Zombies vs. Unicorns Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Zombies vs. Unicorns Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
"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?"- summary from Amazon

I loved this anthology and it's one of the best out there. What I really enjoyed most was the back and forth banter between Holly and Justine before each story. It's not often in anthologies you get something like that and I'd love to see more of it. My favorite stories (though I loved most all of them) included Alaya Dawn Johnson's, Naomi Novik's, Carrie Ryan's, Meg Cabot's, Maureen Johnson's, and Diana Peterfreund's (equally divided between zombies and unicorns, lol).

On the zombie side, Alaya's story was my absolute favorite because not only was it a zombie romance but it was a GAY zombie romance! How cool is that? While I was reading it, I told my roommate "Guess what I'm reading? A GAY ZOMBIE STORY!!!" It was cute and disgusting at the same time, which is pretty hard to pull off. Carrie's story is very much like her books and is that same sort of style. I really liked the back and forth between past and present- how her character got to where she was and how she was doing at the moment. Maureen's story is just like her- very funny and insane. I think Justine describes it best: "Maureen Johnson's brain does not work like that of most people. Possibly because it's already infected."

On the unicorn side, my absolute favorite would have to be Naomi Novik's because it was so hilarious and just awesome (I also find it funny that my absolute favorites come from authors I've never heard of before). Meg Cabot always delivers in whatever she does and this was no exception. It was funny, had a small romance, and some kick-butt action. Oh, and unicorns farting rainbows. Diana's was great too and was probably one of the longest in the anthology. There were some references to her Rampant series (unicorn hunters from Italy and all that) and it was just a really cool story.

There was one story I wasn't all that into. That was Margo Lanagan's story (a unicorn one) and it was just weird. I couldn't follow it at all and eventually just gave up. I couldn't get through it.

Overall, this was a wonderful anthology from a ton of great authors. I definitely recommend it. For the record, I'm still on Team Unicorn; not changing my mind ever.

FTC: Received ARC at ALA (and has now been signed by Diana Peterfreund!). Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.