Darren Shan is undoubtedly my favorite authors of all time.The action mixed in with the tidbits of psychological horror, the smooth flowing story and proper character development really allows for his stories to come alive.
From his popular Cirque De Freak series (5+ years ago!) to his Demonata series and now his Zom-B series, Darren Shan is the only author who has maintained his style and his attention to detail throughout his publications.
Zom-B is a slight shift as it follows a young adult living in Britain who's father is racist and abusive a midst a zombie outbreak (which he and his friends deem to be conspiracy laced and a complete hoax). What I really like about this book is that the main character, right from the beginning is suffering an internal conflict, should he side with his dad completely succumbing himself to his twisted ideologies, or should he fight his dad for what he thinks is right? But.. what exactly is right or wrong?
The story unfolds following a young child in a remote city in the UK who has just seen his mother eat the brains from his father's shattered skull. He's running around the city, trying to find anyone who doesn't seem to have gone crazy. Screaming and the smell of blood and decaying bodies fills the air around him, buildings are on fire, the crazies are chasing something. The child spots someone, clean clothed, all body parts intact, no visible blood, tall, wide eyed. He walks up to the man and asks him to save him from the things, one of which begins to move at them. The tall man looks at the zombie and it stops, the child doesn't notice and grabs the man by his leg, begging and pleading to make things better.
The tall man looks at the child, puts a hand on his neck and snaps it.
Currently, the protagonist B. Smith, has yet to encounter zombies, but the real twist occurs when he meets a tall, wide eyed man who, in the previous chapter, seems to kill a child with his bear hands. This tall man seems to be friends with B's father, and claims to have met B before, although B has no recollection of him at all.
B, tired from the bizzare day of zombie conspiracy, goes up to his room to get some sleep but awakes to see the tall man standing in his room, almost observing him. Thoroughly creeped out, B loses all trust and begins to seriously question the last time he saw the tall man.
