Zom-B is a young adult horror novel about B, a twelve-year old with a penchant for bullying and racism. The novel actually starts out in a town in Ireland that gets attacked by zombies and is told through the point of view of a little boy as he sees his mom devouring his dad and then trying to run for his life. The beginning ends with a shocking scene but it becomes the starting point for the world learning about the zombie threat.

After the initial zombie attack, the next two-thirds of the novel is just about B and building up this character. B really has no redeeming qualities. Everything that B is he has learned from his father. B’s father is a racist, a bully and an abuser. B spends most of the novel trying to justify his behavior and not be like his dad. He insists that he is not racist but continually picks on others, always starting fights for no reason, telling off people of other races. B even tries to say that he isn’t starting the fight because of their skin color but because these people told on him or just plain had something he wanted. B ends up doing one good thing in the novel but is reemed for it because he saves a child of another race so he ends up being embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

Needless to say, B’s dad doesn’t believe the zombie attacks are real. He just thinks that it is a promotional stunt done by the movies or maybe even the government. So B spreads that belief around to his friends so that they all don’t believe it. B’s friends all have terrible nicknames that B has given them and there are so many that it is kind of hard to keep track of. Especially remembering if they are a friend or someone he bullies.

When the zombies finally get back into the picture, Zom-B is a little scary. The zombies themselves are terrifying and not quite like the zombies we are used to which is a nice/gory touch. The kill scenes are a little graphic and over the top. This story may not be suitable for everyone. B suffers from a nightmare which almost gave me nightmares about it. There is almost nothing scarier than talking babies and serrated teeth. Almost…

Zom-B does hold a couple of surprises that held me to the end of the book. The world of racism and bullying is a terrible one and combined with zombies just make this kind of a downer read but a very quick read. I feel like Zom-B may have been trying to send a message about how horrible and terrifying racism can be but I’m not quite sure. The ending had a little bit of a redeeming factor but I’d have to see if the next novel ends up redeeming the character’s choices in this one. I have a hard time seeing how this is going to be a 12 book series especially based on the ending of this one.

I’m having a hard time with this review because this book is not for everyone. There are things about it that people aren’t going to like. The zombie part of the storyline entertained me and I think knowing that there were twists help push me through to the end because I really wanted to know what was going to happen but overall B was not sympathetic to me. If B had tried to stick up for himself sooner then maybe I would have liked him as the main character. Trust me, it is really hard to write this review without giving anything away so for people who have read this novel please forgive me my errors.