The rating is a simple matter: some stories were better than average, some were below, so they averaged out to 3 stars. But this is an anthology of some gifted and best-selling authors, so let's bust out the gradebook, shall we?

...Actually, now that I just ranked all of the individual stories, I can't bring myself to rank any of them too lowly. I guess my complaint is not that too many stories were subpar, just that... they would all be better served as full novels? I know, that's a cop-out opinion to follow liking the stories, but in short story form I watched a world get built, some characterization, then one or two "magic moments" taking advantage of the actual existence of zombies/unicorns, then on to the beginning of some more world-building.

Some of the mature content seemed edgy for YA edginess's sake, too, but I don't know how to address that without sounding like either an out-of-touch schoolmarm or enabling corrupter of children, so I'll just leave one cent on that topic. ( )

I have to admit, I kind of knew before starting that I'd love Zombies over Unicorns.

I don't know, the unicorn stories just didn't. . .work for me. The gore and the stabbing and the chomping - I just couldn't see it. The zombie stories - almost every last one was great. The mac & cheese one was particularly great. Although [a:Carrie Ryan|1443712|Carrie Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1432248916p2/1443712.jpg]'s addition will always be my favorite. Her series [b:The Forest of Hands and Teeth|3432478|The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)|Carrie Ryan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320633297l/3432478._SY75_.jpg|3473471] just has a special place in my heart.

All in all, a fun set of stories full of gore and silly moments along with interesting plots and quick reads. So glad I finally read it! ( )

How can you not love a book that includes a unicorn who farts rainbow out of its ass? Westerfeld's short story was the creepiest to my mind, but I truly enjoyed Cabot's the best. ( )

This is a book full of short stories with commentaries from Holly Black (Team Unicorn) and Justine Larbalesier (Team Zombie). They are debating which is better, the zombie or the unicorn…. I will break it down by story and then tell you which team I am on.

Team Unicorn
1. The Highest Justice by Garth Nix – I liked this short story. The unicorn handed out justice and right won out over wrong. Definitely makes you want to be Team Unicorn!!!
2. Purity Test by Naomi Novik – This is a whimsical and funny short story. A grown unicorn wants to save some baby unicorns from a wizard. The wizard wants to obtain immortality by using unicorns and a virgin. The grown unicorn purposely finds a non-virgin to trick the wizard. The unicorn is definitely using his brains in this one.
3. A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan – This story was different than I expected. Unicorns are mystical creatures so I guess somehow they can mate with a human woman. Definitely not my normal perspective of a unicorn……
4. The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund – Wen has a gift. She can sense, attract and train killer unicorns. They seem to me to be no different than other wild animals. It would be like a lion or a wolf doing what they do naturally. That is kind of how she looks at it. She knows what unicorns can do but she can’t bring herself to kill this one.
5. Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot – This is a sweet short story about a girl that gets a unicorn as a birthday present. I want a unicorn!!! LOL
6. The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey – This is a very sad story. The unicorn was healing people and took some of their lives from them as he healed them. He felt so badly about himself even though he did so much good as well.

Team Zombie
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson – This is not your typical zombie story. Being a zombie is more of a disease that is semi-treatable. He still has control of his thoughts and actions. Just like anyone else, I like a good zombie story and this one doesn’t disappoint.
2. Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan –Zombies are taking over. A pirate has learned how to control the zombies and plans to take over the island where Iza lives. He needs Iza to succeed. However, Iza has a brain of her own and has her own plans…. I don’t know if I would choose Team Zombie yet. Zombies seem to be just a tool in this book.
3. The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson – Reanimation is what they are doing. Creating zombies is more like it. Kind of creepy that someone could have control over life and death like that.
4. Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld – Zombies have taken over except for a small group of survivors in a farm-like compound. I liked this story as it gave a different perspective of zombies. They were bored and looking for something exciting to happen. Aside from the trying to eat uninfected humans, they aren’t so bad. LOL
5. Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare – This may be my favorite of the zombie stories. The town is cursed and all of their dead come back to life to be with their loved ones. Her boyfriend is killed by his uncle and comes back to reclaim his title and life he should have had. There is no eating of brains and the people are not afraid of the zombies.
6. Prom Night by Libba Bray – The kids of this little town are trying to go on like normal despite that nothing will ever be normal again. Their parents have become zombies and some of the kids are gone also. They have a prom despite all the chaos going on in their lives.

Ok, I love a good zombie book just like anyone else. I have never read a unicorn book until the short stories in this book. Am I team Unicorn or Team Zombie? Well let’s look at a quote from Justine in the book: “I can trust and animal that’s out to kill us. It’s the rainbow defecators I don’t hold with.” Good luck with that when they are eating your brains, Justine. As for me, I am Team Unicorn all the way!! This book is definitely a MUST read. I love the interactions between the stories as the team states why one is better than the other. ( )

You know the drill--individual reviews then overall. I promise not to be swayed too strongly by my love of Zombies. After all, I used to love Unicorns when I was like five.

"The Highest Justice" by Garth Nix

This was, for me, too short. I haven't read Nix before, though I've heard of him, but from this sampling I think I would enjoy him quite a bit. The ending is just the right sense of irony--on all accounts--to make me want to see how things pan out for Jess. The unicorn of this story was quite fierce, very willing to help you 'see' the errors of your ways.

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Zombies in love! This is kind of a trend I wish that would just stop, or at least, not pair zombies with living people. Its more than a little...disturbing to be frank. However this was witty and full of dark humor. Mildish warning for the fact there's a whole lot of the 'f-word' and its a same sex pairing. The ending kind of fills me with...not any good feelings. Its bittersweet and filled with dark possibilities.

