MY SO-CALLED DEATH

Peppered with gross-out humor, the camp flows freely in this latest zombie comedy from Jay. As the novel opens, perky cheerleader Karen Vera plummets to a messy death from the top of a human pyramid. Confused that she seems to be fine even though her brain is leaking out the back of her skull, she learns what is going on when a strange woman named Principal Samedi arrives at her door with an invitation to attend a special boarding school. She explains that Karen possesses a genetic mutation that causes her to go on living after her body has died—so long as she maintains a steady diet of animal brains. The heroine’s breezy narrative voice is authentic and often funny, and her protracted crush on fellow student Gavin McDougal (whom Karen secretly thinks of as “McDoMe”) will appeal to romance fans. However, pieces of this story may feel too derivative for some readers—such as the schism at the school between natural and “deprogrammed” zombies, which closely parallels the Muggle-born versus wizard-born dichotomy of Harry Potter. (Supernatural comedy. 12 & up)