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Undead and Unemployed

MaryJanice Davidson

Published 2004          272 pages

Synopsis

Its a few months since Betsy Taylor was made Queen of the Vampires and although she might be Queen there is no money to go with the title.  Her house has termites and it has been condemned and she’s been unemployed ever since the day she died.  (Death would not have stopped Betsy from returning to work but she was unfortunately laid off from work the day she died.)

A trip to the Unemployment centre is unavoidable but even her vampire mojo can’t make the bureaucrats in the centre give her any practical help with finding a job.  Window shopping in the shoe department of Macy’s on the way home to cheer herself up, Betsy impresses the manager with her knowledge of fine footwear and is offered a job selling shoes.

Her new job is just one of her many responsibilities.  Someone is killing vampires in Minneapolis and Sinclair and Tina are determined to make Betsy do something about it.  When Betsy herself becomes a target for the vampire slayers she treats the problem slightly more seriously.  Well, as seriously as she can when one of the teenage vampire killers immediately develops a crush on her!

Will she manage to hold down her job at Macy’s and find out who is behind the vampire killings or will she end up being fired and killed all on the same day – again?

The Review

Undead and Unemployed is the second instalment in MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead series.  The book is probably best described as chick lit meets horror comedy and vampire romance. 

There are some fine comic moments in the story that are laugh out load funny and keenly observed.  Anyone who has ever been to any unemployment centre (and therefore knows how unhelpful the staff and the whole system can be) will recognise the staff from the Minnesota Re-Employment Center.  (Apparently bureaucratic training is stronger than ancient evil and even vampire mojo can not cut through the red tape!)

Betsy is a well written character and the author has managed to make her humorous, selfish, incredibly shallow and completely loveable all at the same time.  This is harder than it sounds.  Often humorous and shallow characters are irritating rather than endearing but somehow Betsy manages to come across as both amusing and a character that you can sympathise with.

The story has several interwoven plot lines that mesh together nicely and all come together in the end, giving the reader plenty of action and interest along the way.

Betsy and Sinclair’s relationship develops a little further but they still have plenty of unresolved issues which should make for interesting reading over the next few books in the series.

Recommended reading for chick lit vampire fans everywhere.

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