I feel like the book tackles some really important themes and the author does a great job of weaving them into the story.

I also really enjoyed the authors take on the zombie trope offering a story centering around grief.

Where the book fell flat for me was with its pacing. I felt sometimes the pacing would be a tad inconsistent, and there would be moments where not much was going on and I wasn’t fully engaged with these slower parts.

A haunting portrayal of grief; an unexpected plot about anguish and pain manifesting as zombie appearances; the hope of a new friendship that acts as a healing balm. More lyrical with the emphasis on metaphors and symbolism; more cathartic than horror; and more characterisation than mystery. Once the story's purpose and process is understood, it's an emotional read.

Thrilling apocalyptic world with incredible main character. We don’t see this kind of diversity in the genre so it was great to see.

In terms of the zombie genre, The Undead Truth of Us gives more Warm Bodies vibes than The Walking Dead. I think that’s why I loved it so much! It has a heavy focus on death and grief (it is a zombie novel, after all) and explores it beautifully. Can’t wait to read more from Britney S. Lewis!

This book was a dazzling exploration of young grief. Britney’s debut novel paints (sometimes literally) the landscape of healing from loss as a surreal descent into madness with an unreliable narrator.

It was a beautiful book. Descriptive, lyrical and in certain ways ironically poetic even! I really enjoyed Z's character.
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I've never read a zombie apocalypse book before in my life. And this was as good as one to start with. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, the angst and pain of the teenage lead. But honestly, sorry to say, I didn't care for the romance.
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I really really liked the writing style and I would be very interested to check out a few other works from the author!
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Thank you NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this book!

There's a lot of good writing and nice imagery in this book, but unfortunately I just wasn't that invested in the characters or the plot. Z's family and grief were the more interesting aspects of this book, but I really did not care for any of the focus on romance.

If you're a teen going through your angsty John Green phase this is definitely the book for you. I probably would've enjoyed this book a lot more like 5 years ago, I've just outgrown the genre.

Thank you, NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ARC copy provided in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changes my rating or review.

3 LYRICAL STARS

The Undead Truth of Us is a poetic, lyrical, touching story. I cannot help but feel some of it was a little too poetic for me, and some of the novel definitely went over my head, but I still loved the uniquity of the metaphorical zombies, and the overarching messages on love and loss. Bo was such a precious character to me, and Zharie was incredibly powerful in her realism – I’m glad I read this.

“I was no longer part of the moment, part of the street. I was the moment. I was the long, stretched-out blackness between two stop walks, and I think, somewhere past the filters in the sky, Mama was here, too.”
(This quote may not be in the published version of this novel, it was copied from the advanced reader’s copy.)

Before reading this, you definitely have to be aware that this is not an apocalyptic, survival-against-all-odds zombie story. Zharie is not battling a zombie apocalypse – she is battling the potent grief emanating from the loss of her mother. I learnt this from reading reviews prior to opening the book, and while I felt a little disappointment at the time – I’m a bit of a sucker for zombies stories – I’m definitely glad I understood that going into this book. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some gruesome descriptions of the undead, because there definitely are! Lewis’ writing was vivid and descriptive, I adored the surrealist depictions of how Zharie saw the world, and also loved the captivating descriptions of Zharie’s relationship with each character.

“Bo was more alive today than he’d ever been before. It was a cosmic cataclysm, electric energy, a collision creating a while new realm. Maybe he wasn’t undead after all.”
(This quote may not be in the published version of this novel, it was copied from the advanced reader’s copy.)

Bo was so precious to me, it was insane. He was a little adorable biracial simp of a skater boy, and I loved every page he was on. Not a single character in this book was perfect, they were all wonderfully flawed and brilliantly human, and each and every one made mistakes, but they were all such powerful characters for their growth through this. And Bo was practically flawless in my eyes!

This is a very gorgeous book, and one that will stay in my mind for many years to come. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the free copy provided in exchange for an honest review :).

The Undead Truth of Us is a slow burn, you never expect the ending to pan out the way it dead. Definitely looking forward to part two of this series!

I really loved the characters and wanted to love this book. For me I never could quite grasp the book and its message so it fell flat.

Incredible writing with haunting imagery and themes that were jarring at times, this is a story I'll be thinking about for a while. Zharie is such a fantastic, albeit, potentially unreliable narrator. I loved all the secondary characters and how Zharie interacts with them all as she navigates what she's seeing.

Highly recommend!

This book by Britney S. Lewis deals with how grief can affect us mentally and distort our reality. I liked the different take on it to really show that we aren't always okay even when we pretend we are. The imagery is also just beautiful in this book!

I saw this author promoting her book on Tiktok and was instantly intrigued! Euphoria vibes + zombies + an unreliable narrator? Sign me up! I loved this book so much and my only regret is that I didn't wait until October to read it because I feel like it would have fit the spooky vibe perfectly. Luckily, my library ordered it and I can do a reread when October comes around!

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #TheUndeadTruthOfUs

This is one of my favorite reads of the year hands down. The way that grief and other feelings are described in such a beautifully artistic and metaphoric way was just a pleasure to read. It had me so deep in my feelings that I cried basically the whole last 20% of the book. Everyone should read this.

Thank you Disney Publishing Worldwide and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF

Unfortunately I was not able to get into this at all, despite my best efforts. Simply not my type of book!

I don’t know if I can convey through my words how excited I was for this and then how much I enjoyed it. This book was so much fun! I don’t know the last time I’ve read a zombie book. And certainly not one with a bi-racial character.

Ok, so I’ve said before that I thought zombies in books were weird, and zombie love interests were even weirder. But funnily I didn’t care about any of this when I heard about this book. I still needed to get my hands on it. As it turns out the zombies in this one aren’t terrible. Granted there’s still some hanging flesh and constant groaning, but they aren’t scary. I could tell from the beginning that they represented something, but I wasn’t sure what. Especially when her mom turned out to be one too. But as it goes on, you can see what they are really meant for. It doesn’t tell you until the end, but I think readers can figure it out.

