Very clever. A male reader of Darren Shan's previous work will come to this thinking "great! Gore! Blood! Zombies!" And he won't be wrong.
But he's also going to get quite a lot to think about - racism, family relationships, and he's going to have to work for his gore... There isn't a zombie attack for much of the length of this short book.
There's also a great, great twist that would be interesting to question the typical reader about when they've finished. Didn't see it coming, and was very pleased Shan took the book in this direction.

The story is simple - zombies have apparently started appearing in Ireland. Ireland you say? Pah! Far away, probably a hoax. So the story focuses on B, a teenager with a racist father and issues to deal with. Only later do the two stories collide, and set the rest of the series up.

Will be recommending this to my 10+ readers in the library, and for an adult it's not a bad read either. Very well done, Mr Shan, you'll hook 'em.