DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST IN THE SERIES.

B wakes up in an underground facility. There are different types of zombies and scientists are experimenting to try and discover as much about them as possible. B is a revitalized, which means she is a zombie who retains her memory and some of her human skills, such as speaking. However, she is still a zombie and has a craving for brains. B meets others like her, but then something breaks into the facility, something more horrific than the zombies themselves, and it seems to have its sight on B.

When I got to the end of book 1, I thought I knew where this series was going. Was I ever wrong! Let’s just say that zombies are not the scariest things in this book.

If you read the first book and thought there was not enough carnage and brain eating for a zombie book, you have no reason to fret. Shan manages to pack an enormous amount of blood, gore, carnage and just plain old gross into a small book.

However, if you are a connoisseur of the traditional, slow, simply decomposing dead body type of zombie, be prepared for something completely different. We’re talking about a whole race of zombies with as many differences as you may find in the human race. In fact, the reader is still left in the dark about some of the differences; they might not actually be zombies.

Oh yes, and if you are afraid of clowns, prepare yourself.

I may not have mentioned this in my review of the first book, but the Zom-B series has a lot of illustrations. They are very well done, especially where the clown is concerned. When I got to the part of the book that describes the clown, I kept flipping over to the picture to actually see what was in the description. It’s disturbing. Don’t read it at night.

Of course, there are no social issues in this series at all. Oh wait, yes there are. It looks like there is one specific issue, however the reader will have to wait to see if it will end up being a consistent theme in the entire series. I am talking about the racism to which we are introduced in the first book and is paralleled in Underground by the attitude toward zombies, more prominently the revitalizeds, by humans. After all, zombies are people too- they’re just dead people.

As with book 1, Underground is an interesting story as well as a quick read. It is a young adult novel with an enormous amount of violence, gore and more. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if this should be a young adult novel. I wouldn’t let my kid read it. Well maybe when they are older, possibly 16 and older. Although there is a message of salvation and redemption in the story, it may be lost in the overwhelming amount of blood and guts. When people talk about the desensitization of our youth, Underground would be a good example.

In spite of that, I do recommend this book for adults. It is a good zombie story with a unique twist.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars