Book Review: Zom-B City by Darren Shan

Title: Zom-B City

Author: Darren Shan
Series:  Zom-B, #3
Pages:  224
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's
Date of Publication: 14th March 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: How many survived the zombie apocalypse?Where do the living hide in a city of the dead?

Who controls the streets of London?

B Smith is setting out to explore...

My Thoughts:
Just as the second improved on the first, this book, Zom-B City (book three) improved yet again. It was my favourite of the three so far and I'm very much looking forward to carrying on with B's story.

This book takes place after B has broken out into open air after being kept underground with the other zom heads in book two, Zom-b Underground. As she wanders around London, it was really great to read about so many familiar places, places I've visited so many times. It just made the story even more vivid for me, to be able to really follow B around London and follow the story around in my head as I read. Yet another reason why UKYA is so awesome, I guess :P

While out exploring London, B meets all these different groups of people, and has a little scuffle with them before moving on to a new group. These meetings were inconsequential and didn't really have any links between them but I still enjoyed reading about all the different kinds of people who had survived the zombie attacks, and it gave me hope that I wouldn't be completely doomed if I ever end up in a zombie apocalypse... Which, touch wood, shall never happen!

On the front of the book, Darren Shan is called, 'The Master of Horror'. This book is proof of this title - it is so right! I mean, I don't read much horror (being a wimp makes this difficult...) but from what I have read I totally think that Shan is the master of horror. I mean, Mr Dowling, the weird creepy clown guy (the one I'm still not completely sure who he is but is on the cover) is actually terrifying. It's bad enough just having the regular zombies sucking out people's brains, but throw in him and his horrible mutants and it makes for some rather sleepless nights. And also, a tiny, sicky feeling...

Plot wise, it was good but I do think that these books are too short and that they could be six books instead of twelve. I enjoyed the plot but not much happened that was really part of the story arc that will eventually made up by the final twelve books, I imagine. It was gruesome and gory, which was great and expected, but sometimes it was almost unnecessarily so (the bit with the baby made me uncomfortable), but at least it kept it interesting!

The Zom-B series is one that I like to read when I'm looking for something fun and interesting to lose myself in for a couple of hours (because that's all it takes to read each one) while I pretend I'm not procrastinating from schoolwork. I'd definitely recommend if you're looking for something light hearted that doesn't take itself too seriously, and I'm very much looking forward to the next one.

*Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me this in exchange for an honest review. In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.