Fiction Fans

Zomromcom by Olivia Dade

• Episode 210

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Your hosts continue their Spooky Month reading with Zomromcom, Olivia Dade’s delightful new zombie apocalypse vampire romcom. They talk about reasonable heroines, excellent romantic banter, and speed-running a relationship. They also discuss the practicalities of a burrito as a weapon against zombies.


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Thanks to the following musicians for the use of their songs:

- Josh Woodward for the use of “Electric Sunrise”
- Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License


Lilly:

Hello and welcome to Fiction Fans, a podcast where we read books and other words too. I'm Lily

Sara:

And I'm Sarah. And today we will be discussing Zomm Romcom by Olivia Dade. continuing our spooky month theme.

Lilly:

and damn. Was I ready for this one? It was like a breath of fresh air.

Sara:

it was a nice change of pace from the Handmaid's Tale.

Lilly:

But before we get into that, what's something great that happened recently?

Sara:

So I have a, making the best out of a bad situation thing. And also just a, a genuinely cute thing. The making the best out of a bad situation is that I have one more episode recording of this podcast with snoring before I say goodbye to him. That's this episode. I'm glad to have that. But the genuine, cute thing is dumpling loves tomatoes so much and it's darling.

Lilly:

and I, I'm assuming that's one of the ones That's fine to give dogs then,

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

because I know carrots are like actually good for them.

Sara:

Yeah. No tomatoes. Tomatoes are okay. I've never seen a pug who is that enthusiastic about tomatoes, but,

Lilly:

like cherry tomatoes or chunks of, oh, does she just go face first into a giant tomato?

Sara:

Well, she hasn't done that because I typically don't get giant tomatoes. She probably would. I did give her a tomato off of my plant and she swallowed it whole. She did not chomp. She just, uh, yeah, it was, it was gone immediately. that's her agreeing. If you heard that bark,

Lilly:

I don't know what my good thing is. I should have thought of this.

Sara:

hardest, hardest question. All podcast.

Lilly:

Has anything ever happened to me in my life?

Sara:

Clearly not.

Lilly:

No, my brain is blank. I don't remember if I've talked about this on the podcast already. I might've. But we moved all of our house plants outside for a couple months over the summer, and it is now time to start bringing them inside. It's getting to be fall, but they are so healthy. I might start doing that every summer. Just give them a little vacation.

Sara:

Nice.

Lilly:

Yeah. My prayer plant flowered, I didn't even know they could do that.

Sara:

Oh my.

Lilly:

Yeah. So. back inside for the big, dark, cold, but you know,

Sara:

Better than staying outside for the big, dark, cold.

Lilly:

true. And what are we drinking tonight?

Sara:

I am drinking a vegan blood bag, by which I mean box wine.

Lilly:

Oh, I thought it was gonna be a bloody Mary.

Sara:

No, that would've been good. I have, I have the means for Bloody Mary.

Lilly:

You fucked up.

Sara:

I did fuck up.

Lilly:

It's okay.

Sara:

I'm not even drinking the right color of wine too.

Lilly:

Well, you could have lied.

Sara:

I was going to, but the truth came out.

Lilly:

My drink is actually more on theme than yours

Sara:

Is it cider?

Lilly:

Pomegranate juice.

Sara:

Oh, pomegranate juice was gonna be, yeah, that was my other guess. It's, I had cider on the mind'cause I wanted to drink cider.

Lilly:

Oh yeah. The hot mold cider that shows up in this book would've been really good.

Sara:

Yeah, but I didn't have anything to make it so I didn't.

Lilly:

No, in this book, Edie drinks pomegranate lime juice quite a bit, which sounds incredible. I don't have that. I just have a, a fizzy. Half sparkling water, half pomegranate thing, but I think it counts, so.

Sara:

Very appropriate drink.

Lilly:

Mm-hmm. And I, oh, I guess I have read something lately. Technically,

Sara:

What have you read?

Lilly:

it's our friend's babies' birthday, so we bought some children's books and so we went to Barnes and Noble and read like, because you have to, you know, pick out a good book. So I read a bunch of picture books to find a good one. And we ended up picking up, I need a new butt and dragons like tacos. You can guess which one I chose and which one my husband chose.

Sara:

Yes, I can guess.

Lilly:

How about you?

Sara:

I've been continuing to read Tolkien's letters, which is starting to feel like a very unexciting answer for this question. I have not been doing our solstice reading, which I really need to start.

Lilly:

Yeah. Hey, me too. Speaking of dragons, right?

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

Alright. But for today we read Zomm Romcom. Which was a late addition to spooky month. We had to rearrange our schedule a little bit. And you suggested the fly because I had been raving about it last year.

