Zom-B, Darren Shan

Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can – sometimes – get some reception…

I bought this for my son and wanted to cast my eye over it before he read it. He is only twelve and these are zombies. My ears still ring with his squealing at the cover of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

I have to say, I was quietly surprised. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of Darren Shan: I quite liked the Cirque du Freak series but The Demonata left me completely cold. I was expecting lots of gore. Lots of blood. Significant amount of entrails.

What I didn’t expect was an interesting main character, B: streetwise and sassy, decent at heart, but poisoned by the father’s extreme right-wing neo-Nazi racism. Certainly, B was capable of saying and doing appalling and racist things but, somehow, Shan never diminished my engagement with or sympathy for B.

As to the zombies, they are fairly standard fare and, once they reach the town the novel is set in, things progress as you’d expect. The GQ (gore quotient) rises exponentially.

There are also other antagonists: a number of mutants who seem to be able to control the zombies and a rather creepy supervisor.

The ending contained two twists, one of which I anticipated pretty early on, the other of which I did not.

In all, I was impressed.

But I’m also glad that my son left it behind when he went back to his mum’s house: I think it is a little too old for him, personally. But I may well pick up the next in the series….!