DNF at 60 pages. This kid was towing the line between racist and white nationalist. Sadly, I get that in the news too much lately. I was looking forward to this book. Now,I will steer people away from it. If you are going to write a zombie series, take notes on how not to do it from this book. And the horrible characters with slight remorse who still says and does atrocious things.

Up until about the last 10 pages, this one made me feel like I was reading two separate books. This one definitely posed an interesting moral question, and it certainly kept the suspense alive. I would say it's okay--a series I might read for the sake of finding out what happens, but not a new favorite.

So I just wrote this whole review then deleted the whole thing by accidentally hitting the backspace. Life can be so cruel sometimes. I'm gonna try to replicate it somehow but we both know that's not gonna happen since I'm pretty pissed off at myself right now.

So, I'm gonna start this review with a big old 'WHOA!'. Yes, I was expecting zombies since it's a zombie book (No kidding Einstein) but then ended up getting much more. Then I went through the author's page and figured I should've been expecting it all along. Darren Shan, as it turns out, is supposed to be the king of horrors or something (Wait but what happened to Stephen King? O.o) and now I feel like I must have been living under a rock all this time.

Anyway.

This book talks about racism towards color, culture and religion. This deals with this fact while showing us that racism has nothing to do with anybody's education, class or family. I wish I had more understanding regarding this matter (Reason why I should start reading some knowledgeable books these days. But no, I'm wasting my life with zombies and vampires and what not.) but it kinda fascinated me. I hate B's father with a passion and that is not an easy trait to gain for an author. Kudos to Shan.

And B. I love B.

Spoiler

B is a girl. I don't know why but I thought I was reading from a guy's POV until almost to the end of the book for some reason, probably because she's one of the guys and doesn't talk about hair, makeup or boys. Was it only me though? Did I miss something at the beginning of the book?

I wish some of the other characters (For instance B's friends) were a little more developed. But in Shan's defense it's a fairly short book and mostly a base plot for the rest of series so that's justified.

The book ends with a cliffhanger and I can't wait to fly through the rest of the series but I need to sit for the finals in the coming week and that's gonna be a real pain for sure.

Recommended, if you're into zombies and can handle gory details (I can't, and have had a fairly tough time to let go of a particular scene *must-not-think-about-it-must-not-think-about-it* *gulps*).

I liked the story, but i'm not okay with the abuse and the racism. At. All

had potential but the racism was so over the top I don't want to continue the series

I didn't know what to think when I picked this book up. Sure I've watched multiple movies on zombies, but I've never read a book about them. This one has a unique view of the zombie world and the characters in this book are unique. I didn't enjoy the racism in this book whatsoever and I've never read a book with so much of it inside. This book is about B and how "he" is brought up with an awful and racist father who hits "his" mother. All B does is stand aside and allow "his" father to bully "him" and hurt "his" mother. The zombies ended up coming into the school and attack all the students and teachers there. The attack at the school was planned and there are strange people controlling the zombies. The author tells us that B turns out to be Becky and is a female. This surprised me and the end of the book isn't what I expected with Becky just leaving her father to safety and instead of heading right back towards the school. I'm wondering how the next books will go and I plan on finishing this series.

I’ll be reading the rest of the series, but I’ll have you know that they did Tyler pointlessly dirty. I hated that.

So this book is about zombies, except not really. The last few chapters include all the zombie content you could want. However, the rest of the book is about a character named B, who has an incredibly racist father, and who may or may not be a racist herself. I see what the author was trying to do, but I don't think he did it well. B is supposed to be a complicated character questioning her origins and trying to move forward with her life. Instead, we have a character that continually does and says racist things, then feels kind of guilty, but excuses it based on her upbringing. B seems to question her racist ideals, but then reverts back to them whenever she gets angry. This book is a mess, and I do not recommend it. There are plenty of other zombie books that don't dabble in overt racism.

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.

Cool little zombie-book with some cool twists and nice (well, not nice, but you know... interesting) characters. Looking forward to #2.