Zombies have attacked a small town in Ireland and around the world populations are trying to determine if the outbreak is real or just a hoax of some to promote a new movie. Zom-B follows young protagonist B, through the time of the first outbreak to later attacks on London.

For those of you who don’t know, Darren Shan is considered a ‘Master of Horror’ and for those of you that have read his books you very well know that you will find gore and outrageous detail that can send chills down your spine, or in some cases, make you want to vomit. What I have found of the very few books I have read of Shan’s, is that he enjoys starting out with a bang and then trickling through the rest of the plot. He is also known for writing A LOT of books, I mean long series. For example, apparently Zom-B is the first of a set of 12… now I have to read all of them. My obsession will not let me read just one.

Zom-B is an interesting book, while geared for horror and zombie lovers, it is also considered Young Adult. The only issues I have with this classification are the complex topics that the book brings to light. So now you are wondering about those issues right? Zom-B is wracked full of awkward racism, bullying, abusive parents, and then there are the zombies to boot. I know that a lot of contemporary YA deals with these issues but Shan uses them in almost a nonchalant fashion. B is racist, because B’s dad is racist…that is just how it is. I am not even sure if I liked or disliked the protagonist, one chapter was fine the next I wanted to pummel the character. I do admit it was thought-provoking the whole time.

The plot was a bit of a disappointment. After the first chapter I thought I was going to enjoy bloody, violent, zombies eating brains descriptions and mass terror – like your normal zombie apocalypse story – but no, I got to follow around a character that sometimes is/ sometimes isn’t racist and kind of a jerk. Let me just say that, if you are looking for zombies, skip to after the half way mark.

I did have some redeeming qualities, there is a major twist in the last few chapters, you learn some interesting things about B (my husband read this book first and so I knew the twist and I think it made me read the whole book more closely than he did—just sayin’). It was also short and had awesome pictures.