The Undead Truth of Us

by Britney S. Lewis

Overview

A Kansas Notable Book of 2023!

The Astonishing Color of After meets Warm Bodies and Wilder Girls in this speculative YA debut about a dancer whose life changes forever after she witnesses her mom's sudden zombification and subsequent death.

Death was everywhere. They all stared at me, bumping into one another and slowly coming forward.

Sixteen-year-old Zharie Young is absolutely certain her mother morphed into a zombie before her untimely death, but she can't seem to figure out why. Why her mother died, why her aunt doesn't want her around, why all her dreams seem suddenly, hopelessly out of reach. And why, ever since that day, she's been seeing zombies everywhere.

Then Bo moves into her apartment building—tall, skateboard in hand, freckles like stars, and an undeniable charm. Z wants nothing to do with him, but when he transforms into a half zombie right before her eyes, something feels different. He contradicts everything she thought she knew about monsters, and she can't help but wonder if getting to know him might unlock the answers to her mother's death.

As Zharie sifts through what's real and what's magic, she discovers a new truth about the world: Love can literally change you—for good or for dead.

In this surrealist journey of grief, fear, and hope, Britney S. Lewis's debut novel explores love, zombies, and everything in between in an intoxicating amalgam of the real and the fantastic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368075831
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/09/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	300,652
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Britney S. Lewis was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas where she fell in love with storytelling and the idea that magic moved and breathed in our world. After getting her Bachelor’s of Arts and Science, she worked in the world of marketing and communications for a few years before accepting a position as an editor for greeting cards where her job is to make sure to get the best words on paper. When she isn't daydreaming about new stories, Britney can be found binge-watching TV shows with her husband and pup or practicing West Coast Swing in one of her local dance studios. The Undead Truth of Us is her debut novel. For more information, you can follow her on social media @britneyslewis or visit her website at https://www.britneyslewis.com

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Undead Truth of Us is unlike any book I’ve ever read before. In this eerie and otherworldly story, Britney Lewis layers explorations of grief and love on the page like bright colors of paint on a canvas.” —Elise Bryant, author of Happily Ever Afters and One True Loves

“Deeply healing and impossible to put down, The Undead Truth Of Us, is an affecting portrait of grief’s many shades, and an affirming reminder to live.” —J. Elle, New York Times best-selling author of Wings of Ebony
 
"The Undead Truth of Us is a revelation of a story, both macabre and magical, full of heartache, hope, and the infinite mysteries of love. I adore this book." —Rebecca Podos, author of Lambda Award-winning novel Like Water
 
“A devastatingly poignant tale of grief, healing, and the monsters we make of ourselves and of others. In American popular culture zombies have been used to represent our greatest fears and what do we fear more than losing the people we love? In Zharie, Lewis has created a perfectly imperfect character—someone who is learning to navigate grief and love and friendship all at once. Her moments of vulnerability feel familiar as do her moments of healing and joy. This story is an emotional and gripping take on the classic zombie archetype. A must-read for lovers of genre bending horror.” —Kalynn Bayron, best-selling author of 
Cinderella is Dead

“Britney Lewis has really nailed it with this one. I loved this striking, suspenseful, and deeply heartbreaking debut about a Black girl named Zharie on a quest to discover the truth about her mother and the darker parts of life and family! Spooky good.” ­­—Jay Coles, author of Tyler Johnson Was Here and Things We Couldn't Say

“A lament, but with fireworks.” —Nafiza Azad, author of The Wild Ones
 
"The perfect blend of emotion, sweet romance, and creepy imagery, The Undead Truth of Us is a journey you won’t soon forget." —Lauren Blackwood, New York Times best-selling author of Within These Wicked Walls
 
“A wonderful book full of lyrical prose, but also grief—and the painful, sometimes beautiful, steps we take to get through it.” —Jessica Lewis, author of Bad Witch Burning
 
“Britney S. Lewis explores love and death in a debut that is tender, poetic, and wholly original.” —Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of Labyrinth Lost
 

Editorial Reviews

08/08/2022

Lewis sensitively balances a sometimes-scary world populated by the undead with both melancholy and hope in this surreal debut. No one but 16-year-old Black Zharie Young seemed to notice that her mother turned into a zombie upon her death. But ever since then, Zharie sees zombies everywhere—with “eyes sunken and hollow; fresh skin dangling from their cheekbones, exposing their skeletal smiles.” Now she lives with her emotionally absent aunt and keeps her distance from others, until she meets charming new neighbor Bo, a Black and Vietnamese teen whose appearance randomly switches between half-human and half-zombie. She befriends him, hoping to find answers about why she’s the only one privy to the apparent zombie epidemic, but the more she discovers about her suddenly supernatural world, the less she understands. Zharie and Bo’s developing relationship is bizarre and enthralling: sometimes he’s a handsome boy with freckles and curly hair; other times he’s a decaying corpse with “open wounds and scars. Unblinking eyes. A feral, broken grin.” An equally compassionately drawn supporting cast adds depth to this haunting tale about finding love and happiness in the aftermath of tragedy. Ages 12–up. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Lewis sensitively balances a sometimes-scary world populated by the undead with both melancholy and hope in this surreal debut. . . . An equally compassionately drawn supporting cast adds depth to this haunting tale about finding love and happiness in the aftermath of tragedy." —Publishers Weekly

"Lyrical, vivid writing evokes the depths of Z’s emotions. . . . Lewis’s portrayal of characters who are predominantly people of color is exceptional in the authentic dialogue and internal monologues that reference race. She also does an outstanding job portraying how teenagers see themselves and one ­another, how they try out different personalities and approaches to life. . . . For teens who can handle dark themes of loss, this is an author whose voice needs to be heard." —School Library Journal

"Grieving a dead parent is made even more unbearable by a zombie outbreak only Zharie seems to notice. Zharie and her mother were the only Black women on the West Coast Swing dance floor, but after her mother’s death, Zharie is alone in other ways, questioning everything about her mom’s death, especially why no one else noticed she morphed into a zombie as she died. . . . Zharie narrates this mindfully haunting story with a sharp attention to sensory details, emphasizing the visceral shifts from living to undead and back; for Zharie, being close to Bo, with his soft lips and disarming smile, can quickly become proximity to death, gore, and a pungent stench. . . . A terrifyingly grounded accounting of the monsters that haunt us." —Kirkus

"Lewis' debut heartbreakingly examines a young girl's process of learning to move on. . . . Lewis uses a gentle hand to craft Zharie’s story and the journey of her grief. In many ways, this is reminiscent of the quintessential summer coming-of-age book; Zharie uses her summer break to uncover unanswered questions, reassess friendships, and explore a budding romance. While the zombies add a fantastical flavor, Lewis' loving study of the many faces grief can wear, which gives Zharie plenty of space to sort out her emotions and priorities in life, makes this book better suited for readers who prefer slower-paced stories. Moving and, ultimately, hopeful." —Booklist

"Sophomore Zharie and her mother were always close, especially with their shared interest in the West Coast swing, despite often being the only brown girls on the dance floor. She feels deeply alone after her mother’s death, questioning everything—especially why no one noticed her mom had morphed into a zombie at the end. . . . Zharie narrates this mindfully haunting story with a sharp attention to sensory details like color and texture, which makes shifts from life to undead and back again even more visceral. Being close to a boy with soft lips and a disarming smile, for example, can very quickly turn into being in proximity to death, gore and a pungent stench. Zharie powers through to learn that zombies are less a threat and more a symbol of heartbreak, but unfortunately there’s more pain to come as she uncovers the circumstances surrounding her mother’s last days. Readers beware: this book may kill you." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

10/01/2022

Gr 9 Up—Zharie is completely unmoored after the sudden death of her single-parent mother. Gone are the boisterous dance sessions at her mother's studio and a home filled with love and laughter, replaced by a lonely existence at her aunt's bare apartment. Z (as her friends call her) is full of questions. The overwhelming one is why she sees zombies everywhere. Withdrawn from life, she perks up when new neighbor Bo breaks through to her with his honesty, even though he sometimes appears as a zombie as well. Bo's strong friend group accepts her, and Z joins them on a camping trip that seems to end the friendship. But when she stumbles onto a secret from her mother's past, she turns to Bo, and the two set off on an improbable trip from Kansas City to California to confront her biological father and try to get answers she desperately needs. Lyrical, vivid writing evokes the depths of Z's emotions. Conversely, the many highly detailed descriptions of the zombies are a distraction (e.g., "her tattered skin stretched until the tissue spilled out"). Lewis's portrayal of characters who are predominantly people of color is exceptional in the authentic dialogue and internal monologues that reference race. She also does an outstanding job portraying how teenagers see themselves and one another, how they try out different personalities and approaches to life. Z must take an otherworldly journey to navigate through unfathomable grief and loneliness, which the author makes bearable with writing that weaves a tapestry of colors and senses to capture her emotions. VERDICT For teens who can handle dark themes of loss, this is an author whose voice needs to be heard.—Lee De Groft

School Library Journal

2022-06-08
Grieving a dead parent is made even more unbearable by a zombie outbreak only Zharie seems to notice.

Zharie and her mother were the only Black women on the West Coast Swing dance floor, but after her mother’s death, Zharie is alone in other ways, questioning everything about her mom’s death, especially why no one else noticed she morphed into a zombie as she died. Now Zharie sees zombies everywhere, unsure if everyone else is oblivious, if it’s all a side effect of playing the Cranberries on repeat, or if it’s psychosis brought about by obvious trauma. But when Bo, a charming Black and Vietnamese boy, moves in above the apartment she’s sharing with her emotionally distant aunt, Zharie notices that half of him seems to be a decaying corpse—but only sometimes. The other half is the cute boy she wants to get to know better, if only because he’s an anomaly in this one-sided zombie apocalypse. Zharie narrates this mindfully haunting story with a sharp attention to sensory details, emphasizing the visceral shifts from living to undead and back; for Zharie, being close to Bo, with his soft lips and disarming smile, can quickly become proximity to death, gore, and a pungent stench. Still, she perseveres, learning that zombies are less a threat and more a symbol of heartbreak, but unfortunately there’s more to come as she uncovers the circumstances surrounding her mother’s final days.

A terrifyingly grounded accounting of the monsters that haunt us. (Horror. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews