The Good: My So Called Death is a great blend of horror and comedy. Jay's humor shines in this novel, coupling well with an interesting mystery, a little romance and a fun high school after death angle. A quirky, funny read that's great for teens and adults.

The Bad: Karen is just so damned perky. Like WAY over the top perky. ( )

Karen Vera is a perky, blonde, pink adoring cheerleader. She couldn't be higher on the social totem pole at school and she's only a sophomore. The rest of high school should be a breeze until during a football game, she falls from the top of a human pyramid and lands on her head. Normally, this would be the end, but she is genetically undead zombie thanks to an ancestor or two. After scooping her brains back into her skull and feeding her animal brains, Dr. Samedi, the principal of DEAD (Death Challenged Education of Adolescents and the Deprogrammed) High, tells her she has to disappear from her old life and live among other dead people. Of course this is the worst thing to ever happen to Karen. Her new roommate is a wanna-be goth who absolutely despises everything pink; the uniforms are black, shapeless, and hideous; and Karen is no longer top of the social pecking order. To make matters worse, short after her arrival, someone starts stealing people's brains and leaving their bodies for others to find. Karen is on the case to solve the mystery, but will she solve it before her own brain is taken?

I enjoyed Stacey Jay's previous zombie novels, so of course I had to check out this stand alone. The hidden world of zombies was well written and interesting. DEAD High is kind of like the Hogwarts of the undead. There are weird classes like Zombie Internet Technology and Secrets of Morticians: Foundation and Beyond. The school takes in two types of zombies: the dead challenged who simply die and wake up again and the deprogrammed who are magical zombies risen as servants and then awakened to be themselves. The school is free to attend, but the death challenged spend years after their time there is community service and the deprogrammed do work study while in the school. The undead can also do magic, which is largely unexplored in the novel beyond a few instances.

Flaws abound in this book. The majority of the characters were flat, stock characters. The principal is sinister and creepy with a dark secret. Gavin is the hot athlete that Karen constantly drools over even when she thinks he's the killer. Clarice is the dark goth girl who dabbles in magic. They all fell pretty flat and didn't have any depth to them beyond the stereotype. Even Karen proved to be fairly flat with her obsession with popularity and cute boys. She lost interest as a narrator and a protagonist especially when going on long mental tangents about things I didn't really care about. Since Karen is in high school, I would expect the novel to be for highschoolers, but it ended up being obviously written for much younger audience. It's simplistic and lost its charm over the course of the book.

My So-Called Death is a cute novel for a younger audience. It didn't have the depth and subtley I usually expect from Stacey Jay, but it was still enjoyable. I wanted to know more about the world the death challenged lived in rather than Karen's personal dramas. The mystery was ok and had a few twists and turns at the end. ( )

Fans of You Are So Undead To Me will find this zombie book full of familiar perkiness yet definitely cut in a different cloth - more along the lines of Generation Dead and I Kissed A ZOMBIE, And I Liked It. If you prefer an intelligent zombie with a little perk, then My So-Called Death will suit your zombie needs!

Stacey Jay really captured the voice of a perky, go-getter girl - so much that I could not help but laugh at how chipper Karen stayed despite being a zombie and enduring undeserved suspicion from her fellow undead peers due to her love of pink and possible involvement of the brain-snatching.

Not to mention, Stacey Jay definitely created an awesome high school for the undead with deliciously disgusting lunch menus that involves brains - animal, of course - and educational classes for those who could possibly live forever and may want to integrate back into the "living" society.

My So-Called Death is absolutely perfect for those who want to ease themselves into zombie books - especially light-hearted ones - and definitely if you instill zombie love into the younger generation (i.e. middle-grade / junior high). Karen has just started high school, so I think Stacey Jay hit the nail right on that age range! ( )

When Karen Vera falls from the top of the pyramid she expected to die since anyone knows that having their skull cracked open and their brains spilled out can only mean death. But Karen’s family line has a history of well, not dying…completely. Apparently Karen has a special gene that when she “dies” she doesn’t die, but rather turns into a zombie—Death Challenged. After having her parents rush her home, the principal of DEAD High visits and invites Karen to their boarding school to continue her education because frankly everyone at the football game expected Karen to die.

DEAD High isn’t perfect by a long shot for Karen. She’s forced into these long drabs of fabric as the official that only highlights how tiny Karen’s physique is: a measly 5’1. But she’ll take it as long as she can hang out with Gavin again. Though that faithful encounter may just get Karen’s brain nibbled on.

Quite frankly I found My So Called Death to be a rollicking fun, hilarious read. The entire novel doesn’t take itself too serious (though there are some paragraphs where Stacey Jay tries to incorporate some women’s right/fight against racism/prejudice), which was very relaxing despite the giant maggot fights. Jay also writes some of the most disgusting raw lunch menus ever—raw cow brains served with some raw pork stuffed in its own intestines—but then again it just made me like this novel even more.

Some downsides: don’t expect some amazing character developments or anything “wow! that just frazzled my dazzle!” I am also still confused on the Deprogrammeds—those who are reanimated by black magic. And while in most fun, rollicking reads things can get predictable, My So Called Death kept a few surprises in store.

If you’re interested in what happens when an ex-cheerleader turns into a zombie, look no further. If you’re interested in reading about an ex-cheerleader battling a giant maggot, look no further. ( )

Reviewed by Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com

U-G-L-Y, Karen totally has an alibi... SHE'S UNDEAD, WHAT WHAT? SHE'S UNDEAD!

Just a freshman, Karen Vera was on top of the world. Karen was part of the fearless JV squad at Peachtree High and the girl that everyone envied. Unfortunately, her life went splat as she was knocked off her high pyramid and fell into a world that forces her to trade in her pom-poms for some animal brains.

Turns out Karen is "Death Challenged." So, once her pretty little head met the pavement, which would lead some to a painful death, Karen was still alive, sort of, and whisked away by her parents, oddly enough like it was normal protocol. A visit by Theresa Samedi, the principal of the institute of the Death Challenged Education of Adolescents and the Deprogrammed, quickly informs Karen of her current zombie status. Before she knows it, Karen is enrolled in DEAD High to protect her from being hunted and rotting away.

Karen was quick to discover that her new life at a new school would not be the same. Although she soon found a new BFF, Trish, and was able to interact with the McSteamy of the school, Gavin McDougal, things weren't all that peachy.

First, she meets her roommate, Clarice, who wants nothing to do with a roomie, especially one who's a cheerleader. Then she discovers that swimming and running are the only sports offered, since zombie bodies are way too delicate for any type of contact sports. This ultimately means that cheerleading is out of the question! To make matters worse, a death, yes, a real death, occurred at the school. The friendly Kendra had her brains harvested, which means that DEAD High isn't so safe after all.

Going from ordinary zombie to zombie sleuth, Karen takes it upon herself to figure out who the killer is, while also trying to survive this new lifestyle and maybe even snag herself some arm candy along the way.

With various snippets and quotes taken from different sources starting off each chapter, MY SO-CALLED DEATH is a delectable read that allows you to indulge in a world of zombies that author Stacey Jay seems to have perfected. Hilariously funny, MY SO-CALLED DEATH will make readers want to become undead themselves so that they can join forces with Karen and kick some butt. Fans of Stacey Jay's previous novels will not be disappointed with this one! ( )