There was a castle somewhere in the story. I think it was perfect for this collection because it had a zombie element to it because the unicorns were dangerous.Ĭold Hands by Cassandra Clare was probably the most boring and unmemorable story of the bunch. My favorite story in the entire bunch was The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn By Diana Peterfreund. THAT was definitely an origin story for zombies that I have never heard before. It just got better and funnier from there with fun pop culture references which I love! 10 points to this short story for the Harry Potter reference!Ĭhildren of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson was the only zombie story I liked in this entire collection. The unicorn was male and snarky yet pretty and had a modern New York accent.

It played on the stereotypes of unicorn stories.

I didn’t finish this one because I found it too vulgar and gross for my taste with a cheesy villain on top. This boy loves this other boy but he also wants to eat him. The Highest Justice by Garth Nix was a zombie story that had a setup similar to Twilight. Here’s my thoughts on a few of the short stories that stood out to me. I loved the unique mythologies and origin stories that the authors came up with for the zombies and unicorns. Something that would tire you in a novel is fascinating in a short story. Short stories have the ability to be a little more edgy since they don’t last too long. That being said, I did enjoy seeing some of my favorite authors do interesting things with the short story format. Never again will I read so many in a row. Lesson learned – I will take short stories one at a time and then move on to something longer. It took me an insane 6 weeks (!) to read all these short stories even counting the fact that I skipped or skimmed most of the zombie stories.

It took me a long time to get the characters and the world straight in my mind (and that applies when I read anything) so by the time I’ve finally figured it out for each of these the story was over! Because they were short! It was very frustrating and made me feel like I wasn’t making much progress. Or maybe reading too many short stories in a row is bad for my mental health. Unicorns taught me that short stories and I don’t get along. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn? Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. Half of the stories portray the strengths-for good and evil-of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Young Adult

Holly black zombies vs unicorns