Zombie Queen of Newbury High

TJ

Rating: really liked it
THE REVIEW

Why this book?

I love zombie books

What I thought

Mia makes a big mistake when instead of casting a love spell, she casts a spell that changes the senior class into Zombies. This was a cute fast paced read that I enjoyed. I liked the characters for most part, even if Mia's Buffy obsession was a little weird for her age. This is a enjoyable read that is just to cute for words! It kept you guessing and it was really entertaining. If you're looking for a fun read this one is for you.

Kira Simion

Rating: really liked it
I read this and I honestly enjoyed it but, there was nothing that really stood out to me.

I really liked the twist of zombies having a home queen lol.

3.5/5 (rounded down)

Attack Salmon

Rating: really liked it
This is a fun book although the paranormal aspect is on the juvinile and silly side

Mia find herself turning her whole school assembly into a horde of zombie when she thought she was only doing a love spell on Rob. Mia being the one who do the spell became the Zombie Queen means someone who every zombie want to devour.

Zombie infection comes in 4 stages. The infected person will first crave for meat and twitching uncontrollably. They follow Mia's every move and keep giving her food to fatten her up so they can have their meal. God its funny I know. Zombies also doesn't like water so Mia have to squirt herself with water every few minutes to make them back off

I like Mia's best friend Candice. She is really funny and a nutcase. Chase is so so.

Jennifer Wardrip

Rating: really liked it
Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com

Mia Everett is just a normal teenage girl: she fears heights, she loves the Buffy series, she has a crush on the hottest guy in school, she's the neighbor of the popular cheerleader, her sister is a popular wannabe, and...

She turned all of the seniors - and even some teachers - into flesh-eating zombies through a love potion gone wrong.

That's when Chase comes into the picture. He's always been the quiet, anti-social guy in her Biology class, but when he comes to her saying that she didn't perform a love potion - that she really performed a spell that turned her classmates and best friend, Candice, into zombies - well, she immediately starts to fall for her knight in shining armor.

And if all of this wasn't enough to take in, Mia also has to worry about her prom, which is just days away! Will she be able to cure her classmates, and her prom date, before the actual dance? And if not, what will happen to her friends and the students? Will they really become zombies? And why do all of them seem to salivate whenever she's around?

Amanda Ashby writes a very entertaining and quick read about a teenage protagonist who has to fix the catastrophic problem she created - or else she'll never be able to enjoy the ball with Prince Charming. Many readers will be able to relate to Mia and her quirky ways, and others will simply fall in love with her witty humor. And if that doesn't work, there are always hunks Rob and Chase.

ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH deserves the five stars. This is a very original story that isn't too far-fetched that teenage readers can't relate at all - it's the perfect mix of reality and imagination.

❤ Aly ❤

Rating: really liked it
[Mia is not a popular girl. She finally starts dating a popular guy and all of the sudden, he starts to ignore her. Its not like he asked her to prom or anything.. Well, she decides to go with her best friend Candice to a place with herbs and spells. Mia thinks she bought a love spell, but it actually was a spell that turned everyone into zombi

Karin

Rating: really liked it
Mia has been happy being on the fringe of the popular crowd. She is happy to have her hypochondriac best friend, Candice, and watch what is going on around her until...Rob, the super hot football star, asks her to Homecoming.

Everything is going fine between Mia and Rob. They've been on five dates and she can't believe her good fortune. Her luck begins to change though, when Samantha, the extremely popular cheerleader, sets her sights on Rob. Samantha will stop at nothing to secure her spot as Homecoming Queen and since Rob is the most likely guy to be chosen as the Homecoming King, she is determined to get Rob for herself.

Mia begins to panic. She doesn't really stand a chance against Samantha so she resorts to a pretty extreme measure. Candice, being the hypochondriac she is, takes Mia to a place she goes for a lot of her natural medicines for a love spell to make sure Rob doesn't dump her for Samantha. They choose to perform the spell during a Senior assembly and boy does that turn out to be a mistake. The spell is actually an ancient ritual called Viral Zombaticus. The entire Senior class has been infected and will be going through the four stages of the zombie virus in the next couple of days. Since Mia performed the ritual, she is their queen and once everybody gets to stage four of the virus, they will want nothing more than to eat her.

Thank goodness for Chase. He's a new guy with a huge secret. As a team, Chase, Mia, and Candice work to reverse the Viral Zombaticus - even though Candice is suffering from the virus herself and has to fight the urge to take a bite out of Mia whenever she is around. Can Mia reverse the spell before she becomes a zombie meal? Is Rob really as great as she thinks he is? After her brush with popularity, will she be happy to go back to her place on the fringe?

ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH is a quick read. The characters are fun to get to know - Mia is likable, Candice is quirky, and Chase is calm, cool, and collected in a crisis. The story isn't complex, but the humor throughout the book makes ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH a great reading choice.

