Zombie Invasion

One could say that the second decade of the Millennium is the age of the zombie. Seems like the latter half of the 2000's was all about vampire books-turned-movies/TV. Examples: 30 Days of Night (2007), True Blood (2008), Twilight movies (starting in 2008), Vampire Diaries (2009), Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009). The Twilight phenomenon especially got fans amped up about vampires -- and werewolves, but mostly vampires. But such raging fandom burned itself out and the glut of vampire movies gave way to another monster-of-choice: zombies.

The zombies have invaded our TV/movies: Zombieland (2009), The Walking Dead (2010), Warm Bodies (2013), and World War Z (2013). This indicates that zombies have evolved since Night of the Living Dead scared our parents in 1968. Zombies can be, by turns, humorous as well as terrifying. So I attempted to classify some young adult books dealing with zombies.

Humor -- Where's your funny bone?
Zombies vs. Unicorns
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the classic Regency romance -- now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The Infects by Sean Beaudoin
Brains: a Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker
Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan
Allison Hewitt is Trapped by Madeleine Roux
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Kids vs. Adults -- The ultimate generational conflict
Contaminated by Em Garner
The Enemy series by Charles Higson
Quarantine: The Loners by Lex Thomas

Magic Girl -- I have special powers. Really icky ones.
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
Unforsaken by Sophie Littlefield
Beautiful Dead series by Eden Maguire
Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow
Undeadly by Michele Vail
Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

OMG, Zombies! -- Bringing the ditz back to the undead
Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby
Zombie Blondes by Brian James
My So-Called Death by Stacey Jay (also author of the Megan Berry series)
I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It by Adam Selzer
Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe

Post-Post-Apocalypse -- What do you do after the end of the world?
Z by Michael Thomas Ford
Rot & Ruin series by Jonathan Maberry
The End Games by T. Michael Martin

Zombies, with a Twist -- Unique takes on the undead uprising
Dead Reckoning by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill (Wild West zombies)
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel  (Steampunk and zombies)
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (zombie P.O.V. -- male)
Zombies Don't Cry by Rusty Fischer (zombie P.O.V. -- female)
Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies by James Marshall (also features a unicorn)
Fiend by Peter Stenson (meth addict vs. zombies)

My 2 Cents:
Zombie popularity has also been linked to times of economic downturn. The crash of 2011 brought the American financial struggles of the Millennium to a crescendo and dropped us into a pit from which we are still struggling to climb out. The struggle to survive financially in a barren economic landscape of ever-dwindling resources and few "shelters" (i.e. job security, benefits, etc.) for the common man puts our primal survival instincts in an uproar. Prime material for zombie obsession, don't you think?