Line #58 Literature/ZombiesVsUnicorns


1	[[quoteright:263:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zombies-vs-unicorns-final-cover_52.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:263:[[CavemenVsAstronautsDebate Are you Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?]]]]
3	->''"Since the dawn of time one question has dominated all others: Zombies or Unicorns?"''
4
5	A 2010 {{Young Adult\|Literature}} {{Fantasy}} anthology. The {{short stor\|y}}ies were written specifically for the book by many well known {{Fantasy}} and ScienceFiction writers, and the book was edited by Creator/HollyBlack and Creator/JustineLarbalestier. The 12 authors and their respective stories are divided into two teams: [[CoolVersusAwesome Team Unicorn and Team Zombie]].
6
7	On Team Unicorn, led and edited by Creator/HollyBlack, we find:
8	* Creator/GarthNix – "The Highest Justice"
9	* Creator/NaomiNovik – "Purity Test"
10	* Creator/MargoLanagan – "A Thousand Flowers"
11	* Creator/DianaPeterfreund – "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn"
12	* Creator/MegCabot – "Princess Pretty Pants"
13	* Creator/KathleenDuey – "The Third Virgin"
14
15	On Team Zombie, led and edited by Creator/JustineLarbalestier:
16	* Creator/AlayaDawnJohnson – "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
17	* Creator/CarrieRyan – "Bouganvillea"
18	* Creator/MaureenJohnson – "The Children of the Revolution"
19	* Creator/ScottWesterfeld – "Inoculata"
20	* Creator/CassandraClare – "Cold Hands"
21	* Creator/LibbaBray – "Prom Night"
22
23	----
24	!!This anthology provides examples of:
25	* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Liz's boyfriend cheats on her when he goes to college, after she spends a thousand dollars texting and calling him. She gets revenge thanks to Princess Prettypants, plus a watch worth that amount.
26	* AdultsAreUseless: In "Prom Night", all the adults are either dead or undead. In "Princess Prettypants", they're just not very helpful.
27	* AffectionateParody: "Purity Test" features a ClicheStorm complete with an evil wizard and referring to VirginPower.
28	* AfterTheEnd: "Bouganvillea", "Inoculata", and especially "Prom Night"
29	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The zombies in every story except "The Highest Justice" (because it has zombies, despite being a unicorn story), "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and "Cold Hands".
30	* AndIMustScream: "The Children of the Revolution": [[spoiler: stuck forever as a zombie, just barely capable of cognitive function, knowing you need to do something, to leave, but never being able to concentrate enough to actually do it…]]
31	* ApocalypseHow: The 'Before' sections of "Bouganvillea" deal with this.
32	* ArmoredClosetGay: Jack in "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
33	* BadassAdorable: "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn".
34	* BuddyCopShow: In "Prom Night", the kids are running the (now barricaded) town they live in because of a Zombie Apocalypse that was Only Fatal to Adults. Tahmina and Jeff play the role of cops, keeping down crime and shooting any zombies that pop up. The story mostly focuses on their interactions with each other and their (mis)adventures as teenaged cops, and there's a bit of a Running Gag where Jeff constantly jokes about how stuff would be good material for when they get their own TV show.
35	* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Pretty much how the book came into existence; it all started with a blog post Larbalestier made in February 2007
36	* ChurchOfHappyology: "Children of the Revolution" features a cult/religion founded by a science fiction author that requires a lot of money to progress and is quite popular among rich famous people, a lot like another cult/religions we're all familiar with... except with zombies.
37	* CrisisOfFaith: The narrator in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" has one.
38	%%* CursedWithAwesome: The unicorn in "The Third Virgin".
39	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Oh, Jack ends up doing this in "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
40	%%* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Team Zombie thinks so.
41	* ExactWords: The princess in "A Thousand Flowers" says that no man has touched her when Manny, who's been accusing of raping her, is brought to the court. As we find out, what touched her wasn't human . . .
42	* {{Expy}}: "Children of the Revolution" features a [[Creator/AngelinaJolie super-famous movie star]] who's adopted a butt-load of kids from third world countries with her [[Creator/BradPitt equally famous movie star boyfriend]].
43	* {{Familiar}}: The relationship between unicorns and their master has shades of this in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" and especially in "Princess Pretty Pants".
44	* FantasticDrug: LifeEnergy for the unicorn in "The Third Virgin". More seriously, he's also got a serious SelfHarm problem and [[spoiler:lets the titular virgin cut him into pieces just to feel love from her while she's doing it. She realizes this and calls him out on it.]] The virgin even compares him to her cousin, who was a meth addict.
45	* FluffyTamer:
46	** The main character in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn", at least as far as said baby killer unicorn goes (she even names him [[GenderBlenderName Flower]]).
47	** Liz and her aunt from "Princess Prettypants" are revealed to be one.
48	* FluffyTheTerrible:
49	** Flower, said unicorn that the main character in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" cares for.
50	** Princess Prettypants also counts; she may have a silly name, but you don't want to get her owner angry. Liz later renames her "Gloria" after Gloria Steinem.
