Genre Young Adult, Horror
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 217
Source: Bought
Series: Zom-B
Price: £12.08 (Hardback from Amazon)
£6.99 (Paperback from Amazon)
£4.99 (From iBooks)
About the book (Taken from the blurb):
Can you love a bullying, racist thug if he's your father?
How do you react when confronted with your darkest inner demons?
What do you do when zombies attack?
B Smith is about to find out!
My review (P.S If ever you feel the choice of wording is a little off, I tried really hard to make it spoiler free. Which was harder than you think!):
Darren Shan or 'The Master of Horror' didn't deliver for me in this book, sadly. I loved the saga of Darren Shan, and was excited to find this hidden away in an old draw, so I decided to read it almost immediately. But, to my dismay, it was littered with thoroughly unnecessary racist remarks and twists that just didn't make any sense.
B's dad is a racist scumbag and very abusive to his family. So I wouldn't be surprised if B turned out that way, but B says many times that it isn't like that, and has a black friend to prove it. Yet, B is racist to nearly every other person of colour encountered to the point where B's character doesn't make sense to me. B doesn't agree with the dad's views, yet is racist, but has a black friend, yet picks fights with anyone of a different skin colour. It tosses between the two throughout the story, and is B racist? Is it an act? I don't know and neither does B. But bear in mind, B is around 13 (That's what I'm assuming as the lack of character description is shocking, which sets up a really stupid plot twist which was completely irrelevant) , so some of the racist remarks are above B's age, even if B only copies the father's mantra. Some racist comments left me completely aghast and were really, really offensive and not suitable in any way, ever.
It was also, at times, very obvious that this was written by someone that didn't know what kids these days do. Yes, 2012 was a few years ago, but even then kids were not meeting to share the newest ringtone for their phone. The last time I remember exchanging a ringtone was at the latest 2008 and definitely nowhere near 2012. And this may just be me, but 'Ballydefeck' and 'La Lipsy' aren't cool nicknames, they're just a bit weird. Normally I'd let it slide, but B's 'creative and inspired' nickname choices are praised far too often and I feel I had to say something because they really bothered me.
To end this rant, I don't think I'd recommend this book, but I didn't hate it enough to stop reading, which is a plus right? Luckily it only took me little over 2 hours to read it, so it didn't take up too much of my time and I'd read it in two sittings. Will I read the next in the series? Probably not, unless I find that in an old draw as well. So, for the first time, I recommend you read something else, nerdlings.
Do you think I was being too harsh? Read the entire 12 book series? Do you agree with Darren Shan's 'Master of Horror' status? Tell me what you think!
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