the disease, I also liked that there were two different way to take the ending.
Purity Test by Naomi Novik (Team Unicorn)
17 pages
Pages 51 - 67
Rating: 5/5
Review: This story is about a unicorn finding a "virgin" to help save baby unicorns. This was a very cute, and funny story I loved Belcazar, the unicorn, as well as Allison, the "virgin", the baby unicorns were also funny, I also loved the ending with the little part about the name of where they live, that kind of made me laugh out loud. This was probably my favorite out of the Team Unicorn stories.
Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan (Team Zombie)
37 pages
Pages 71 - 107
Rating: 3/5
Review: This story is about a girl named Iza, who lives on an island,Curacao, with her father, who is the Governor. The first half of this story was a little too slow paced for me to truly enjoy it, but the second half made me enjoy it more than I thought I would. I didn't really like Iza until the ending of the story, my favorite character was Beihito. There was also no explanation, nor background on how the Return, the Mudo (Slow-moving zombies), or the Lihemorto (Fast-moving zombies) came to be, which I would have like to know, and would have enjoyed reading about. Also the way that way the story jumped from Now to Before (even though it wasn't before the Return, which also slightly confused me) was a little confusing at one or two parts for me.
A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan (Team Unicorn)
34 pages
Pages 111 - 144
Rating: 2/5
Review: This story starts with a man trying to find a place to relieve himself that is not on the flowers in the field he's in, when he suddenly notices a unicorn. This story was so confusing, not because I couldn't understand what was going on, but more because there was no background, no real actual plot, and the story switched quite suddenly from the man to a handmaid (i'm actually not quite sure who she was, it wasn't really explained), then it suddenly switch to a Guard or another handmaid of some sorts (again I'm not quite sure who she was either). I can't say if I liked any of the characters, because I had no clue really who they were. This was probably my least favorite stories of the book as a whole, which saddens me because the stories before this one, mainly the Team Unicorn stories, were really enjoyable.
The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson (Team Zombie)
32 pages
Pages 147 - 178
Rating: 5/5
Review: This story is about a girl, Sofie, who gets hired to watch a famous actress's kids for the night. I loved this story, the idea of how these zombies, or re-an, as it's called in the story, was very neat, I loved the idea of it. I also loved the Lazarus "religion", and the way it seemed similar to some things that people follow in the real world. This is my favorite Team Zombie story, so far.
The Care and Feeding of You Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund (Team Unicorn)
55 pages
Pages 181 - 235
Rating: 5/5
Review: This story starts with a girl, Wen, and her friends at a carnival, and go to see a real live unicorn. I really enjoyed this story. It has quite a bit of religious undertones, I guess you could say, to it. I really enjoyed Flower/Flayer, the baby unicorn. Although there wasn't really any explanation for why Wen had the ability that she did, I enjoyed reading about what she could do, and what she did was very interesting. Honestly, I would love to read a full-length size story of this. (Edit: I found out this is in the world of a series by Diana Peterefreund, which I have the first book to.)
Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld (Team Zombie)
33 pages
Pages 239 - 271
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: This story starts with a girl, Allison going through drills. While I enjoyed this story I wish that it were longer, I would have like to read not only about how the zombies, or zees, came to be, but I also would have liked to read about what Allison, Kalyn, Sammy, and Jun do after the ending, I think it would have been a intresting full-lengh book.
Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot (Team Unicorn)
47 pages
Pages 275 - 321
Rating: 5/5
Review: This story starts with a girl, Liz, having a bad birthday. I loved this story, it was cheesy, in a hilariously good way. I loved Princess Prettypants, she was probably the best part of the story. I love the fact that it had a unicorn that farts rainbows, I liked the way Liz could communicate with Princess Prettypants, as well as the name Princess Prettypants. It was a very funny, and enjoyable story. Also, I loved the little conversation between Spank and hid dad.
Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare (Team Zombie)
24 pages
Pages 325 - 348
Rating: 2.5/5
Review: This story starts with a girl, Adele, in a town Lychgate, or as other people call it Zombie-town, on a date with her boyfriend, James, the soon to be Duke of Lychgate. I enjoyed the story. While I didn't like the romance, I liked the background plot with the Duke (James's Uncle), I would liked to have read more about the plot with the Duke, as well as the background on the curse. This story convinced me Cassandra Clare's writing is not my style.
The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey (Team Unicorn)
31 pages
Pages 351 - 381
Rating: 5/5
Review: This story starts with a unicorn looking for a virgin to do a favor for him. I really enjoyed this story, it had a more somber tone than the other stories. I really enjoyed the fact that it was told from the unicorns point of view. The way he could communicate with the virgins, and the way his healing could work were really interesting. A part of me wishes it was longer because I enjoyed reading it so much, but I liked the length and pacing of this story, Kathleen Duey did a very good job with this story, I've never read anything by her, but this definitely made me want to.
Prom Night by Libba Bray (Team Zombie)
31 pages
Pages 385 - 415
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: This story starts with a girl, Tahmina, and a boy, Jeff, on watch. Although I really enjoyed this story I wish it were longer. I really liked the banter between Tahmina and Jeff, I also enjoyed all of the characters. I really do wish it was longer so I could not only read a little bit more about the background of what happened before the story started, but also so I could read about what happened after the story ended.
Team Unicorn stories (from my favorite to least favorite):
1. Purity Test by Naomi Novik
2. The Care and Feeding of You Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund
3. The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey
4. Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot
5. The Highest Justice by Garth Nix
6. A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan
Team Zombie stories (from my favorite to least favorite):
1. The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson
2. Prom Night by Libba Bray
3. Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld
4. Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare
5. Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan
6. Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Johnson
Favorite to least favorite stories overall:
1. The Care and Feeding of You Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund
2. The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey
3. The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson
4. Purity Test by Naomi Novik
5. Prom Night by Libba Bray
6. The Highest Justice by Garth Nix
7. Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot
8. Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld
9. Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan
10. Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare
11. Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Johnson
12. A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan
I think Team Unicorn won, for me at least, overall
Hope everybody had/has a great day : )
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