51	* GenderBlenderName: The main character in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" names the unicorn 'Flower' before realizing that it was a boy. She renames him "Flayer" when he starts to eat squirrels.
52	* [[HealingHands Healing Horn]]: In "The Third Virgin", combined with the ability to steal LifeEnergy.
53	* IdiotBall:
54	** Spank, the antagonist in Princess Prettypants, calls his dad the sheriff from a party where alcohol is being served to minors after Liz orders Princess Prettypants to destroy his cellphone. Thinking his son is drunk, the sheriff proceeds to come and bust the party.
55	* ICannotSelfTerminate: The unicorn in "The Third Virgin"
56	* InterspeciesRomance: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" has one between a zombie and a human.
57	* JerkAssRealization: Liz in "Princess Prettypants" after her brother tattles on her about stealing plastic flamingos and selling the titular unicorn on eBay.
58	* JustBeforeTheEnd: Implied in [[spoiler:"Prom Night"]]
59	* KarmaHoudini: Part of what makes the unicorn in "The Third Virgin" so messed-up. Even if he kills the people he heals, he's never blamed for it, making it that much easier to justify settling his craving for LifeEnergy.
60	* KillerRabbit: The unicorns in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn"
61	* KissOfDeath: [[spoiler: In "Bouganvillea" Iza uses a kiss to distract the pirate so she can kill him with her machete... and also she kinda just wanted to kiss him.]]
62	* LackOfEmpathy:
63	** Philip Grayson in "Love Will Tear Us Apart" claims to have this since the prions ate the part of his brain that processes empathy. However, he does have a few PetTheDog moments
64	* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Or island dictator's beautiful daughter in ''Bouganvillea''. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for the pirate Iza chose the path of the OverlordJr]]
65	* NonAppearingTitle: "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn"
66	* NotWhatItLooksLike: Manny, the DecoyProtagonist in "A Thousand Flowers" gets accused of raping the princess when trying to clothe her while drunk. Even when the princess defends him, he gets murdered by the sheriff when she ends up pregnant.
67	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Team Zombie:
68	** "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - Type M bordering on O, specifically a mix of elements from F and R (flesh eating, but intelligent and with vague memories [[spoiler: and the capacity to love]]
69	** "Bouganvilla" - classic Type P with F
70	** "The Children of the Revolution" - Type C
71	** "Inoculata" - Type P, later we see some Type O's
72	** "Cold Hands" - most like a Type R
73	** "Prom Night" - also a classic Type P with F
74	* OverlordJr: Iza at the end of "Bouganvillea"
75	* {{Pirate}}: in "Bougenvilla" Iza fantasized about being whisked off to a life of adventure by a Type 1 before realizing that the real ones are all Type 2. [[spoiler:The young man who shows up turns out to be a pirate captain who fancies himself to be a Type 1, Iza [[KissOfDeath disgrees]]]].
76	* ThePlague: Team Zombie stories "Bouganvillea", "Inoculata", and "Prom Night". "The Highest Justice" has zombies come from a disease, but it doesn't appear to be contagious.
77	* PrincessClassic: The princess in ''A Thousand Flowers'' has some elements of this
78	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Spank in "Princess Prettypants" operates this way; because his dad is the sheriff, he can get away with petty theft and BlackMail against an {{Ingenue}} high school student who liked him
79	* {{Telepathy}}: Unicorns, but only with certain people in "The Third Virgin", "Princess Pretty Pants", and "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn". Also implied in "A Thousand Flowers".
80	* TeenageWasteland: Of the second variation in "Prom Night"; for some reason the adults were the first to contract the disease and by the time the story takes place only adolescents remain.
81	* {{Unicorn}}: All of the Team Unicorn Stories
82	* VersusTitle
83	* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Both [[spoiler:"The Care and Feeding of Your Killer Unicorn"]] and [[spoiler:"Princess Pretty Pants"]]
84	* VirginPower: Played straight in "The Highest Justice" and "Princess Prettypants, Deconstructed in "Purity Test", [[spoiler: The other unicorns want a virgin, but the main unicorn would rather have a heroine who knows what she's doing.]]
85	** Played with in "A Thousand Flowers" where the unicorns want virgins, but not because they're powerful; [[spoiler: the unicorns just want someone to have sex with.]]
86	** Further played with in "The Third Virgin", where it's not sexual purity that denotes a virgin, but a unique kind of spiritual purity. The unicorn wryly notes that if sexual purity was all that was needed, any child would do, while he's encountered only three virgins in his whole life. [[spoiler:That said, it does posit that the whole "virginity" thing was an excuse for unicorns to steal the life force from children, as it tastes sweeter the younger the victim is.]]
87	* TheVirus: Most of the Team Zombie stories, excepting "Cold Hands".
88	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The unicorn in "The Third Virgin".
89	* WrongGuyFirst: "Princess Pretty Pants".
90	* TheXOfY: "The Children of the Revolution"
91	* ZombieApocalypse: "Bouganvillea", "Inoculata", and "Prom Night".

Context Literature / ZombiesVsUnicorns