Zom-B Clans by none other than Master of Horror Darren Shan is the 8th addition to the ongoing Zom-B series which follows B, a young girl turned sentient zombie and her travels and troubles coping with life in a zombie infested London.

But as she soon finds out, zombies aren’t the only monsters lurking on the streets. With terrifying run in’s with a demented clown known as Mr.Dowling, a creepy old man B refers to as Owl Man and a chubby psychotic child killer already on her list.

It’s no surprise that the list is about to get bigger and infinitely more weirder, proving that the Shanster really can make anything work in this sordid horror world.

Following on from where Zom-B Mission left off, B and her fellow angels(other sentient zombies) are whisked away to defend New Kirkham from the dreaded re-emergence of the Ku Klux Clan, which strangely feels right at home in a story where the protagonist suffered at the hands of her racist father.

It’s a violent beginning to a tension filled novel, eloquently tying off the previous cliffhanger and causing a whole batch of new problems which cause unrest among the group as well as the residents of New Kirkham. B discovers a potentially crippling flaw in herself, townsfolk are carted away, Dan-Dan is taken prisoner, the Ku Klux Clan traitors are executed and the lives of the bystanders who did nothing to save their fellow man hangs in the balance. All are very serious issues that are not usually at the forefront of a Young Adult novel but I applaud Shan for diving right in.

After Jacob’s surprising departure from the Angels, the gang head back to Dr.Oystein with their unlikely prisoner only to reveal the dark secret that Oystein has been holding back from them the entire time, the connection between himself and Owl Man. (be warned: this ones a shocker!). In this moment, the two main characters appear as an almost physical representation of God and the Devil, which fits perfectly as Dr.Oystein frequently refers to his work as being for a higher power.

Despite grounding these two characters, they are still both utterly impossible people, and the utterly impossible always brings out the best horror antics from the Shanster, and I’m eager to see a final stand-off between the two!

And then there’s Dan-Dan. I personally find Dan-Dan really disturbing and wholeheartedly agree with B when it comes to the child killer. As Shan wrote this series several years ago, Dan-Dan becomes even more creepy when the news has been crawling with similar characters in recent months. Is Shan psychic? Of course he isn’t(sorry Darren), but the effect on the story is even more profound due to the coincidence, solidifying him firmly in reality despite his buffoonish and completely ridiculous existence!

After all the violence, tension and plot reveals, Zom-B Clans makes for yet another fine addition to the series with it being my personal favourite due to the existence of a zombie mutant sheepdog(which coincidently looks almost exactly like Shaggypig). Despite the shortness of each novel, Shan never fails to keep the story going with yet another giant cliffhanger delivered with precision timing and with the escalating tension and violence to come, we can be sure that the penultimate book with be a belter!