Bedbugs

Oh man. If you know me (and you do because, let's face it, this blog ain't no Dooce), you know that when I see a mattress on the side of the road I give it a wiiiiiiide berth. In New York, in Boston, in any city where students are crammed into tiny apartments where they spend their days swapping fluids with anything that moves (or so the media has led me to believe), bed bugs have taken hold. Every year, the students flee, they deposit their urine (I *hope* that's urine?) stained mattresses on the streets, and the bed bugs flex their haunches and prepare to launch onto whomever is so foolish as to walk within 2-3 feet. ALSO they never die. ALSO they can live in books. BOOKS. Bedbugs, you wound me to my CORE!

To sum: This book is scary & gross. The characters are well-developed, and there are some great twists and turns. Also if you get bed bugs, we can no longer be friends. Sorry.

4 tiny spots of blood on your pillow out of 5. Huh. Weird...

The Living Dead 2

Zombies are best enjoyed in short bursts. There's only so much gore and running and watching a loved one get bit that can happen before you get bored. When the real zombie apocalypse happens am I going to yawn and go back to bed? If guess I only have myself to blame for o.d.'ing on zombie fiction if so. Quality ghouls over quantity! Which is kind of funny when you're talking about zombies.

P.S. This collection does have the distinction of containing the most disgusting story I have ever read. It is about a zombie gigolo. It was entered into a disgusting story competition and did not win. I never want to read the story that did.

2 rotting limbs out of 5.