Book Review: Undead With Benefits by Jeff Hart

Undead With Benefits
Eat, Brains, Love #2
Author: Jeff Hart
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Zombies
Released: August 26, 2014
Review Source: Harper Teen

The living dead are living it up in this hilarious and surprisingly romantic sequel to Eat, Brains, Love, which Kirkus Reviews called “one hell of a road trip...funny, gross, and scary in equal, alternating measures."


Jake and Amanda are in love, on the run—and undead. They've teamed up with Cass, who’s ditched her former job as shady government psychic zombie-tracker, and they're headed across the border into Iowa, where there’s rumored to be a zombie cure.

Armed with a trunk full of guinea pigs (aka zombie snacks), they're ready to take on the Midwest’s first undead warlord, the psycho psychic out for their blood, and their own superawkward love triangle. But the virus is spreading faster than you can say "zombie apocalypse," and Jake, Amanda, and Cass have to find the cure—if it even exists—before the whole state of Iowa goes up in flames.

With its heartwarming blend of guts, romance, and spot-on teen humor, this road trip–ready paperback original is perfect for fans of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies and AMC’s The Walking Dead. Readers will devour Jeff Hart's fresh, funny, and irreverent take on love and life (well, unlife) in an eat-or-be-eaten world.

Jeff Hart has made me LOL yet again. I enjoyed reading Eat, Brains, Love, the first novel in this series, and I expected nothing less from Undead With Benefits. I'm glad the humor still came through. When it comes to being funny, like in movies, sequels always fail because they try too hard. Jeff Hart did not fail in the comedic department.

Undead With Benefits picks up where Eat, Brains, Love left off. Jake, zombie, Amanda, zombie, and Cass, psychic zombie-tracker, are on the run from the scary government. Which, by the way, Cass used to work for by helping track down zombies. Where are they running to? Iowa, where a zombie cure might exist.

What shocked me the most was how less I liked Jake in this book. Something about him felt "different." Also, can we just say bye to Amanda please? How much more annoying could she get? None the less, I feel like what I'm feeling is justifiable because, hey, emotions are the goal here when it comes to reading. Cass, on the other hand, did pull through, still, and I still like her very much! As far as plot goes, this one did feel a bit more dragged out than the first one, but I'm not complaining. I still finished this book just as quickly wanting to know what happened next!

I'm still a fan of the Eat, Brains, Love series and I'll continue to follow it to the end! The one-liners are definitely what make this series. Go pick up a copy and please let's chat about that ending! I need to talk spoilers with someone! HA!