As a first part to a longer series, this was a good start. All the brain-eating zombie gory stuff one might wish for, along with an interesting set up and characters.

Decent storyline. A surprise twist! But there are a few things that also really have me unhappy and not very skeptical about continuing as a series.

The good- loved the twist toward the end. The zombies were part classic, brain gorging undead. but also some were different, more unique, intelligent. So that leaves me curious what is going on.
The not so good- The characters. I did not like them. The MC is a total jerk and troublemaker that drove me about nuts. But luckily there is some improvement and understanding over time. Their are a LOT of grammar and spelling errors. Or just plain wrong words that make no sense in the sentence. I have to question if this was ever edited. And it is published by some big companies so I was a bit shocked there. I usually overlook mistakes but there were too many. Too many spots I hat to stop reading to make (hopefully) some sense of a sentence. Especially the first half of the story. The second half actually had noticeably less errors, or at least more subtle.

I plan to give the next book a chance but mainly off hearsay that the series improves. Fingers crossed.

wow...okay...

After much reflection I changed my rating from 2 stars to 3 stars, because honestly, I really can’t pinpoint a balance between ‘liking it’ and just ‘meh’.

Despite my rating, I think I will read the next one mostly because it took me one day to read this and I am dying to know what happens next (weird ending leaves you really guessing) and to find out what the hell Mr. Owl has to do with anything!!

Read the full review https://fallinlovewiththesoundofwords.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/zom-b-zom-b-1-by-darren-shan/

One down for the popsuagr 2016 reading challenge: https://fallinlovewiththesoundofwords.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/the-popsugar-2016-reading-challenge/

I know what this author was TRYING to do with this book, but it felt a bit too obvious. I wish he had been a little more subtle about his point, rather than hammered it home with obvious lines and rhetorical questions. Zom-B is a zombie book, and its gory and bloody and somewhat gross, but honestly the most graphic part of the book is B's Dad-how abusive and racist he is. That's one of the important parts of the story-how B deals with that. B-our main character-constantly struggles with loving or hating who his Dad is, and how to deal with the fact that by pretending to be racist to be okay with his dad, he may have become one himself.
I think its an interesting theme, ESPECIALLY in regards to the zombie medium. You only need to look at George Romero to know that racism and zombies have been explored before. However, like I said, I would have liked Shan to be a little more subtle. It felt like he was using flashing signs to point out his points. I get it; racism is bad. Pretending to be a racist, or not standing up to racism, can often make you just as bad. I did think the ending was pretty interesting, and the reveals were unexpected.
I don't know-I have conflicted feelings about this one. Give it a try if you like zombies, but be forewarned. It will not be for everyone.

For starters, I'm a huge zombie fan, so I was intrigued by the title immediately. However, I was so disappointed with this book that I won't even include it in my zombie collection despite the nice cover. The book lacked everything most people like in books: good plot, well-developed characters, enjoyable dialogue, and a satisfying/thought-provoking theme (to some extent). I usually don't mind the simplistic diction in Y/A or middle-grade books, but this book was particularly lousy. In addition to that, it took more than half of the book to actually get to the, you know, zombie part, which was underwhelming. I was initially curious to seehow the protagonist's racist father would play into the book, but it was not at all what I expected. There was no deeper meaning. It was all just bashing black people, Asians, Muslims, etc. If slurs and racist comments add to a book's meaning, it's understandable. In this case, it just did nothing for the book. Also, a protagonist that you hate is something that is usually interesting, but like I said, all of the characters were flat and boring, lacking any truly deep meaning. The protagonist is a blatant racist just like the father. At times, it felt like the reader was supposed to sympathize with the protagonist's conflicted racist feelings, which is absolutely ridiculous. It's so awful, it pained me to turn every page. The only good thing I can say about this book is that it was a really quick read. That's about it. I don't think I've ever rated a book below 3 stars. Lousy writing. Lousy characters. Lousy dialogue.

This book surprised me. A large part of it was way more a social commentary than a horror book. Interesting and horrifying.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Well, it was short and quick. I suspect the plan is for this to be some type of zombie serial. It just took this book a long time to get anywhere interesting.

It really is more about a kid whose father is a biggot as well as a wife/child abuser. Rather than stand up to Daddy, B pretends to be racist and hateful and goes around making everyone else miserable. Oddly, though, B does not associate as a racist, but a victim of circumstance. However, actions make this excuse run thin.

This one wasn't horrible, but if it were any longer, I would have ditched it.