Sara:

Well, you had mentioned last year that you wanted to do it for this spooky month and it got cut off the schedule for various reasons, so that was why I suggested it.

Lilly:

I do still wanna read it, but I. Suggested and I stand by this suggestion that spooky month isn't actually horror. Right. You know, we can have books and at least one book, I think that is maybe has the trappings of Halloween in this case zombies

Sara:

is more to my taste than yours

Lilly:

I mean, this is a romance novel. It's trying to say romance isn't to my taste is a statement.

Sara:

Okay. I guess, I guess what I'm saying is. Something that caters to both of our tastes rather than just the horror lover in this podcast.

Lilly:

And fuck, I needed it. you recommended it, so thank you very much.

Sara:

It's a fun book. I'd not read it. You had suggested some other books that are also similarly fun. Kind of spooky themed romance. But I had read those so I was like, I wanna do something, but I've not read, but have been meaning to read. And I did overall enjoy it. I was expecting something a little different, I think, and that kind of tempered my response to it.

Lilly:

have you read work by Dade before?

Sara:

No,

Lilly:

Or just based on the summary, see, is I never read summaries.'cause I never have preconceived notions.

Sara:

yeah, I think it was, it was just based on the summary plus like what I'd heard people mention about it in like bite-sized, you know, blue sky reviews or whatever. But overall,

Lilly:

bite sized'cause it's zombies.

Sara:

Unintentional punning there. But it's a fun book. Like I'm, I'm definitely glad that we read it and it's a nice change of pace from some of the other stuff that we've been reading The spooky month.

Lilly:

Yes, it reminded me that I need to refill my disaster preparedness kit. So, if anyone else needs to do that, hey, you should do that.

Sara:

You should, it's a good thing to do.

Lilly:

That's the kind of chore because it doesn't technically have a deadline, right? It's just sometime before a disaster. So since there's no deadline, it's really hard for me to actually like do it,

Sara:

I mean, I don't even have one I'm gonna admit. So

Lilly:

girl.

Sara:

I'm, I'm relying on my mother who has one and who lives a mile away from me.

Lilly:

Yeah, that's pretty close.

Sara:

it's, it's a bad idea to be clear, but it is what I'm doing.

Lilly:

Well, we used our water jug while we went camping this summer on purpose, so that to force us to refresh it so that it wouldn't just be like years old water.

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

But I do need to actually refill it. So, thank you book for reminding me. Zomm Romcom, as the title suggests, is a romantic comedy that takes place during a zombie apocalypse.

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

Well, I'm gonna call it a zombie invasion'cause it's, it's not exactly apocalyptic. There is still infrastructure, there's still infrastructure, there's still a functioning society.

Sara:

I would say that it is a contained apocalypse because this, this zombie

Lilly:

Event is what I called it in my, in

Sara:

yeah, this, this zombie event has been contained essentially two. I'm gonna call it one city, but it's like there are concentric rings of wall around like what used to be a research facility, and that's where all of the zombies are. And outside of that space, the world continues on as normal.

Lilly:

Which is a really interesting twist. On some of the classic zombie tropes, typically the, the survivor fortresses are contained and then the zombies are trying to get in from the outside. So having it be the other direction was like a really fun, fresh take. On that, it did bring up some questions like, why would anyone live next to the zombie containment center?

Sara:

Those are answered though

Lilly:

Yes. Housing prices.

Sara:

housing prices familial connections and also great for the criminal underworld.

Lilly:

Yep. There was also kind of a 28 days later vibe not, maybe not a vibe, but the zombies were created through. Like intentional science experiments and the first, what was it called? The first breach, I think,

Sara:

something like that,

Lilly:

when they, when they first got out and wreaked havoc on the community surrounding them

Sara:

which happens. Like a decade before the events of this book. No more. Two. Yeah.

Lilly:

This was caused by activists, which for those of you who haven't seen 28 days later recently, that's uh, yeah, I know. That is caused by there's a lab doing animal testing that has the virus, the rage virus, and animal rights activists release those animals, and that is what causes the initial outbreak. Now, you know, Sarah, I also started getting really persnickety because zombies are a special interest of mine and you really need to have an element of contagion for it to truly be zombies. So for a while at the beginning of this book, I was like, this is a really fun monster design. Like, I'm, I'm loving the plot in the world, but. If they just reproduce normally and they're created through experiments that's not zombie like, there has to be a fear of, of catching it. That's like very central, I think, to that concept. And it does end up being contagious. So I was like, excellent. Thank you.

Sara:

But, there's not just zombies in this world. There's all kinds of supernatural. and honestly, it was kind of a lot there's, there's a lot going on in the world building of this world in just in the background. Like, not, not necessarily stuff that is too relevant. Some of it has relevance, but, it sometimes overpowered the story for me.

Lilly:

It just drops in on you like a ton of bricks sometimes, like, I think when we're learning about how the zombies were first created. The book's like, oh yeah, the scientists made them to fight werewolves. And it's like, what?

Sara:

Yeah, like it was, it was very, the rate of information or the rate at which we got information was kind of uneven, I felt.

Lilly:

There's a lot of exposition in this book, and the world building is just kind of tossed at you. Coming from the Handmaid's Tale where the world building is so subtle and strung throughout the novel and the story itself, it felt very abrupt and different. after about, I would say 15% into the book, I read an ebook, so I know obnoxiously specific percentages. I was just on board. I was like, okay, this is gonna be extremely silly. You are going to tell me what's happening, and I am 100% on board because I, my brain needed this. But it does mean that I know that about 45% of the way through the book, apparently there's soulmates.

Sara:

Yeah. There were just like,

Lilly:

That broke me a little bit.

Sara:

yeah there was just too much. Like if it had been one kind of bombshell revelation, I probably could have handled that. But there were a lot of bombshell revelations and not all of them. Do anything for the book. And so that was just too much for me. I wanted it to be a little smoother.

Lilly:

Yeah, well it's interesting because the characters live in this world. They wouldn't need to be primed for a conversation about soulmates'cause it's just a world where soulmates exist. So in, in that sense, it is realistic. But as a reader, I, I wouldn't have minded a more curated experience.

Sara:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lilly:

More important than the Zam is the Rom

Sara:

And the

Lilly:

and the Calm. Our main character, ededie is an aggressively normal gal in a way that was delightful. Yes, she was great. the book establishes right away. Like she's a good person. She is not a hero. We see her trying to save her neighbor, and there's several lines in the book where it's like there is literally no one else who can help. It is her or nothing. Like just making sure, you know, like she, she's not she's not superman. She shouldn't be doing this, but she couldn't live with herself if she didn't. And that was just really nice.

Sara:

Yeah, I mean, she's just like a nice neighbor. I want to live near her.

Lilly:

Yeah.

Sara:

She just seems like a nice person.

Lilly:

Mm-hmm.

Sara:

and she was fun to follow.

Lilly:

Absolutely. And she was like really clever without it getting cringey. Like none of none of her quips felt forced.

Sara:

Yeah

Lilly:

and there, there were never like really overwrought one-liners that was like, no one would think of that in the moment. That's a shower thought from a week later.

Sara:

and she's, she's also not hyper competent.

Lilly:

Yeah.

Sara:

Like she's competent but in a way that I felt a normal person would be not some perfect heroine for a romance novel.

Lilly:

She's a normal guy girl, but like, you know, just some dude.

Sara:

Yeah. She's just some dude.

Lilly:

I really liked the banter between her and the love interest. Her neighbor Chad, when do we find out his other name?

Sara:

I am, I'm pretty sure that it is on the back of the book.

Lilly:

Okay, great,

Sara:

so.

Lilly:

so their banter just hit the tone perfectly for me. It's always lighthearted. It never gets too mean. They're just like kind of teasing each other back and forth, and it's two-sided, which I really needed.

Sara:

I was gonna say they both participate in it.

Lilly:

Yeah, and neither of them, well, like I said, hit below the belt. Like, they're both like pretty respectful about it. They're being silly. And then neither of them over, I don't know. It was just, this book was really nice.

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

Edie is also super reasonable about the romance, like. I don't know a better way to explain that, but it, it's not like Insta love. She, she's just going, well, this guy's hot, so I'm not gonna complain.

Sara:

I did actually really enjoy the romance. For the most part. I, I have a couple of minor quibbles with it, but, we'll talk about those in the spoiler section. but their romance was really cute.

Lilly:

It was also aggressively non-problematic every time there is. So Max is a vampire, which we find out pretty early on. Or it's on the back of the book, so I

Sara:

Yes. On, on the back of the book, we, we find that out before the book even starts. If you read the back of the book.

Lilly:

Big if so, you know, super strength. He ends up manhandling, ededie a little bit, you know, pulling her to safety or trying to push her along when she's taking too long. And dad always makes sure that we know that he's being gentle and not hurting her, like no no gray area. He might have super strength, but he is not abusing it. And then also during all of the intimacy scenes, there is enthusiastic verbal consent and a moment where the prose stops and goes. Ededie knows that if she said no, he would stop, which it, I don't think I needed it every time.

Sara:

I mean, honestly, I don't mind it because I think that there are enough like dark fantasy romance novels that go so hard. The other direction that it's nice to have this counterpoint of this is what a healthy relationship should look like,

Lilly:

Yeah. I mean, it certainly didn't harm the flow or anything. I just noticed it.

Sara:

it was, it was very obvious. But I don't think that's a bad thing.

Lilly:

No, and I think that just. Was part of the overall tone of this book, which was, it is fun. It will not make you feel bad while you are reading it.

Sara:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is, I mean, despite the, like zombie setting this is very much a feel good book.

Lilly:

Yes. Who should read this book? If you wanna get into the Halloween vibes, but don't wanna stress yourself out. And if you like romance,

Sara:

Yeah, if you're looking for a spooky month low, low, scary emphasis on the spooky romance novel, this is great.

Lilly:

yeah, if you do like zombie stories and all of the sort of tropes that come along with those monsters. I do think, you know, it acknowledged the pillars that you expect to see, but still did it kind of in its own way without making it so strange that you're like, this isn't zombies anymore.

Sara:

I will have to, rely on your expert opinion for that because I am not a zombie person.

Lilly:

oh, this book takes place during the holidays, which I think it told me a couple of times before I actually picked up on that. But non-specific winter holidays and also all the cursing was nonspecific like by the gods and goddesses, which was also just kind of nice and enjoyable.

Sara:

Well, and it sounded like Gods and goddesses were really a thing, maybe because they can choose people. Ededie has a couple of moments where she's like, do I have divine favor? Now? It'd be a great time for it to kick in. So that may have an impact on the the, the cursing as well.

Lilly:

but it's also just nice to separate it from our society a little bit.

Sara:

Yeah,

Lilly:

Oh, but the, the holiday thing, I think this could be a really fun winter read too, because of that. there's some nice like cozy winter vibes.

Sara:

I agree. If you are in the mood to curl up with a mold cider, like this is a good book for that under a nice, cozy blanket in front of a fireplace.

Lilly:

Absolutely.

Sara:

This episode of Fiction Fans is brought to you by fiction fans.

Lilly:

That's us. We really appreciate our patrons because otherwise we fund this podcast entirely ourselves.

Sara:

Patrons can find weekly bonus content, monthly exclusive episodes, and have free access to our biannual zine Sotia.

Lilly:

You can find all of that and more at patreon.com/fiction fans pod. Thank you for all of your support.

Sara:

The remainder of this episode contains spoilers. Since we're in spoiler time now, the one issue that I had with the romance which I mentioned earlier, was that Max is really, really. Grumpy. He's like the stereotypical antisocial vampire in most respects, except when it comes to Edie. And we do get kind of an explanation for, for that. Like, he's got a tragic backstory. His parents died when he was young. His ex-girlfriend tried to set him on fire et cetera, et

Lilly:

set him on fire, tried to kill him.

Sara:

Yes, did set him on fire. But apparently the reason why he is so obsessed with ED and why he treats her so differently is literally only that she was. Nice to him when they were living next to each other, and I just needed a little bit more than that. Like if he had come to really love her over the course of their time together, I'd be. Entirely down with that because Ededie is so lovable. But it just didn't seem like they had interacted enough prior to the events of this novel for him to have that level of obsession with her already from the get go.

Lilly:

I also think that kind of undercuts the relationship that we see develop. Like he's not actually warming up to her over time, which is what it seems like at first. It turns out he's always been obsessed with her. That kind of like

Sara:

Yeah, it just,

Lilly:

the buzz.

Sara:

it, it flattens the relationship just a little bit.

Lilly:

Now, if he had had a soft spot for her because she was a, a good neighbor and a a weird quirky gal, that would've been fun. And so that's why he gave her a chance. And then as he got to know her, he fell in love with her. That would've been nice.

Sara:

Yes, I would've, I would've been entirely on board with that. But that, I think that goes back to my point about the relationship developing as the events of this book develop, rather than he's already head over heels in love with her and she has to fall in love,

Lilly:

Yeah. And then we just find out that, yeah, he was just reluctant about it in the beginning, but I, yeah. Yeah, I, that didn't really work for me either. The book also spends a really long time with him going, I don't believe in Love and attachment and Ededie going. Welp guess our relationship's just casual, which was fine for like a little bit, but it goes on for way too long. He tries to die to save her more than once, and she just like doesn't make that connection.

Sara:

Yeah, it's fine in the beginning. And then he literally like takes a zombie, you know, full frontal to keep it from getting to at her. And at that point you're like, come on Ededie, you are smarter than this. You have a lot of emotional awareness and intelligence. Like you can put these dots together.

Lilly:

Yeah, because it's, he doesn't even say, I don't believe in love. He's like, I. It's all or nothing. I'm either willing to die for someone or I don't care about them at all. And she's like, oh, okay. I guess we're just casual. And it's like he is clearly willing to die for you. Read the room. I really liked though. So there's, I don't wanna say a subplot, but one of the aspects of this book is that there are internet influencers. Edie is friends with some that are particularly well known.

