Zombies of the Upper East Side
by Jason Zeffir
Charmaine Starling is an Upper East Side housewife whose life is in crisis. She and her husband are in the middle of a messy divorce. He’s dragging his feet on a settlement, and his mother—who controls the family purse strings—is pushing back on their prenup. If that weren’t bad enough, Charmaine has just read that her husband, Darren, is holed up in a suite of rooms at The Carlyle with his mistress—whom Page Six is calling “The New Mrs. Starling.” They’ve run pictures of the happy couple, and she has a pink diamond on her ring finger that is almost as large as her lack of shame.
Oh, yeah, there’s also something sinister afoot. It seems like you can’t go to a sit-down dinner without the host putting on a black hood and opening the room to a ritual sacrifice. But now something else is making the rounds—less Chanel, more contagion. A scourge. One that’s spreading faster than gossip. People are getting sick, and bodies are missing from the morgue…
5 out of 5 fairies
If you enjoy zombies, and books that make you laugh, this needs to go to the top of your TBR. A quick warning, this can get quite gory, although that isn’t unusual for a zombie story. I absolutely loved Charmaine. She was likable, and her determination to get through the zombie apocalypse and find her kids really helped drive the story forward. Honestly, the whole cast of characters is unique and interesting, and while at times some of them feel like caricatures, it’s all part of the fun of the story. I enjoyed how it bounced back and forth between the past and present, and there’s quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor throughout. This is the book for anyone looking for a humorous zombie apocalypse that pokes fun at the ultrarich and upper-echelons of society.