Liliana

Rating: really liked it
Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book

Mia is super stoked that she is going to prom with the popular and handsome Rob... until equally popular and self-proclaimed future prom queen Samantha sets her heart on stealing Rob for her self. Mia really likes this guy and will do anything to keep Rob's attention... Even do a love spell on him. Except said love spell doesn't do what its title claims, and instead them the whole senior class into zombies! How you get zombies from a love spell, I have no idea. But it's more ridiculous than it sounds, lol.

With the help of a new classmate, Chase, Mia sets out to correct the spell before her classmates fatten her up and eat her for lunch.

Okay, I seriously loved this book! When I first heard about it, it just sounds so silly and like such a fun and light read that I just HAD to have it! And I can happily say that it did not disappoint! While I occasionally enjoy the deep and emotional book that moves me and makes me cry, lately I've been preferring the light books that are funny and just make me laugh. Zombie Queen was exactly that and more! I found myself laughing out loud more often than not and I absolutely love that in any book! The situation Mia found herself in was just very amusing... I mean, how often do you hear of a love spell turning people into zombies? Seriously! Can you say epic fail? Lol.

Another component of the book that I loved and made me laugh was Mia's BFF Candice. I've never read a book before where a character was a hypochondriac, but I am telling you, Candice was HILARIOUS! This week she thought she had leprosy O.o Ever since starting nursing school I diagnose myself all the time... maybe I'm a hypochondriac, too! ;) Anyway, I loved Candice and all her quirkiness!

That book was very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed the voice Amanda Ashby gave it. I highly recommend this one!

Elizabeth

Rating: really liked it
Oh boy, what is there to say? Usually, when sitting down to write a review, I am enthusiastic about picking apart the novel and figuring out what worked and what didn't. Only, with Zombie Queen, I'm not at all excited. Why? I think part of it has to do with the fact that I found it incredibly difficult to finish the book. Another reason may have to do with the fact that I am SO ready to move on to something else.

So what went wrong? Well, for starters, the characters were an issue from page one. I had difficult discerning Candice from Mia and found both characters very forgettable. Actually, I found all of the characters forgettable. With third person omniscient, I think it's imperative the author create unique characters and give the readers reason to care for them, especially since we aren't given the opportunity to slip into the protagonist's shoes like with first person narrative. So when that doesn't happen, as with Zombie Queen, it makes for a boring read.

The story itself is very linear and easy to follow, bumping the rating from one star to two. Though, for a more tenured reader, this book will probably be far too predictable and formulaic. There's no strong language, drinking or sexual themes, so it's absolutely suitable for the tween market but more savvy teens may find it a bit boring. Like with Vampire Stalker things happened in a clockwork manner, precisely when and how I expected them to. No surprises.

There's really not much more to say.

Kristi

Rating: really liked it
Who would have thought I’d be reading another zombie novel, and a funny one at that! Zombie Queen of Newbury High is a quick and entertaining read. Mia is such a likeable character it’s hard not to relate to her, and her best friend Candice so quirky! She was cracking me up with her hypocondirac obsession!

The plot was ingenious as well, turning your whole school into zombies, classic! And it made for a great story! Ashby kept you guessing, just when I thought I knew something, she’s throw in another loop. It was actually nice to be kept on my toes. I really enjoyed reading Ashby’s novel and I’m looking forward to more!

Zombies, romance, and humor, you can’t ask for a better read.

Kenneth Zhu

Rating: really liked it
I decided to chose that book because my librarian have recommended me to read this as this story has a main female character in it. The static image cover looks interesting as they might do some evil stuff during the story, so it makes me drawled attention to be reading this book.

This book will fit a book with a felmale character on the bingo board as it got the felmale character during the story. The main character of the story is Mia who is describe as not popular person in the school. She is the person who argues with her sister Grace about stuff that her sister did, this is wasn't nice for her. The category of this book is isn't interesting because I think it will talk about evil stuff, not useful stuff to our future but something you can learnt from it is good.

My favourite character of the story is Mia because she is the main character of the story. She is the Zombie Queen during the story after Mia cast an spell on people at a formal assembly in their high school. It turned them into disgusting zombies. Mia have to work out how to reversed the spell using the book that the wisely woman gave her when she was at the magic shop at the early of this story buying that spell that worth 100 hundreds dollars. The first time she did the reversed spell didn't work because her best friend Candice forgotten to tell them the important note when she did the translation from Latin to English. The 2nd time, when she did it, it was hard because all the students have turned into Zombies as they were in Stage 4 (when they started developing the teeth and grip before eating someone)Their job for the reversed spell is getting them to drink it as the final note says which it was very touch and scary for them. Luckily, her best friend save them by getting all the grossly Zombies to drink the spell including her. In the end, they are all turned back to normal.

My favourite quote from this book is "..five actually, because going to watch him practice football probably didn't count as a date in the technical sense of the word". This makes me thinks that if you don't practice the football, you would missed the attendance to soccer training and get bad marks on the report, so I think this quote means to me practice hear to make it perfect. Same for English, you have to practice writing the essay to get good marks, otherwise you didn't practice writing essay you will get bad marks in the next report. This is counted to the report as it always.

