ARC Review: “Girls Save the World in This One” by Ash Parsons

I finished The Perfect Escape (a zombie rom-com) only to follow it up with another zombie book. What a coincidence! 😜

I picked up this book from my local indie bookstore. I zoned in on it immediately when I recognized the cover which was done by Jen Bartel.

Title: Girls Save the World in This One
Author: Ash Parsons
Publisher: Philomel Books
Expected release date: April 14, 2020
Genre: Young adult, contemporary, paranormal
Length: 432 pages (hardcover)
Synopsis: (via Goodreads) “June’s whole life has been leading up to this: ZombieCon, the fan convention celebrating all things zombies. She and her two best friends plan on hitting all the panels, photo ops, and meeting the heartthrob lead of their favorite zombie apocalypse show Human Wasteland.

And when they arrive everything seems perfect, though June has to shrug off some weirdness from other fans—people shambling a little too much, and someone actually biting a cast member. Then all hell breaks loose and June and her friends discover the truth: real zombies are taking over the con. Now June must do whatever it takes to survive a horde of actual brain-eating zombies—and save the world.”

This was a really cute read. The writing is simple but the characters and the friendships really make the book shine. I absolutely adored June and her friends, Imani (whose half-Korean!), Siggy, and eventually Blair. I loved how they were simply teenagers excited to attend their first big con in their somewhat small town. I felt their excitement, too, and am living vicariously through all of them, lol.

A few of the reasons this doesn’t get a full 4-star rating is how the book felt like it dragged a bit. I don’t know if it was so distracted by real life or that this book takes place over the course of a couple of hours and there’s only so much you can do with real live zombies everywhere. The ending was a bit of a miss for me, too. Not in terms of June reconciling her friendship with a certain person, but just that the last chapter was really all we get, leaving the story a bit open-ended. We aren’t told WHY there were zombies and WHY no one (in the outside world) bothered to try to save them for HOURS.

Despite the book taking place over a short period, my love for this book really lies in the friendships and how endearing the friends are to one another. They aren’t ashamed to tell each other they love them, and the author really knows how to nail you in the feels with cute back stories about the girls’ friendships and how they got there. I thought the romance was cute, too, even though—again—this book takes place over a day. I’d be really interested to read about how June and her eventual love interest manage their time while navigating his famous life and her eventual college life.

Overall a cute, fun, quirky read with strong female friendships.

You can purchase this book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookDepository, or find it at your local indie bookstore with IndieBound.

I hope y’all have been liking the shorter less formal reviews. If there’s anything you want me to change or add more to in terms of these reviews, please let me know!