Sara:

They're kind of in the maker space because Edie makes soap.

Lilly:

Yes. And then we find out that Max is an influencer a fashion slash makeup influencer who just posts thirst traps basically. And it was really interesting how that's used by the book to kind of defang his hotness. If you don't mind the pun. Because he's supposed to be this stunningly perfect, gorgeous specimen, but because he puts on silly outfits and eyeliner to strut around for the camera, it gets to be kind of a joke. And so it's not intimidating because Edie's just like a normal person.

Sara:

Yeah, I did like how even though, max is this incredibly attractive man or vampire, it does bring him down to a normal level. Kind of like, sure, he's really hot, but he is just a person.

Lilly:

And he's not weird about it. Like she makes fun of the outfits that he puts on and he's like, well, I looked great in them. You know, like, that was part of the banter that I think like turned out so, so well in this book.

Sara:

And like they joke about how, oh, you don't subscribe to me, but you've downloaded a couple of my videos. And she's like, yeah, but I only know about the ones that, that my friends mentioned. Those are the only ones I cared about. Like, it just, it added a layer to their yeah, to their banter in relationship.

Lilly:

And she, she doesn't even admit she is open about the, how does it come up about. She saved the videos of him because he's hot. Like she has a spank bank on her phone of him. She didn't realize it was him at the time. I think we should clarify. She didn't realize that this influencer was her neighbor until partway through the

Sara:

Well, but No, but, but doesn't she say that she had downloaded these videos but never watched them before and she watches them after she realizes that he is the influencer.

Lilly:

No, I, cause she. Has to have seen them in order to recognize him.

Sara:

But I thought, I thought she talked about not having watched a, all of them or something.

Lilly:

Well, she definitely hasn't seen all of his videos. I think she's only seen the ones she has downloaded.

Sara:

But I thought she talked about like watching some of the ones that she had downloaded for the first time when they're when they're in like the abandoned mall or something.

Lilly:

I don't remember. I don't think it matters too much.

Sara:

it really doesn't,

Lilly:

I'm gonna see if I can find it. Oh, I can't jump to the part. In this app, ugh.

Sara:

Maybe if I look, look for download. Yes, a year or two back when Brad and Tanya had been trying to convince Ededie to appear on their channel, they had sent samples of their most popular content to her, including a few videos inspired by and featuring clips from Max's own channel and with only the slightest twinge of shame. Ededie had downloaded several of those videos onto her phone because Wowa and then promptly forgotten about them. Had she ever actually looked at the downloads again? Not that she remembered. Okay, so, so she had, she'd. She'd watched them the first time when they were sent to her. Yes. But she hadn't watched them on her phone

Lilly:

You're right. So calling them a spank bank was wrong.

Sara:

yeah, yeah.

Lilly:

But I mean, that was the intention of downloading them.

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

It was right in spirit.

Sara:

We, we were both halfway there.

Lilly:

so we get that moment and then she's watching them and he's right there. And of course. In my gut, I was like, oh no, this is gonna be weird. And it's not

Sara:

It is really not,

Lilly:

it like she's not weird about it. She's like, yeah, clearly you know, you're hot. That's why you're posting these videos.

Sara:

and he's not weird about it.

Lilly:

Yeah, so I really, really enjoyed that

Sara:

It just, they, they had such a good like the, the tenor of their relationship was just so good.

Lilly:

And then at one point he mentions all of the men and women he slept with. And, you know, he's been alive for, we never find out how long. And so of course, he slept with a bunch of people. And all vampires are pansexual, apparently. Which I mean Canon,

Sara:

Yeah, obviously.

Lilly:

And there's a moment where Ededie goes. Should I be jealous? Nah, he's great in bed. Thanks guys. Guys and gals.

Sara:

Yeah, there's, there's no sex shaming. And like when they have conflict or when things are revealed about his backstory that he is worried will look bad to her. She takes a minute and is like, yeah, this sounds bad at first, at first jump, but I trust you so I'm gonna listen to what you say and not jump to conclusions. And they actually like. Adults about things. It's so nice.

Lilly:

Revolutionary.

Sara:

Yeah, it's just, it's wholesome.

Lilly:

This book also has a couple of sex scenes that are a plus. Very nice.

Sara:

I mean, it's a romance novel. It's got sex scenes.

Lilly:

I mean, some romance novels are like, and they kiss and then it fades to black.

Sara:

Okay. Most of the romance novels that I have read are quite explicit.

Lilly:

And not all sex scenes are creative equal,

Sara:

Very true.