I have learned from this book is DO NOT PANIC at something, if you do panic, you will make serious mistakes like Mia who can't do it property once because she didn't think it property before telling her to read out their translation form Latin to English. She should tell her to read out the whole information regarding to the spell on page(s). Also be brave at something like climbing up the cupboard or mountain as she scared of climbing the height of the cupboard.

You might not know this, at the start of the story, she happily walking to the shopping mall called Newbury. They have brought the spell from the wisely woman for hundreds of dollars as she tells them about the love spell, what does it do, how it worked etc. After buying it, they planned to do the spell at the assembly for some various reason as they wanted to try the new spell, what it do. Another thing I have learnt from this book is DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKES. Otherwise, you will ended up in trouble.

Rebecca Ann

Rating: really liked it
This was a really entertaining, fast read. I would definitely recommend it to fans of zombie chick lit. It has the ridiculousness of a B horror movie and an addictive lighthearted humor. I didn't really like the main character, and was more attached to her best friend, Candice. Mia seemed like she was going to be a nice alternative to the brainless, makeup and boy obsessed teen, but in the end I had trouble differentiating her personality from the very girls she didn't like. The characters and plot molded themselves around the action in unrealistic ways, which was fun but not exactly fine literature. If you're looking for a fast, light read with horror elements but no actual scare factor then this is your book.


Pacefast/easy
Characterizationdramatic, familiar
POV 3rd person following Mia
Story Lineaction-oriented, plot twists (predictable)
Frame contemporary, high school, urban/suburban
Toneheartwarming, humorous, melodramatic
Writing Style: colorful, dramatic


Red Flags None
Read AlikesBad Taste in Boys and I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It

Brenda

Rating: really liked it
Mia is one of those people in a senior class that just isn't that noticeable. It's not that she is at the bottom of the fish pond but she isn't exactly miss popularity either - that role is one her younger sister holds. But Mia has been going out with the star football player, Rob, who has already invited her to senior prom. That should secure some popularity points. Mia can't wait for prom until she notices that Rob is spending a lot of time with uber-popular Samantha. Mia is devastated so she turns to her best friend, Candice for help. Candice recommends a love potion and she knows just the person to ask for help. Unfortunately, the love potion they are given is actually a spell that turns the entire senior class into zombies....with Mia as their queen. Being queen isn't all that bad until Mia realizes that her classmates are being super nice to her so that they can fatten her up to eat.

This book is one of those that I call mind candy. There is no real substance but just something to do for fun. And this is a fun book to read on a day when there is nothing really going on and you want a quick read to tie you over.

Jan

Rating: really liked it
Mia Everett thought she had made it. Rob Ziggerman, one of the cutest and most popular boys in school has not only taken her on 5 (maybe 6) dates, but he has asked her to the prom. However, recently Rob has quit sitting with her in biology class and instead is sitting with the uber-popular cheerleader, Samantha. In desperation, Mia takes the advice of BFF Candice and buys a love spell from the local woo woo shop. Shortly after she casts the spell, Mia is informed by the quiet, but surprising cute, new guy Chase Miller, that the spell was actually a spell that will turn the entire senior class into zombies. Well, everyone but her. As the person who cast the spell, she will be the queen. That is not as cool as it sounds, since the queen is first on the soon to be zombies' menu. Well, at least she will not have to worry about the prom any more.

I think this is a really fun book. Mia's voice rings true as a smart but socially inept teen. The senior class is a hoot as they worry about the upcoming dance while slowly turning into the living dead. This book will probably appeal to girls more than boys.

Ash

Rating: really liked it
I knew going into this book that it was going to be completely cheesy. It's about a high school girl who, in an attempt to win back her prom date, casts a love spell but it turns out to be a spell that turns people into zombies. I got this book for three reasons, (1) I'm obsessed with Zombies and I'll read anything with zombies in it, (2) I found it at a bookstore for only $2, and (3) The cover peaked my interests (seriously, the dress is cute and I would have rocked that at my senior prom). It wasn't a bad read, but it's one of those books that I probably would have enjoyed more in my first couple of years of high school. The main character, Mia was kind of annoying and zombie hunter "hottie" Chase was just ok to me. The other characters reminded me of all the side characters I've read in other books with high school settings. It's one of those books that is very predictable and contain a few eye rolling moments, but overall it was enjoyable.

~Tina~

Rating: really liked it
What would one teenage girl do for love? Buy a love spell of course. But wait, oops, did I just turn the entire school into Zombies? UhOhhh....

This was such an unexpected Gem! Zombie Queen of Newbury High is one of those rare books that you don't know what your in for till you read it.
I'll admit I thought the cover and title was cheesy, but now that I've red the book, I think it's perfect! This was a humorously entertaining read that is just to cute for words!

Lively characters, laugh out loud plot and the writing is evenly paced and will keep you intrigued!
Loved the quick-wit-comebacks and sassy banter. There's just enough of everything in this book, romance, humor and of course, Zombies!
If you like funny and entertaining mixed in with paranormal slender then this is the book for you!

Imaginative, feisty and tons of fun!