Dead Romantic by CJ Skuse

Camille wants to find the perfect boy, with an athlete's body and a poet's brain. But when she's mocked at a college party, she knows there isn't a boy alive who'll ever measure up. Enter Zoe, her brilliant but strange best friend, who takes biology homework to a whole new level. She can create Camille's dream boy, Frankenstein-style. But can she make him love her?

Dead bodies, perfect love, and CJ's writing, this was brilliant! It was everything I have come to expect from CJ's novels: sarcasm, dark humour and an unusual heroine. 

Speaking of the heroine, Camille had this fascination with dead things that made me love her, because I share the same interest. And she tripped over her words, with mispronunciations and using completely the wrong word, which was endearing, if a little stupid. And of course, Camille was sweet and caring, thus the complete opposite of Zoe. This made for some really funny banter and an interesting friendship. And as Zoe was our Doctor Frankenstein, I feel like I should have been repulsed, but I actually really liked her. She was harsh and stubborn but the more we learned about her, the more I felt for her. She had it tough with her family and this made her appear more human than crazy scientist. 

Now, the point: animating a dead body. The search for body parts was pretty funny, as of course, not everything went to plan and they nearly got caught on several occasions. And then there was the boys, Louis and Damien, who just needed to know what the two girls were doing. Louis was really sweet and Damien was a bit of a douche, but he warmed on me, surprisingly. 

I read this with CJ's voice in my head, explaining that it was a book just for girls, and it was more to do with what they learn about love and relationships than the dead man. And even though it almost ruined it for me, at the ending, I appreciated the author's insight because it wasn't about the dead guy, it was about the girls and guys accepting their lot and finding real love. And that is why I loved this book; it had awesome dead things and gore but it was really a sweet romance about acceptance and true friendship. 

Published 4th February 2013 by Chicken House.