Favorite lines: “Their tiny hands stretched out toward him, becoming claws, their blunt little Chicklet teeth gone needle pointy. Their eyes were deep black death holes,portals to somewhere else-where the screams live (or go to die). (p. 266)
Amanda Feral is an undead, zombie socialite crunching her way through Seattle one homeless person at a time. Wading through humanity with her stilettos and small pack of friends, she is determined to stay hot and learn the ropes of the supernormal world she’s discovered.
One night while out on the town, Amanda receives a text for help from one of her new friends and suddenly she is learning more about the afterlife and her creator then she ever wanted to know.
Happy Hour of the Damned is not for the weak stomached. It is a biting reversal of all that society expects of its inhabitants. It mocks everything and for some people that’s great. I, however, had a problem finding non-offensive ground in the story.
The book is all about Amanda fitting into a world newly revealed to her, but it is a harsh world that preys on humanity and I had a hard time with that. Because everything is told to us by zombie Amanda, and her paranormal peers, the world looks down on humans similar to humans looking down on cows. It took me three quarters of the story to begin to appreciate the wit involved in Happy Hour because I was horrified with the glib way everything is presented. It is a sarcastic book.
My biggest problem with the book has to be the footnotes. I absolutely hate footnotes. They detracted from the story and left my inner voice screaming for Mr. Henry find a way to work the information into the story. Don’t make me read a footnote.
Happy Hour of the Damned is well written, but it was not for me. I seem to be a minority on this one so check out a few other reviews at Romantic Times, Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, or Fantasy Book Critic.
Scooper Speaks 
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