Lilly:

Vulva is an underutilized word. People should use it more. It's a good one.

Sara:

Yeah. Dade writes good sex scenes.

Lilly:

Mm-hmm. Also shot is French for pussy. I know that slang.

Sara:

I did not, but I picked up on it pretty quickly.

Lilly:

Well, yeah, the French in this book was interesting. So Max is French, so he uses some French sprinkled throughout for pet names and things. That was fine. And then also the zombies speak French.

Sara:

Which they got from watching the French equivalent made up of course of Dora the explorer.

Lilly:

and there was something weirdly heartbreaking about them knowing like Bonjour and Bon Appetit and nothing else. I, and I think that's actually not the French, I think it was that they. Do you have some language skills? Like that implies that there is a level of intelligence there that you don't always see with zombies.

Sara:

I mean it, but it seemed like it was kind of just like vestigial, right? Like they don't, because at one point there's a mind reader who tries to mind read a zombie and there isn't anything there that they can. Communicate with

Lilly:

I felt like it was implied that there was something there. It was just so inhuman. It was, and like very minimal, but any, anyway, it doesn't, it was sad.

Sara:

I, the, the origin story of the zombies is sad in this book.

Lilly:

And Ededie does address, she feels bad that they're murdering them for no reason and Max is like, it's not no reason. And she's like, yeah, okay, fine.

Sara:

Yeah. But, and I like that they have that conversation because it absolutely makes sense that EE is gonna be sad about it given how empathetic she is. But when presented with the evidence of, yeah, if we don't do this, they're gonna murder everyone. And it's gonna be a true zombie apocalypse. She's like, yeah, okay. I see your point. I'm not gonna let my feelings get in the way of practicality.

Lilly:

Reasonable preemptive strike.

Sara:

Yes, Edie is a really reasonable human being.

Lilly:

Mm-hmm. Ooh, speaking of empathy, I loved Doug so much.

Sara:

Doug is a minor character who is working with the group of Counterfeiters, and he is indeed the literal best.

Lilly:

I just so goofy and, this book is very silly, but moments like Doug, I think were the silliness being used perfectly because our main characters are taking shelter in a mall, which also classic zombie move. But the mall is the territory of this group of Neir Du Wells counterfeiters, and there's a confrontation and they're not totally sure how they're gonna get out of it. They are totally trespassing. But then Doug is just so relentlessly pleasant and. Airhead.

Sara:

Well, but he kind of makes things worse in a way. I mean, and don't get me wrong, I love Doug, but max and Edie are like. We don't need to know the details. We don't know anything about your operation. We'll, just skedaddle and Doug keeps spilling secrets about the operation to the point where they're like, oh shit, we know too much.

Lilly:

No, it, he definitely made things worse for the characters. I'm saying my experience as a reader,

Sara:

Okay. Yeah. Fair. Fair.

Lilly:

I mean it's, it's comic relief in a book that's already comedic.

Sara:

Yeah, he also seems like a really good cook.

Lilly:

Yeah, so much food just shows up because of him.

Sara:

Yep. I wanted all of it, Although I'm not sure how they get fresh fish for good sushi.

Lilly:

I mean, there is clearly still a supply chain.

Sara:

Yeah, but they're in the middle of the, like the containment zone in an abandoned mall.

Lilly:

Oh, I mean, I assume it was frozen.

Sara:

Yeah. I, I don't know. It just, it seemed a little weird that they could have such high quality sushi in the scene. All I'm saying.

Lilly:

when Doug showed up with some pals at the end when all seemed lost, that did make me cry. I might have just been having a day, but

Sara:

It was a nice moment. They needed the help and they weren't expecting Doug and friends to, to show up, so it was a nice moment.

Lilly:

it was nice.

Sara:

The one thing about this book that I will say, and I, I wish that we could have shared this in the nons spoiler section because I do think it's relevant, but also it is definitely a spoiler is that this book is not really a self-contained romance novel. Like I was expecting it to be wrapped up by the end of this book. And it, it doesn't, there's a second book dad in an author's note at the end says there's gonna be a second book and it does do the traditional like romance thing of switching main characters for the second book, but it picks up immediately. The, it, it picks up immediately after the events of Zam romcom and Zam Romcom doesn't really have. I mean, it has a conclusion. But there are some major things left unresolved. Like there's a whole conspiracy that, that they are trying to address or that they learn about and are trying to address, and they have not addressed it at all.

Lilly:

No, it, it felt like Dade intended the arc of this book to be, why did the zombies get out? Oh, because of a conspiracy. And I guess the next book is gonna be exploring that conspiracy. But yeah, I really wanted more from that.

Sara:

Yeah, I, I wanted it to be a novel that you could read without needing a second, a second part.

