Zombies vs. Unicorns

"Since the dawn of time one question has dominated all others: Zombies or Unicorns?"

Are you Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?


A 2010 Young Adult/ Fantasy anthology. The short stories were written specifically for the book by many well known Fantasy and Science Fiction writers, and the book was edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. The 12 authors and their respective stories are divided into two teams: Team Unicorn and Team Zombie.

On Team Unicorns, led and edited by Holly Black we find

  • Garth Nix - The Highest Justice
  • Naomi Novik - Purity Test
  • Margo Lanagan - A Thousand Flowers
  • Diana Peterfreund - The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Unicorn
  • Meg Cabot - Princess Pretty Pants
  • Kathley Duey - The Third Virgin

On Team Zombie, led and edited by Justine Larbalestier

This anthology provides examples of:

  • After the End - Bouganvillea, Inoculata, and especially Prom Night
  • And I Must Scream - The Children of the Revolution, stuck forever as a zombie, just barely capable of cognitive function, knowing you need to do something, to leave, but never being able to concentrate enough to actually do it...
  • Badass Adorable - The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn
  • Blessed with Suck - the unicorn in The Third Virgin
  • Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate - pretty much how the book came into existence; it all started with a blog post Larbalestier made in February 2007
  • Church of Happyology - Children of the Revolution features a cult/religion founded by a science fiction offer that requires a lot of money to progress and is quite popular among rich famous people, a lot like another cult/religions we're all familiar with... except with zombies.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies - Team Zombie thinks so.
  • Expy - Children of the Revolution features a super-famous movie star who's adopted a butt-load of kids from third world countries with her equally famous movie star boyfriend.
  • Familiar - the relationship between unicorns and their master has shades of this in The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn and especially in Princess Pretty Pants
  • Fluffy Tamer - the main character in "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn, at least as far as said baby killer unicorn goes (she even names him Flower)
  • Healing Horn in the Third Virgin, combined with the ability to steal Life Energy
  • Heroes Want Redheads - lampshaded in Bouganvillea when Iza describes the covers of the romance novels she's read
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate - unicorn in The Third Virgin
  • Just Before the End - implies in Prom Night
  • Killer Rabbit - the unicorns in The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn
  • Kiss of Death - In Bouganvillea Iza uses a kiss to distract the pirate so she can kill him with her machete... and also she kinda just wanted to kiss him.
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter - Or island dictator's beautiful daughter in Bouganvillea. Unfortunately for the pirate Iza chose the path of the Overlord, Jr.
  • Our Zombies Are Different - Team Zombie:
    • Love Will Tear us Apart - Type M bordering on O, specifically a mix of elements from F and R (flesh eating, but intelligent and with vague memories and the capacity to love
    • Bouganvilla - classic Type P with F
    • The Children of the Revolution - Type C
    • Inoculata - Type P, later we see some Type O's
    • Cold Hands - most like a Type R
    • Prom Night - also a classic Type P with F
  • Overlord, Jr. - Iza at the end of Bouganvillea
  • Pirate - in Bougenvilla Iza fantasized about being whisked off to a life of adventure by a Type 1 before realizing that the real ones are all Type 2. The young man who shows up turns out to be a pirate captain who fancies himself to be a Type 1, Iza disgrees
  • The Plague - Team Zombie stories Bouganvillea, Inoculata, and Prom Night
  • Princess Classic - the princess in A Thousand Flowers has some elements of this
  • Telepathy - Unicorns, but only with certain people in The Third Virgin, Princess Pretty Pants, and "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn
  • Teenage Wasteland - Of the second variation in Prom Night; for some reason the adults were the first to contract the disease and by the time the story takes place only adolescents remain
  • Unicorn - all of the Team Unicorn Stories
  • Versus Title
  • Victorious Childhood Friend - Both The Careand Feeding of Your Killer Unicorn and Princess Pretty Pants
  • Virgin Power - played straight in The Highest Justice and "The Third Virgin", Deconstructed in Purity Test, the other unicorns want a virgin, but the main unicorn would rather have a heroine who knows what she's doing.
  • The Virus - most of the Team Zombie stories, excepting Cold Hands
  • Who Wants to Live Forever? - The unicorn in The Third Virgin
  • Wrong Guy First - Princess Pretty Pants
  • Zombie Apocalypse - Bouganvillea, Inoculata, and Prom Night
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