Line #1 Literature/GenerationDead


1	''Generation Dead'' is a surprisingly good first novel (and now a series of the same name) by Daniel Waters (no, ''not'' the same Daniel Waters that wrote ''Heathers'', this is a different one) in May 2008. The premise of the story is simple: an unexplained phenomenon causes recently deceased teenagers to come back as zombies. This is no ordinary horror story though - these zombies are [[OurZombiesAreDifferent a lot like other teens]], except they've got a lower body temperature, don't need to eat or sleep, often speak or move a lot more slowly... and, oh yeah, have even fewer protected civil rights owing to the fact that they're [[BlessedWithSuck still considered Legally Dead]]. Their parents aren't even required to take care of them anymore, and yes, some of them [[ParentalAbandonment go abandoned]]. Ouch.
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3	Mixed up in all this of course, are the people whose generation is the one that's starting becoming literal zombies: American teenagers. Specifically, those going to Oakvale High, which we're told has a very good program for the "living impaired". Main characters include a number of "differently biotic" kids, especially high-functioning ones like Tommy Williams and Karen [=DeSonne=] (who talk almost normally, and in the former case, even tries out for the football team), as well as a few living kids, such as {{Perky Goth}}s Phoebe and Margi, and their football star childhood friend, Adam Layman, and his former friend, the bully Pete. Phoebe has a crush on Tommy, Adam's in love with Phoebe, both Phoebe and Margi have trouble dealing with the fact that their friend Colette came back as a zombie, and Pete? Pete's going a little off the deep end...
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5	If it sounds like a soap opera, though, don't let that put you off; it's surprisingly light and funny... when it's not punching you in the metaphorical gut.
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7	It has a sequel, ''Kiss of Life'', which was followed in June 2010 by a third book, ''Passing Strange''.
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9	Not at all related to the ''Teenage Zombies'' videogame.
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12	The number of DeathTropes is obviously high:
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14	* BackFromTheDead - a good chunk of the cast ''start out'' this way. For some reason though, it only happens to teens.
15	* OnlyMostlyDead - technically the zombies are all "mostly dead" - even actually declared legally dead - though it's probably [[spoiler:Adam's death and subsequent undeath at the end of the book]] that fits the trope best.
16	* DeathIsCheap - both subverted ''and'' played straight, given that only teens can become zombies when they die, and even then, most of them haven't.
17	* DeaderThanDead - any zombie that has his or her skull bashed in is a goner.
18	* DroppedABridgeOnHim [[spoiler:the PluckyComicRelief guy, of all people. ''Told'' you it gives you the occasional punch to the gut...]].
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20	Other tropes:
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22	* AppliedPhlebotinum - both averted and parodied. While the book doesn't ever explicitly describe what it is that causes one to become Differently Biotic, the many ridiculous theories scientists come up with while scrambling to explain how kids can not only come back from the dead, but get by without breathing, eating, sleeping or having a pulse, or why it's only teens that end up as "living impaired" individuals, ''are'' covered. And they tend towards the kind of ridiculousness that would, of course, be AppliedPhlebotinum were any of them actually true in the story. Proposed causes ranged from "they played a lot of {{First Person Shooter}}s" to "it's a combination of hormones and fast food!" to ''mold spores''. The CharacterBlog expands on this list to include, among other things, "generations of people eating microwaved food".
23	* AttractiveZombie: Some of the high-functional zombies, most notably Tommy Williams and Karen [=DeSonne=].
24	* BuryYourGays: Literally buried, but they get better though they aren't guaranteed immunity from hopeless crushes.
25	* BigEater: TC and Stavis are implied to be this by Pete.
26	* CharacterBlog - Zombie character Tommy Williams's website at http://www.mysocalledundeath.com actually exists as a real-world Blogger site, and yes, you can post and apparently have "him" respond.
27	* CharacterDevelopment: Arguably Pete to some extent. It's fairly obvious Book 1 Pete and end of Book 3 Pete aren't the same person.
28	* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve - not actually supported in the book ''per se'', but Tommy certainly seems to think that [[spoiler:love is the reason he and Karen are so high-functioning while other zombie kids like Colette aren't]].
