Vaginal Fantasy Book Club discussion

Post any comments or questions you'd like us to address about our November books for our hangout next Tuesday, 11/27 at 8pm PST on Geek and Sundry!

We take comments on-air from the YouTube chat and with the hashtag #vaginalfantasy on Twitter!

With her self-professed hatred of things that are "dirty" or nasty, how on Earth did Felicia handle a book that involves pealing back scalps, crackings skulls, and scooping out brains to make smoothies?

Did anybody else find Angel, for at least the first half of the book, to be extremely annoying? She was all like, "Oh my life sucks! The world is against me! I eat brains. I'm so crazy!" It should have been, "My Life as a Whiny-ass Zombie".

But it got better once she got some Zombie-Confidence.

Do we have a book selected for December? If not, can we read mine?

Was I the only one that saw the end coming the minute Zeeke got decapitated?

I know we are establishing characters here but what about the smut, the romance. I even read the next one in the series and got less close time than in the first. Besides that I LOVED! this choice.

I thought that the cover art was not an accurate portrayal of Angel. The cover art portrays her as skanky. Yes Angel has faults but poor hygiene even after zombi-facation is not one of them. I don't think the artwork captures Angel's spirit. What do you think?

I've never read a book involving zombies before, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Really liked that this was about a heroine's transformation, kind of reminds me of the first Ginger Snaps film in a way (the anonymous turner, the body horror and negotiating the transformation alone etc)
Anyone else get a ... not so good vibe about Marcus, like he's too good and nice to be true and might be hiding something that might come up in the later books? Also is it noteworthy that Angel is the only female zombie? Were they harder for *spoilers* Ed to track down or is her town particular about turning?

I gotta be honest guys, I am finding it really hard to finish this book. Angel kinda irritates me a little, but maybe I haven't read enough of the book yet to witness that 'transformation' that somehow makes her likeable? Too harsh? I dunno. I just can't relate to her perhaps. But I'm also not a zombie.

And I don't know whether it's just me, but I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style in comparison to the other books we've read. I didn't feel compelled to keep reading this book like I did with say Poison study or Ill Wind.

#rambling

Travis wrote: "Did anybody else find Angel, for at least the first half of the book, to be extremely annoying? She was all like, "Oh my life sucks! The world is against me! I eat brains. I'm so crazy!" It should ..."

Yes! I am currently about half way through and it's getting mighty frustrating.

I wondered what everyone thought of the male characters in this book?

The only ones I really felt like I had a clear picture of were Angel's father and Kang. The other guys were all rather similarly bland.

I found a little weird that in the zombie world that if they didnt work where they could get brains they had to buy them. You think they would want to avoid brain crazy zombies thing and try to help each other.

Oh and the ending was way to cheesy for my own tastes.

I was wondering if anyone else found the "ick factor" to be higher in this book than in Poison Study? I felt like a lot of people complained about all the puking in Poison Study but there was way more grossness in this book, IMO.

Did anyone have a problem with how easily Angel accepted the zombie concept? Or even how it was presented? Basically just "Oh by the way, zombies are real?"

And I just realized this will be at 11pm my time. Sadly past my bedtime. Don't laugh at me.

Since the books both kind of cop-out on the zombie sex, it begs the question - could you ever make out with a zombie? Like a well-maintained Benedict Zombiebatch?

BonnieBew wrote: "Since the books both kind of cop-out on the zombie sex, it begs the question - could you ever make out with a zombie? Like a well-maintained Benedict Zombiebatch?"
lol benedict zombiebatch! oh my thats going to conjure up some images thats for sure!!

I really liked the white trash zombie book. I thought it was really funny in parts.

One example is, there is a joke in the book about the zombie and the whore. I totally thought this joke was funny and have used it since, much to the chagrin of my friends. Is there any part that stood out as being funny?

I don't know, I think the ladies would be EPICally bummed out if we lot ye olde Cumberbatch. Just sayin'...

The zombie/whore jokes was one of the best parts of the book. I almost forgot about Nick buying her the watch. I'm betting Nick's human but I thought I saw some romance there.

I have to say - I liked the alt pick better! This book felt like a lot of things got glossed over somehow. It wasn't bad, it was just really light. Oddly, the YA (Dearly, Departed) book felt richer to me. Or maybe it was just that I felt more attached to more of the characters in it than I did for the characters in White Trash Zombie.

Did anyone else want to throw the book at the wall when she announced "zombie powers activate"? It just made me cringe so hard. Zombie powers or not I would have walloped her.

What hero from other books would you consider 'doing' if he were a zombie? i.e. Jocelyn?

