Play Dead

By Ryan Brown

This edition: Hardcover, 352 pages

List Price: $29.99
Product Details
Gallery, July 2010
Hardcover, 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1439171300

Description

Today's #1 New York Times bestselling thriller writers agree: Ryan Brown's compulsively readable first novel is unbeatable—a darkly humorous, rich and pungent zombie shocker that melds our national obsession with football and the newest wave of fascination with the undead.

For the first time in Killington High School history, the Jackrabbits football team is one win away from the district championship where it will face its most vicious rival, the Elmwood Heights Badgers. On the way to the game, the Jackrabbits's bus plunges into a river, killing every player except for bad-boy quarterback Cole Logan who is certain the crash was no accident—given that Cole himself was severely injured in a brutal attack by three ski-masked men earlier that day. Bent on payback, Cole turns to a mysterious fan skilled in black magic to resurrect his teammates. But unless the undead Jackrabbits defeat their murderous rival on the field, the team is destined for hell. In a desperate race against time, with only his coach's clever daughter, Savannah Hickman, to assist him, Cole must lead his zombie team to victory

. . . in a final showdown where the stakes aren't just life or death—but damnation or salvation. Boundlessly imaginative and thrillingly satisfying, Play Dead gives small-town Texas an electrifying jolt of the supernatural, and is unquestioningly The Zombie Novel of the Year!

The Comeback Story of the Season . . .

Review

Zombies ( a genre I love) and football (a subject I loath). I was hoping that there would be an all out massacre where the football teams would be devoured by a hoarde of zombies. Little was I to know that the footballers were the zombies. Now that’s just not fair, turning something I hate into something I like. What a delemir. I had to read the book to see how it would pan out.

The beginning is creepy with the description of the undead preparing listlessly for the greatest game of their eternal afterlife. The main character is a punk kind of a kid (Cole Logan) who is bitter about her mother who gets around for the rent money.
The story is set in Texas where football is not just a pastime, it's a religion.

Like the Simpsons, there is strong rivalry between the two main towns of Killington and Elmwood. A new coach and a up and coming quarterback, Killington see the team just one game away from facing Elmwood in the district championships. Elmwood also seem to have found a new lease on life over the past year, and are coming into the districts undefeated. In order to prevent Killington from getting there, some of the Elmwood jocks decide to play a practical joke on the Killington team to prevent them from getting to the game. It goes disastrously wrong, and suddenly football really does become a religion. Unfortunately for Elmwood, Killington's biggest football fan is also a powerful witch, who won’t let death stop her boys winning.

I won’t say anymore, lest I ruin the rest of the surprises in store for you. Worth a read.