A review by sevairi
Zom-B by Darren Shan

4.0

My Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Trigger Warning: Racism.

As much as the horror genre is an old love for me, it's been some time since I've read anything distinctly horror. It's even been a little while since I read Darren Shan's Zom-b. I managed to read Zom-b in under two days; it probably would have taken me even less time if it wasn't for real life and responsibilities.

When the news reports a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B can hardly believe it. B's father believes it even less. Zombies aren't real, after all. It's all a hoax; nothing to worry about. Then B's school becomes ground zero for a zombie outbreak in London, and B realizes that the undead are much more real than B or anyone else would want them to be.

Zom-B is told in first-person from B's point of view. I enjoyed the use of present tense in this, as I feel like it works really well for the horror/post-apocalypse genres. There's nothing better than the here and now to scare the shit out of you. Plus, it seems like books written in the present-tense are hard to come by (just me?), so it's a refreshing and welcome change. Darren Shan's writing is also absolutely delicious. It's gripping, decently paced, dark and just... simply delicious. I loved it. I couldn't put the book down for a day and a half unless it was pried from my hands with a crowbar because of the writing alone. I must admit, though, I was expecting the book to be a lot longer. I mean, it wasn't even 200 pages.

For being a book set at the onslaught of the zombie apocalypse, readers certainly have to wait for a considerable amount of time to see any zombies. The first half of the book was focused on B's everyday life, which included a heavy focus on B's father. The problem with this is that B's father is extremely racist. And abusive. AND just an all-around huge prick.

When B witnesses an infant being kidnapped, B tries to rescue the child. Being successful in saving the infant, everyone praises B as a hero. Everyone, except for B's father. In his eyes, B shouldn't have helped at all because it was an Indian baby, not a white baby. He goes on to say that they would be better off if "they took a dozen little Indians and dumped them in the Thames." (pg. 86)

I'm sorry, but... What?

This is only the beginning, as well. There were many instances throughout the novel where racism seems to take the spotlight. Some of the other older characters also share the same point of view as B's father. I don't think B fully buys into it. However, readers can see from some of B's actions that racism has certainly rubbed off a bit. B makes a reference to lynching when a black student refuses to engage, and after watching yet another display of domestic abuse, believes that saving the Indian baby was a terrible thing to do, among other things.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that the writing was good, the novel was short, and I had yet to see any zombies, I probably would have DNF'd this book because of the racism. Plain and simple. For some reason, though, I get the feeling that the racism is supposed to be the theme of this book/series. Or, at least one of them. I don't see it being so prevalent if it wasn't.

One thing I didn't anticipate were the illustrations. They added to the storyline, helping to display the gore in all its fabulous wonder. I'm curious to know if Shan drew the illustrations himself. I couldn't find anything online about it, but I also couldn't find anything hinting that they were drawn by someone else, either.

Another thing that bothered me, or, rather, drove me nuts, was not actually knowing if B was a male or female protagonist until closer to the end of the book. Thanks to Shan's writing, readers are left constantly wondering. I assumed that B was a boy. Even all of the illustrations which showed B, portrayed B as a boy. However, as it turns out, B is a girl named Becky.

Admittedly, if it wasn't for the heavy focus on racism, I probably would have given this book a four star rating. As it stands, I'm interested in seeing how this series pans out. If you can't stand racism in the slightest, don't read this book. If you can tolerate it, then by all means, go ahead.
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