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A review by samcarlin
Zom-B by Darren Shan
2.0
Zom-B is really short. It's supposed to be a book about zombies attacking a school, but it takes a long time to get to that point. The synopsis makes Zom-B sound awesome, and it's pretty cool when the zombie show up. But the zombies don't show up until 100 pages into the book! For a book that's only 174 pages, that's a long time without zombies. After the Prologue, which introduces the zombies, the first half of the book is really about B and B's father being racist. Racism is a huge part of this book. Once the zombies show up, Zom-B is fast-paced, filled with action and intense. But it takes too long to get there. And it's very obvious that the end is leading up to a sequel. It just left me wanting more. And, of course, I had some questions about certain characters and events that happen throughout the book, which I'm sure will be answered later in the series.
Also, this novel is set in England. It really bothers me when books don't stay true to their setting. I know sometimes language in British based books are "Americanized" for US readers. But if you're going to change some British expressions, you should probably change all of them. I don't understand why B would say things like "knackered" and "snogging" but uses US words like "fries," "chips" and "soccer." It's really confusing if you're used to the Brit practice of calling fries "chips" and chips "crisps." It's odd having B steal a bag of chips from someone because I'm thinking "they sell fries in bags?" And even more annoying when they have a soccer game at lunch, and B mentions that they usually skip "footie" matches. I'm sure I'm nitpicking, but it bothers me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
First off, I don't like it when books purposely hide the gender of the main character and then there's a big gender reveal during an important plot point! It makes no difference to the plot whether B is a boy or girl and I see no reason to hide this fact. Big deal. Generally when a book tries to hide the gender of the main character, they're the opposite gender of what you want to think they are. Plus, you lost me when B took an hour long bath.
Second, I get the whole father's racism and why it was important to the plot that B was racist part of the time and not racist other times. It was a determining factor in the climax of the novel. But we didn't need 100 pages to establish that.
Also, this novel is set in England. It really bothers me when books don't stay true to their setting. I know sometimes language in British based books are "Americanized" for US readers. But if you're going to change some British expressions, you should probably change all of them. I don't understand why B would say things like "knackered" and "snogging" but uses US words like "fries," "chips" and "soccer." It's really confusing if you're used to the Brit practice of calling fries "chips" and chips "crisps." It's odd having B steal a bag of chips from someone because I'm thinking "they sell fries in bags?" And even more annoying when they have a soccer game at lunch, and B mentions that they usually skip "footie" matches. I'm sure I'm nitpicking, but it bothers me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
First off, I don't like it when books purposely hide the gender of the main character and then there's a big gender reveal during an important plot point! It makes no difference to the plot whether B is a boy or girl and I see no reason to hide this fact. Big deal. Generally when a book tries to hide the gender of the main character, they're the opposite gender of what you want to think they are. Plus, you lost me when B took an hour long bath.
Second, I get the whole father's racism and why it was important to the plot that B was racist part of the time and not racist other times. It was a determining factor in the climax of the novel. But we didn't need 100 pages to establish that.