Zom-B Underground Review

TITLE Zom-B Underground (Zom-B #2)
AUTHOR Darren Shan
PUBLICATION January 2nd 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
READ June 16 to 17, 2013
SOURCE Purchased

Waking up in a military complex, months after zombies attacked school, B has no memory of the last few months. Life in the UK has turned tough since the outbreak, and B is woven into life- and battle- in the new military regime quickly. But as B learns more about the zombies held in the complex and the scientists keeping them captive, unease settles in. Why exactly was B saved? And is there anyone left in the world to trust?

After devouring Zom-B by Darren Shan I was quick to jump into the second book in the series, Zom-B Underground. The cliffhanger at the end of the first book really left me hanging and I couldn’t wait to find out where the series would go from there. Unfortunately, that cliffhanger makes writing this review spoiler free of the first book utterly impossible, so consider yourself warned. Spoilers for Zom-B ahead!

We catch up with B as she wakes up in an underground complex that appears to be some sort of experimental facility. There are soldiers and scientists everywhere. What comprises this novel is much like what we see in the first, just in a different flavor. In Zom-B we see B struggle with the possibility of inheriting her fathers racist feelings. After the shocking incident where Tyler Bayor was fed to the zombies B swore that she would not become her father and set out on her own. In this one she struggles with the injust way that the zombies are treated. See there are revitaliseds and riveveds in this story. Revitaliseds aren’t your typical zombie. They have regained their consciousness and can function and have thought patterns. B is a revitalised. The reviveds are your typical brain munching zombies who aren’t smart at all. I liked watching B struggle with which side she was on. She was neither zombie nor human so she had so much trouble being OK with how the humans were being so cruel to the zombies.

That inner struggle was really the star in this novel and I loved reading about her feelings but I have to say that the spark in this one wasn’t as strong for me. I did find myself a little bored that we didn’t get any answers and I longed to know what was happening outside of this compound. This is a very small story, we get no idea of the scope of what is happening in the world and we only meet a few characters. We also don’t get any answers as to how this whole zombie apocalypse came to be. The zombie controllers in hoodies do make their appearance in this one but we have no new information on the mutants. Although, I guess we do get to meet their leader and that is one wacky guy. Wow, Mr. Dowling is absolutely frightening and enough to give a girl her fair share of nightmares.

The strongest character here remains B. We do meet some other revitaliseds but I wouldn’t say that they become very developed and they felt very much like secondary characters. I did like the dynamic that the addition of these characters added to B’s unsureness about who she is and how she should react to certain situations. We also meet the doctor who is working on these zom heads (what the revitaliseds call themselves), and two soldiers that are helping out but once again these guys never managed to jump off the page for me. Luckily for the series B remains a strong character in my eyes and is able to carry it along by herself.

We are once again left hanging (I think that will be a running theme in this series) and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Just like the first this is also a super short novel that managed to keep me engaged, but not as enthralled as the first one did. The drawings that we get treated to here and there are great and I found myself staring at them for quite a while before I would continue reading the story. Shan has created a unique zombie apocalypse with it’s fair share of layers & an immense amount of twists and I don’t think this is one to be missed.

Zom-B Review

TITLE Zom-B (Zom-B #1)
AUTHOR Darren Shan
PUBLICATION September 27th 2012 by Simon & Schuster
READ June 15, 2013
SOURCE Purchased

Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, "It's a big, sprawling, vicious tale...a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!"

Holy freaking cliffhanger, batman! I am actually mad at this book right now. But, beyond my anger at the shocking last page of this book I have to say that I had an absolute riot reading this novel. It definitely wasn’t what I had expected in that it actually reads a bit like an issue book for the first 75% but rest assured zombie lovers that the last 25% holds a heavy amount of the blood and the guts.

Opening with a scene labelled as “Then” we start out as an 11 year old boy named Brian who wakes up in the middle of the night to find that zombies have taken over his small Ireland town. Once that short scene is over we move into “Now” and we are B who is living in London with an abusive father and submissive mother. B is struggling growing up under the fathers hold. See, not only is he abusive but he is incredibly racist and expects the same to come from his child. We get to see B’s inner turmoil and the struggle that comes along with worrying about growing up just like the father. I was quite surprised to see just how heavily the novel delved into these issues. B’s turmoil really comes to a head on a trip to a war museum where the whole class gets to see a very real picture of the racism that took place in World War II. The viciousness of the racism in the novel could definitely be seen as cruel, unnecessary and shocking to some readers but I have to say that I enjoyed watching B struggle with identity.

There aren’t many characters to come to like in the novel, but I think here that is OK. I still found myself rooting for B once the shit hit the fan, which admittedly doesn’t happen for quite some time. The beginning of the novel is spent watching B run around town with his group of thugs and misbehaving at school. I think this was a good call because I felt like we came to know the relationships and characters really well before they started fighting for their lives. This also led to drawing out a more shocked feeling as to the twists and turns that come later in the novel. For the last 30 pages of the novel I was actually slack jawed by all the twists that came to light.

I think this is a solid beginning to a series that I am really going to like. Shan did such a great job of setting the scene and getting me sucked into B’s life. I really wish there was more that I could say about this one but so much could be seen as spoilers, I even had a really tough time writing what I have because it had to be worded very carefully. At a mere 217 pages this novel packs a unique punch and deals with much more than the blurb lets on. If you are looking for a zombie novel with substance, I think this is a great place to start.