The plot was ok, but it was all over the place. I really didn’t know what to expect besides the zombie thing, but where the plot was going, I had no idea. But it was still ok. It held a lot of surprises like the dad situation, the third act break-up thing, and her current family thing. It was a little jumbled, but it was still good and easy to follow.

The romance was weird. Why? Because she was trying so hard to say she didn’t like him and he just took it. He was actually really cute. He was a skateboarder, real down to Earth. I liked the way they interacted. And I LOVED the way he supported her no matter what it was about. Even when he didn’t know what it was about lol But them together was very cute. I was happy when they stopped the crazy and they finally got it together. It was refreshing.

The narrator was fine. I haven’t read anything else by her, but there’s a lot when I went to find out. The performance was good. Like she did different characters fine. I did wish we had some of the moaning and groaning from the zombies. Maybe it’s in the final copy and not the one I listened to. Other than that, that’s the only thing that I felt was missing.

As a whole, this whole message is a good one. The zombie message and all. It wasn’t what I expected, but that’s ok. I think my work teens will enjoy reading this and we’ll have a lot to talk about, so I might be recommending this for our work program. Yes, it’s that good.

Love, grief and Van Gogh. This book is both a trippy, emotional heartbreaker of a ride. The Undead Truth of Us by Britney S. Lewis takes you in Zharie’s world where she sees zombies every she goes after her mother’s death.

I’m going to be honest and say the zombies were what hooked me to start reading this book. But I quickly realized that zombies were not the scariest thing in the story. Grief took that medal.

A Starry Night
I have read many books where the teenage girl main character is a writer or book nerd. They have a favorite author that they reference and that inspires them during their hardships. The Undead Truth of Us was the first book I’ve come across where the muse was actually an artist, in this case Vincent Van Gogh.

Not only does Lewis set Zharie’s character up to relate to Van Gogh’s work and life, but her writing is extremely beautiful and lyrical. It’s almost a reflection of some of Van Gogh’s work.

Grief
This book has layers and metaphors. Zharie has to deal with both grief and love. She has to come to an understanding of how these two emotions are linked in so many ways. When speaking of layers and grief, you have to look at the death of Zharie’s mother from Zharie’s perspective, which was by the way a heckuva way to start the book, and the ultimate cause of her mother’s death. No spoilers, but that one is a doozy.

Love & Zombies
Bo, the cute and slightly broken love interest of Zharie is a perfect setup for Zharie to explore the relationship between grief and love. Skater boy Bo, in Zharie’s eyes, is in mid transformation to becoming a zombie. Which is lowkey gross, but she sucks it up and engages in the relationship anyways.

Also, because love in a book wouldn’t be interesting without some dramatic betrayal, it’s interesting to see how Zharie navigates the betrayals she discovers along the way from both friends and family.

Final Thoughts
The zombie thing will get you in the door, but the language and plot (especially the second half) will make you stay in the room. Zharie was an interesting character, a ballroom dancer trained by her mother who is in desperate need of family both related and found. My favorite part of the book is the camping section when she is with Bo and his friends. Loved that they were all BIPOC kids engaged in activities (skating, ballroom dancing) that you don’t usually get to see.

A unique and complex exploration of a young girl's response to grief, and how that grief will manifest into something more tangible... like zombies.

The writing wasn't particularly my style, however, I appreciated how much this sounded like a teenager. Lewis's writing is poetic while remaining true to the character. This is an emotional read if you relate to Zharie's struggle and her processes of healing.

Zharie Young has just watched her mother slowly turn into a zombie and then die. Zharie is filled with grief, it has just been her and her mother for all of her sixteen year of life. Now, Zharie is certain she is seeing other zombies all over, her very own zombie apocalypse. When her new neighbor, Bo shows signs of zombification, Zharie decides to befriend him and get to the bottom of her zombie visions. In her relationship with Bo, Zharie unpacks her grief from her mother, anger at her birth father and learns her capacity for love.

The Undead Truth of Us is an amazing young adult contemporary novel that explores grief, loss and love through a metaphorical zombie. From the first chapter I was hooked as Zharie watched her mom deteriorate and die. I enjoyed being thrown into Zharie's abstract world as she navigated around zombies that nobody else seemed to see. Her journey is immensely interesting as she sets out to deal with zombies but instead deals with a bevy of heavy emotions and inner turmoil. The writing melds together Zharie's view of the world and reality in a natural way, I wasn't wondering what was real and what wasn't. Everything Zharie saw was real to her in a way that made her world make sense. I loved Zharie and her mother's shared talent and passion for West Coast Swing and reading about Zharie's memories of her. Zharie and Bo's relationship was very natural, Bo's zombie proclivities not only helped Zharie dig into her issues, but learn how to form another type of relationship. Overall, The Undead Truth of Us is amazingly written, emotionally driven and has wonderful characters.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

I rarely read a book and am unsure what to expect. This is such a read. I usually associate zombies with horror, which I don’t read, but this was much more. This covered grief and how it can manifest.

This was like nothing I’ve ever read. If you expect horror like “World War Z,” this isn’t it. However, the prose was beautiful, and Zharie is a strong character. The chemistry between Zharie and Bo was sweet. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a romance, but it’s lovely.

The story is a medium-paced story that flows pretty well. While not every page is an action-packed, page-turner, the writing is so beautiful that you don’t notice the “lack of action.” In addition, the cover is absolutely stunning. This is a beautiful debut novel of fear, grief and love, and I’m so lucky I had the opportunity to read this. So grab your tea and your tissues, and enjoy!