"Purity Test" by Naomi Novik

Ah-ha. I'm not quite a fan of Novik's "Dragon" novels (though I do appreciate the concept), but I have liked her shorter fiction in the past. This ran hot and cold for me; on the one hand I loved the fact that Belcazar was possibly the snarkiest thing under the sun since Daria. Then again I wasn't too keen on Alison because a lot of stuff about her didn't add up. We didn't get very much development on either of their sides beyond the 'now' unless they made a throw away comment. The goblin was rather amusing as were the baby unicorns. I'm not sure why Alison felt a need to constantly, and I do mean constantly, remind us of her non-virginity.

"Bougainvillea" by Carrie Ryan

This is both set in her "Forest of Hands and Teeth" universe, but not quite. Its set only a few (maybe a decade?) years after the Return (aka: when the mudo began manifesting) and it gives us a different perspective on things. Iza remembers life before the Return, though really only vaguely. The story is told in both the 'Before' and the 'Now', going back and forth between her memories of growing up on Curacao and the events leading up to an epiphany about not only her father, but herself as well. The ending is...bittersweet. She found her strength, but by doing so she lost a piece of herself. As always Ryan made me tear up. I think she does this on purpose.

"A Thousand Flowers" by Margo Lanagan

Did Not Finish. Which is fairly rare with a short story for me. I will usually power through these because, well, they're short. Unfortunately I got about two pages in and the narrator was still talking about finding a place to go to the bathroom (its ye olden days, so he was looking outside and refused to defecate on the 'innocent, fresh faces' of the flowers. He was drunk.) and that right there stopped me dead.

"The Children of the Revolution" by Maureen Johnson

To be fair, Johnson seemed completely normal when I met her at Book BloggerCon this past May. You almost couldn't see that her hair is really purple, her skin is sparkly and her eyes are polka-dotted pink*. So you know how all those celebrities are into weird cult like religions and seem to be in a race to adopt the most foreign kids possible? Johnson gives the most likely answer. It all makes complete sense. I have no complaints about this story at all, it was amusing, entertaining and filled with dark humor.

"The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" by Diana Peterfreund

I said this in Kiss Me Deadly, which included another short story set in Peterfreund's "Killer Unicorn" universe, but I really wish her longer books were as captivating as her shorter stories. This one is set in more modern times when unicorns aren't quite as plentiful anymore. Wen adopts herself a baby unicorn and against all odds, every rule and common sense decides to raise it. To not be a killer. There's mixed results. Of the stories this one has the most obviously teen angst bisecting the plot, which mostly petered out by the final third of the story. The two didn't quite mesh so well for me (aided possibly by the fact that there's a whole lot of referencing, but not a lot of explanation).

"Inoculata" by Scott Westerfeld

This was an off twist about a way to stave off being a Zombie. Westerfeld mostly surprises me with his writing every time I open something of his and this didn't change that trend. Its also the second story in the anthology to feature a same-sex pairing, which correct me if I'm wrong two same-sex stories don't often happen in the same anthology (unless the anthology is geared in that direction). The one character, Kalyn, has some pretty interesting logic in regards to what happened to her. Something I've often wondered about and isn't often explored.

"Princess Prettypants" by Meg Cabot

I laughed through much of this story, or at least whenever "Princess Prettypants" was talked about. She's something a five year old riding a sugar high from birthday cake would love. Despite the funny nature of things this is also a story with a good moral to it--don't ever trust a guy named Spank. I joke--its really about revenge, standing up for yourself and finding what is it you really want (or need).

"Cold Hands" by Cassandra Clare

Creepy. This story is levels of creepy, especially the ending. It was also kind of sweet, but naive and unfocused much of the time. Lychgate is basically its own little fiefdom in America, but why is there a Duke? And if people can't leave, what about people who move there (for whatever reason)--are they part of the curse then as well and thus can never leave? When did killing people become legally okay? I had too many questions in regards to the world of this story, it kept jarring me out of the reading experience.

"The Third Virgin" by Kathleen Duey

I feel rather bad for any unicorn lovers out there who read this story. Zombies are expected to at least be the middle ground as far as villains go. No one is particularly surprised when Zombies act worse and are pleasantly surprised when they act better. Unicorns? No one expects a unicorn to admit to enjoying sucking the life out of people. This story kind of confused me and I was ready to bolt when I saw bags and rope and sharp things, but I think it ended in a good way.

"Prom Night" by Libba Bray

Though the narrator for this story talked about hope and discussed measures that kept the teens of the town alive, something felt off about the way she observed things. She felt melancholy. Which, given the ending, made perfect and utter sense. It was kind of funny to see Tahmina and Jeff try to bring some order and lawfulness to the teens of the town. Tahmina was all serious business and Jeff was constantly joking. Or making elaborate plans for when things went back to normal. I hope things turn out better than the ending suggests they will.

Equally entertaining was Holly and Justine's 'commentary' before each story, giving an idea of the story, the author behind it and other useful information (like whether its zombie filled). Some of the earlier remarks between Justine and Holly are quite biting (which is kind of at odds with how the authors seemed like in real life), but as the anthology wears on their commentary mostly involves telling the other how deluded they are for their preferences. Its kind of like listening to a Joss Whedon commentary track--full of laughs, but doesn't really give any details away.

Overall this anthology worked really well for me. Zombies are the clear cut winners in my mind, but I think also that there is more diversity at work in the zombie stories.

This was, with the one exception by Lanagan, a fun diverting read. Did it answer the age old question of which species reigns supreme? of course Zombies won Well that's up to the reader to decide. Personally, while I do admit the unicorn stories could be...amusing, Zombies still hold my heart. Possibly literally. I'll get back to you on that.

(*this is a reference to an inside joke between my sister and I) ( )