Lilly:

I actually don't think I need a second part. Our main characters, their love story wrapped up and

Sara:

you're, you're right, the romance is resolved. But I wanted the, the background world stuff to be resolved too.

Lilly:

yeah, and honestly, Gwen gets introduced. Maybe the last 30% of the book ish.

Sara:

Yeah, I would say

Lilly:

And I remember thinking, what is her deal? Why is she here, and why am I supposed to care about her? And the answer is because she's the main character of the second book. But that's not really enough for me.

Sara:

I mean that I just kind of, view as typical romance like progression because romance novels do usually follow the, a different character. So I'm fine with that.

Lilly:

Oh no, but I'm, but I mean, her inclusion in this book felt forced.

Sara:

I liked her as a character in this book.

Lilly:

She had way too much page time.

Sara:

I wouldn't necessarily, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily have pinned her as the main character of book two.

Lilly:

Well, in retrospect, it's obvious because there is no reason to give her that much page time unless you're trying to make me care about her, to lure me into Book two,

Sara:

Yeah. Yeah,

Lilly:

I think is, is what I'm trying to say.

Sara:

yeah

Lilly:

but it didn't, I, that was just not enough. I still don't really care about her.

Sara:

yeah.

Lilly:

it was not a compelling enough character introduction for me to go. I will read a whole book about this person.

Sara:

I mean, I, I do think that her romance with, or I'm assuming eventual romance with her, half demon, parent, enemy frenemy, whatever, would be interesting. I'd probably read book two at some point, but it's not one of those books where I was so invested in either the characters or what was happening. To read book two which sounds like an indictment of book one, but it's, it's not. I did, I did enjoy book one. I did enjoy Za romcom.

Lilly:

Yeah, book one is about ededie and it was great and I bet book two will make Gwen great. It's just her like sticking out like a sore thumb in this book kind of turned me off.

Sara:

I didn't think she was that much of a sore thumb, but.

Lilly:

Well agree to disagree.

Sara:

As usual. It's not fiction fans if we don't disagree. One thing I did really enjoy about this book though, is that Jade includes some book discussion questions at the end,

Lilly:

And we would be remiss if we did not address those.

Sara:

Which, which is not necessarily like an unusual thing to do per se, except that these questions are much more delightful than usual. And also this section in the book is titled Extremely Serious and Important Discussion Questions. The first one is under what circumstances is eating a cold burrito acceptable, even after it's been used to swat a zombie snout? If you were designing a burrito as a zombie fighting weapon, what toppings would you choose?

Lilly:

Well, the first answer is obviously, yeah. I hate cold burritos all the time,

Sara:

I, yeah, so do I.

Lilly:

like non-issue.

Sara:

I had a cold burrito yesterday morning or half a cold burrito yesterday morning. Not an issue at all. I don't know what Max is thinking.

Lilly:

The other part of that, after it's been used to smack a zombie in the face, I do think relies entirely on the constitution of the wrapping.

Sara:

Yes. How intact is that tinfoil?

Lilly:

Yeah,

Sara:

But as Ededie points out, the tinfoil is fine.

Lilly:

I find that hard to believe that, I mean, this is a romance novel, so it's allowed to have some play with reality. Maybe it was double wrapped, I don't know. But a single layer of aluminum foil I don't think would hold up.

Sara:

Yeah, maybe not, but like my burritos are frequently double wrapped, so I could see. I could see it being just fine.

Lilly:

or maybe it's one of those parchment paper on the inside, aluminum foil on the outside. I think that would probably also hold up and be acceptable.

Sara:

Yeah. But as long as no actual tortilla touched, zombie, I think it's fine.

Lilly:

Yeah. Agreed.

Sara:

And even, even if to tortilla touched zombie, can't you just like cut out the spot and then eat it?

Lilly:

I think that depends on how contagious zombie is.

Sara:

Okay, so it, it, the book says that you have to exchange fluids,

Lilly:

Yeah. Eating goop is probably an exchange of fluid.

Sara:

right? But if it, if it just touches zombie, I mean, if the zombie isn't bleeding, a burrito is not going to make it bleed.

Lilly:

Right. That's true.

Sara:

So presumably there's not gonna be, I mean, I guess if you smack it like straight in the mouth, maybe you should just throw it away. But but if you're, if you're hitting it in the shoulder or something and it's not bleeding and it's not covered in, in other zombie goo,

Lilly:

The specific question is hit in the sout, so I do think the face is involved.

Sara:

True.

Lilly:

Yeah, if if it's not a particularly oozing zombie, I think you're probably

Sara:

Yeah, it chomps your burrito, don't eat the burrito.

Lilly:

Yes, agreed. How would you design a zombie fighting burrito? I think you gotta go for heft.

Sara:

I mean, I'm gonna say I design it the same way I design an eating burrito because my goal is to eat the burrito afterwards.

Lilly:

Yes. Ah, but see, my answer is twofold because I think beans are one of the heaviest things you can put into a burrito. And also my favorite part of the burrito.

Sara:

I always put beans in my burrito anyway, so,

Lilly:

But see, like if there's too much rice, I think that would be too light. So you'd want like a heavy bean to rice ratio.

Sara:

Hmm.

Lilly:

Cheese would also be good, and I love salsa and cilantro, but I don't know if that would be dense enough.

Sara:

Maybe, but I don't think you can make a burrito dense enough to actually make a difference. So I'm, I think I'm gonna stick with my regular burrito order, which is everything

Lilly:

I

Sara:

except sour cream.

Lilly:

I know that the question specifies toppings, but again, I really think the wrap is going to be the most important qualification here.

Sara:

Yeah, I agree. You definitely want it to be double wrapped at minimum.

Lilly:

Mm-hmm.

Sara:

Preferably maybe triple wrapped.

Lilly:

Yep. And if you can do like part paper, part aluminum foil, that would probably be good.

Sara:

Yeah. And maybe if you can like wrap it to a stick or something, something hard that'll take the impact.

Lilly:

We're losing burrito shape here.

Sara:

It's still a burrito. It's just a burrito wrapped to a

Lilly:

bowl in a really sharp bowl and throw it at the zombie like a Frisbee.

Sara:

Okay? But then, then the bowl breaks and you lose all of your burrito ingredients.

Lilly:

That's true. That's true.

Sara:

Like I do want to eat this burrito afterwards.

Lilly:

Yeah, I, I think attaching it to a stick would be counterproductive because then you'd be hitting with it so hard that you would be more likely to break it open

Sara:

You are probably right about that. On the other

Lilly:

you hit stick side first. In which case, that's just a stick. Now, why did you attach your burrito to it in the first place,

Sara:

I mean, I, I was imagining hitting stick side first.

Lilly:

And then the burrito's superfluous.

Sara:

yes, but on the other hand you're probably safer from the zombie than if you were just hitting it with burrito sun stick.

Lilly:

Well, yeah, but if you have a stick, why would you attach your burrito to it? Keep your burrito safe and on your person. This was specifically a scenario where she had no other weapon.

Sara:

She did. It's true. It was, it was just her burrito and she acknowledges how ridiculous it is to attack a zombie with a burrito, but it was what she had, so she was going for it.

Lilly:

You know what they say if it's stupid and it works. It's not stupid.

Sara:

Does it work though? Not really.

Lilly:

Neither of them die.

Sara:

Yeah, but not because of her burrito.

Lilly:

I thought it was the distraction that made the zombie stop sneaking up on Chad and turn for her instead.

Sara:

It is, but he doesn't, he kind of imply that he knew that the, the zombie was there.

Lilly:

Yeah, but she didn't know that.

Sara:

No, she didn't know that. Her actions are entirely understandable, but it's also not the burrito that distracts the zombie necessarily because he already knew that the zombie was there and it didn't need distraction.

Lilly:

Well, no, but that that doesn't mean the burrito didn't distract the zombie. That just meant that she didn't have to distract the zombie.

Sara:

Yeah. Okay. I, I guess that's, maybe we're just splitting hairs though.

Lilly:

No,

Sara:

didn't need to waste her burrito. I mean, she doesn't waste her burrito. She eats it afterwards. But he would've been okay without the burrito.

Lilly:

Right. I mean, in that case she should have just completely ignored it and God sucks to suck, had gone home. But in the world where he's not a vampire and did need saving the burrito was a useful tool.

Sara:

yes, but if he wasn't a vampire, they both probably would've been dead. Even with the burrito,

Lilly:

But not in fault of the burrito.

Sara:

not because of the burrito. No. Unless, I mean, I guess one could argue that it was the fault of the burrito for not being a cleaver or something, but.

Lilly:

Oh, that's just unfair blame.

Sara:

Yes, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Fiction Fans.

Lilly:

Come disagree with us. We're on Blue Sky and Instagram at Fiction Fans Pod. You can also email us at Fiction fans pod@gmail.com or leave a comment on YouTube.

Sara:

If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and follow us wherever your podcasts live.

Lilly:

We also have a Patreon where you can support us and find exclusive episodes and a lot of other nonsense.

Sara:

Thanks again for listening, and may your zombies always be defeated. Bye.

Lilly:

You shocked me, but I liked it.

Sara:

It was a last minute edition, but I felt it was appropriate

Lilly:

I'm flying by the seat of our pants.

Sara:

as usual.