29	* CliffHanger - The first book to a some extent, and the second book to an almost ''maddening'' extent, particularly when you consider how slow the first half the second book seemed compared to its climax.
30	* DeadpanSnarker - Tommy and some of the other zombies have this tendency, ironically, as does to a lesser extent Phoebe.
31	* FantasticRacism - Society is unsure how to handle the "living impaired" kids, and some of them are freaked enough (or religious enough in a fundamentalist vein) to exhibit this, with the primary antagonist even deciding at one point to ''re-kill'' some of them.
32	* FriendlyZombie: All the zombie teens are like that; they have no HorrorHunger and just want to lead a normal teenage life.
33	* HeroicSacrifice - when it looks like Phoebe's going to [[spoiler:get shot in the head, Adam takes the bullet instead]].
34	* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Karen]] gayngst + clinical depression + zombie-ism
35	* IncompatibleOrientation: Popeye and Tak
36	* JerkJock: This trope might as well be called the Pete Martinsburg, he shot and killed [[spoiler: Adam]] and showed no remorse up until the end of Book 3.
37	* LovableJock: Adam is this trope personified.
38	* LipstickLesbian: [[spoiler: Karen]]
39	* LoveDodecahedron - Phoebe likes Tommy and Adam, and they both like her back. Margi has a thing for Adam, and Karen pretty much has a crush on [[spoiler: Phoebe, Collete, Sylvia,]] Tommy (who also likes her as well), and Tak. Tak likes her, but he's being crushed on by Popeye.
40	* TheNeedless: Being undead, the zombies don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.
41	* NonMaliciousMonster: The zombie teens.
42	* OurZombiesAreDifferent - They're basically like ordinary people with certain impediments and a few odd quirks, such as having no body heat or pulse and, oh yes, having come BackFromTheDead.
43	* PerkyGoth - Phoebe and Margi both fit this trope to a T.
44	* PoliticalOvercorrectness - flirted with a tiny bit, with "zombie" being close to the equivalent of a certain d-word and the n-word (i.e. it's mostly the members of the group themselves that feel comfortable using it, otherwise it's seen as politically incorrect and offensive), and with terms like "living impaired" and "differently biotic" (the latter of which is a play on "differently-abled") coming into use.
45	* ReplacementGoldfish - a very ''odd'' variation of the Replacement Goldfish theme, actually: antagonist Pete is so against the DB kids partly because [[spoiler: he lost his first love Julie right before the phenomenon started so that every time he sees one, he remembers how she's ''not'' back from the dead]], and his increasing anti-zombie sentiment? Oh, that's largely because [[spoiler: he keeps associating Phoebe with Julie, to the point where he eventually starts hallucinating she ''is'' Julie, and referring to her by that name, and, being naturally overprotective of "Julie"...]].
46	* UnluckyChildhoodFriend - Adam, who spends a good portion of the book either pining over the (clueless) Phoebe, or being really jealous of she and Tommy's burgeoning relationship. [[spoiler:As of Kiss of Life, Pheobe has broken up with Tommy, feeling that he only dates a traditionally biotic girl to push the envelope, and begins a relationship with a now-zombified Adam.]]
47	* VerbalTic: The zombie teens... speak... with... unexpected... pauses. It's considerably less prominent in high-functional ones (like Tommy and Karen), but even they all have it to some extent.
48	* WhamEpisode - arguably, the end of each book has functioned as this, especially with the second book, ''Kiss of Life'', being a tad less light-hearted.
49	* WoundThatWillNotHeal - If the zombies got a wound during death, they keep it after they come back. Which often means that zombies that got burned to death or had the skin from their faces scraped off somehow [[{{Squick}} stay that way.]] Also, the zombies cannot heal from any wounds they receive as zombies.
50	** As of the third book, ''Passing Strange'', [[spoiler:Karen [=DeSonne=] is shown to have the ability to heal, at a rapid pace, even from serious injuries like getting ''shot in the face'', with no medical assistance.]]

Context Literature / GenerationDead