While some of my students, mostly male, seem to really like this book and series, it's not for me. I do appreciate the sassy narrator, but this just isn't the book for me. Not now, probably not ever. But who knows?

Not too bad. I really liked the ending. Wasn't expecting it.
Lots of other readers complained about there not being a lot of zombies. Um...how many zombies did the book need? There were plenty of decaying, flesh and brain eaters for me. Will probably read the next one in the series, but don't know how many others.

This review was first written for The Nerd Cave and is a continuation of a dual review of Zom-B book 1 in the Zom-B series and book 2 Zom-B: Underground.

Zombies have attacked a small town in Ireland and around the world populations are trying to determine if the outbreak is real or just a hoax of some to promote a new movie. Zom-B follows young protagonist B, through the time of the first outbreak to later attacks on London.

For those of you who don’t know, Darren Shan is considered a ‘Master of Horror’ and for those of you that have read his books you very well know that you will find gore and outrageous detail that can send chills down your spine, or in some cases, make you want to vomit. What I have found of the very few books I have read of Shan’s, is that he enjoys starting out with a bang and then trickling through the rest of the plot. He is also known for writing A LOT of books, I mean long series. For example, apparently Zom-B is the first of a set of 12… now I have to read all of them. My obsession will not let me read just one.

Zom-B is an interesting book, while geared for horror and zombie lovers, it is also considered Young Adult. The only issues I have with this classification are the complex topics that the book brings to light. So now you are wondering about those issues right? Zom-B is wracked full of awkward racism, bullying, abusive parents, and then there are the zombies to boot. I know that a lot of contemporary YA deals with these issues but Shan uses them in almost a nonchalant fashion. B is racist, because B’s dad is racist…that is just how it is. I am not even sure if I liked or disliked the protagonist, one chapter was fine the next I wanted to pummel the character. I do admit it was thought-provoking the whole time.

The plot was a bit of a disappointment. After the first chapter I thought I was going to enjoy bloody, violent, zombies eating brains descriptions and mass terror – like your normal zombie apocalypse story – but no, I got to follow around a character that sometimes is/ sometimes isn’t racist and kind of a jerk. Let me just say that, if you are looking for zombies, skip to after the half way mark.

I did have some redeeming qualities, there is a major twist in the last few chapters, you learn some interesting things about B (my husband read this book first and so I knew the twist and I think it made me read the whole book more closely than he did—just sayin’). It was also short and had awesome pictures.

good book, but I had no idea B was a girl until the last 8 pages. mostly because she shaved her head in the beginning of the book and she's always wearing boy clothes and most her close friends are boys and lack of words to her specific gender. confusing I tell you.

I have seen were everyone else has either loved this book or hated it and a few in-between. I have to report that I hated this book. Absolutely hated this book. I thought this would be a great read. Someone was kind enough to send me this book as a gift and I always read everything people send me. I really enjoy when people send me books or recommend me books. I always read them. This book however while I am grateful to the person who sent it to me. This book was not for me.

I was very unhappy with this book. I do not really remember when it was said if the main character was a boy or a girl so with the way this is written I was pretty surprised that it was a girl in the end with how she was written. She was written like a boy. She takes the beatings her father gives her since he is abusive and she is always talking about how she should get between her father and mother. That kind of talk makes me think of a boy. A boy would get between a father and mother to protect her from his abusive father. It is very unheard of that a girl would do the same.

I also think that the father is an ass. He is a racist abusive ass. And to think he would go from an abusive ass to thinking about saving his daughter during a zombie attack because he cares just throws this character off a lot from his original details. There is hardly any character development to even make such a radical change in character. He is still racist as he tells her to throw the black kid to the zombies and shoves an Indian kid back so his daughter can go through the door first sacrificing this kid because he's Indian.

I was not impressed with the writing style of this book either. It seemed very dry in spots and while I can say the book is particularly well written when it comes to the zombies everything else just seems a little forced when it comes to the teenagers in this book. This book is a short book and only 174 pages long. The last twenty or thirty pages was when the zombie attack finally happened. I did not like the end of this book either. While it finished a story line it concludes with "The end for now." This symbolizes the fact that there is more information for this book but a new story line. I do not know how people could read this and enjoy it. It's a short book that only has a lot of good Zombie scenes going on the last twenty to thirty pages. That is not a good book to me.

I can say that I did like the zombies because when I do think of zombies I do think of brain eating zombies so that was probably about the only thing that I really enjoyed.

This is just my opinion. As I stated at the beginning you will either fall into one of three groups: The I love it group, The it was okay group, or The I hated it group. I fall into the last one. I am sure his other books are good but this one just did nothing for me. The writing style was not for me and this author is probably not for me.

Wow, just wow. The book was amazing.

It all starts with zombies attacking a small village in Ireland. Very gruesome things happen (and it doesn't help if you are already sick) and then we switch to another city, Londen.
On the news and internet there is all kinds of news about zombies attacking, soldiers fighting them off and more. No one believes it, and I can't blame them. With the technology these days you can do a lot.
B (we will find their name out later in the book) just continues their live. Not that it is a fun life for a lot of the time. Having a dad who is often drunk, is a racist/fascist and who beats his child and his wife. School is no fun. Luckily B has good friends, a nice tight group with nicknames fitting to them.
For the most of the book there are no zombies. Only mentioned occasionally when the group is viewing some youtube clip, or when it is mentioned on the news or internet.
Most of the book is about B and how they react to their dad. B feels pressured, loves dad but yet also hates him for the views he has, the beatings and the way he pushes his views on B.
B makes mistakes, fights and argues with people who are of a different colour. I still think B is a good kid, even when they make mistakes you can see clearly they don't want it, they are struggling.

Then at about page 100 we get zombies entering the school. Chaos spreading. Truly Darren Shan does his best again, the details of how people turned to zombie or how they got eaten (and the pictures don't really help) made me even sicker then I was. I almost felt like I was there.

Spoiler

We find out that the hooded mutants(?) who B encountered earlier are planning this, with a whistle they control the hordes of zombies. They locked up the school so that no one can ever leave.
My biggest shock came when the remaining group found 2 gunmen, B's dad and someone else. I always thought B was a guy, but actually B is a girl. But the way she reacted, the way she acted and other things clearly let me think she was a guy. I can't find any other hints about B being a girl. But at the end of the book, B's dad says people should move because it is his daughter. B actual name is Becky.
I was kinda sad that B died (and such gruesome way to go).

I recommend this book to everyone who can handle gore and who are fans of Darren Shan, you won't be disappointed. It is a great book and I can't wait until the second book comes out.

Das Buch war tatsächlich sehr anders als erwartet. Ich hatte eine Geschichte erwartet in der Zombies die schlimmsten Monster sind und nicht der Vater der Hauptfigur. Die toxische Familiensituation war für mich mit das schlimmste im Buch. Es war super schwer zu lesen, eben weil man weiß dass es solche Menschen und Familien leider auch in der Realität gibt. Es fiel mir sehr schwer Sympathie für die Erzählerin zu empfinden, auch wenn sie 1. nichts für ihren problematischen Vater kann und 2. besonders am Ende merkt dass etwas mit ihm und seiner Gedankenwelt sehr sehr falsch ist.
SPOILER:
Richtig gefeiert habe ich die Szene, wo sie ihm ins Gesicht schreit dass er ein schlimmeres Monster ist als die Zombies und ihn stehen lässt. Es war wirklich ein harter Weg ihrerseits bis zu dieser Erkenntnis und ihr Verhalten war mehr als einmal echt furchtbar. Ich fand es aber gut, dass durch Reaktionen durch das Umfeld sofort verdeutlicht wurde, dass Bs rassistisches Verhalten nicht tolerierbar ist.
Den Zombieplot fand ich sehr gelungen, es scheint sich anders zu entwickeln als die typischen Zombiegeschichten und nach dem Cliffhangerende lese ich die Reihe vielleicht sogar weiter.
Die Zeichnungen im Buch waren jedenfalls mega cool und ich hoffe, dass sich der Plot in den nächsten Bänden mehr auf die beginnende Zombieapocalypse fixiert.