If you had to choose a creature to romance,being the heroine of a VF, which would it be? sparkly vampires, dinosaur-shapeshifters or humanized zombies?

'Dearly, Departed' is set in a post-apocalyptic world that has chosen a retro-Victorian style of life but still uses technology with a gilded mask.

If you could chose your retro-future, what era would you pick?

At first I thought a Tudor-future would be cool, but then I imagined codpieces shooting lasers. I think I want a 60s future instead. Go-go boots and Robbie the Robot for reals, ya'll!

Does anyone else feel it's a little creepy to read a young adult romance novel as an adult (especially for VF)? While I thought Dearly, Departed was ok, I might have liked it a bit more if the characters had been 20 instead of underage.

I liked 'Dearly, Departed' and didn't have an issue with it being young adult at all. My only compliant is the size. I felt like DD was much longer and more hard fantasy than White Trash which made it a longer read on my part where WT was a much easier and faster read. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if DD had been the primary pick but as an alternative read I felt rushed to finish it.

In regards to "Dearly Departed".
What did you think of the multiple points of view? Were they all needed to successfully tell the story or if not, what ones could you have done without? What one's would you have added instead?
Me, I just found the Victor/Wolfe chapters distracting. I think I'd have rather seen maybe Pamela's brothers point of view as he was a bit of a status seeking dweeb, and it would have been interesting to see more of how he handled turning into a zombie himself.

I tend to go into Romance novels searching for the steamy romance to start. So it was a surprise when I was 3/4 of the way into White Trash Zombie and there had been no sexy times at all. My question is does this show a movement in the direction of VF being a light romance book club or was the pick a fluke?

In regards to the main pick,

What do you guys think about the way Angel handled the abusive relationships in her life, and if that contributed to the "white trash" stereotype, or if the title mainly referred to Angel's education, home, and physical appearance?

...And did the name "Angel" cause you to picture David Boreanez eating brain smoothies and tossing beer cans? I did :)

To follow up on Katie's question, I thought it was really interesting how death was an blessing for Angel, and that it was the impetus for her to turn her 'life' around. Do you think there could be some social commentary going on in those themes, and the white trash stereotypes (and/or the breaking of those stereotypes)? Or was it just a useful plot device for making zombie-ism more appealing?

[PS. Sorry if this is question is too English-class-y! but I often wonder about the intentions of an author & how much I should be reading into the themes as I'm reading a book]

Did anyone else notice the frequent almost obnoxious use of the words "grimace" and "scowl" by the author? If I took a shot of whiskey for each time I read those words in this novel -
idd betypyoing liek tis.

However. I still really enjoyed the story. I think I wanna work at a Morgue. You know. To be prepared for being turned into a zombie.

It's only a matter of time.
I do live in Miami, Fl after all.

I had conflicting feelings about Angel possibly moving in with Marcus at the end. On the one hand I didn't like it because she wasn't truly independent. On the other hand, I think it was somewhat realistic as I've known several women like Angel.

Ann wrote: "Did anyone else want to throw the book at the wall when she announced "zombie powers activate"? It just made me cringe so hard. Zombie powers or not I would have walloped her."

Thank You!! That line just sorta made me go "did she just...oh I knooow she did NOT just say THAT!!! :/"

Baby Girl wrote: "Ann wrote: "Did anyone else want to throw the book at the wall when she announced "zombie powers activate"? It just made me cringe so hard. Zombie powers or not I would have walloped her."

Thank..."

Oh god it was so stupid.

Joia wrote: "The four hosts have very distinct tastes when it comes to Vaginal Fantasy books. Do you think it's possible to find a book that all four of you would love, and if so, what would it look like?

Afte..."

This is so true!

My question is a bit off topic, but I was wondering how the four ladies of VF met/became friends?

As far as the main book, did anyone else think that there was more chemistry between Angel and Nick than Angel and Marcus? Not that there was not much chemistry, in my opinion, in either case. I just thought the relationship with Nick had a bit more of a natural spark whereas the attraction to Marcus felt contrived.

Oh no, I slept through the live stream! Ah well. Replay plus snacks time.

Thanks @ Felicia Day for reading my question live! It was my birthday today, and you made it AWESOME :)

Sara wrote: "My question is a bit off topic, but I was wondering how the four ladies of VF met/became friends?"

you shouldn't ponder about the reason good things happen... if there's a rainbow you should just enjoy it.

while I was watching this month's episode the ladies mentioned that to have sex whith zombies they should eat a brain before, was I the only one that had images of indiana jones and the lost temple flashing between my eyes? ( the monkey's brains served at the table)