Zom-B by Darren Shan

Rating: 5/5, excellent

My brother suggested I read and review this for his birthday.

I downloaded it and went in with no other info, no other reviews, which I think was the way to go.

The first half is very uncomfortable to read because the main character is pretty racist. It’s obviously pushing an anti-racist message, but it’s not pleasant to read. They’re basically racist because their abusive father is racist and he forces his wife and the main character to accept his ideology. The main character starts to reject it towards the end, with some help from a teacher.

This book has a big twist about 75% through. I was really surprised by it, though maybe more astute readers wouldn’t be (lol). It did feel a little strange after it gets revealed because all of a sudden Shan starts dropping references to it, I guess just to make it clear, but it’s odd that there were no references to it previously and then suddenly there are a ton.

I still don’t know what was up with the zombie baby dreams… that doesn’t get explained by the end.

It ends on a cliffhanger but the first chapter of the next book is included at the end.

It was good, but I don’t know if I’m going to continue reading it. I like to read in bed and it’s a little scary for that lol

The zombie scenes were good. I would say this is more scary than creepy horror. I started Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger after this and that doesn’t bother me to read before bed because it’s more creepy than scary.

I’m also not really a series reader, I prefer standalones. I think series are kind of intimidating because it’s a lot of volume of a similar thing. Between reading three books in a series and reading three standalone books, I’d choose three standalone books because there’s more novelty and you get more cultural capital returns on time invested.

Maybe that’s kind of shallow in a way… you just meet the characters once and the theme doesn’t have as much time to develop and you can’t compare quality between installments. I think a good author can fully develop characters and theme in one book, though. I guess you can’t develop the world quite as much, though… complex worlds tend to take multiple books to explore. And series allow the main character to interact with more characters, showing different parts of the main characters’ personality through their relationships.

If you think about it, most of the big series, Lord of the Rings, Dune, etc, couldn’t work as one book because the worlds and plots are too large and complex. But they are definitely a time and effort commitment to read.

Maybe I’m a little bit of a commitment-phobe, a little bit fomo… if I commit to a series or even just reading different books by the same author (I’ve been meaning to read more of Ryu Murakami’s work and finish the Pita-ten manga for a long time…), I kind of hold myself back because I feel like I’m not broadening my horizons or challenging myself enough.

And also for the blog, who’s going to click on a review of the second or third book in a series if they haven’t read the first one or aren’t interested in the series at all?

Bloggers: Does that bother you? Do you review multiple books in a series?

Readers: Would you unsubscribe to a blog if the author kept posting reviews of individual books in a series that you’re not interested in? (I would… lol)

I feel like there’s something time-taking and indulgent about reading or writing series. It seems like a slower attitude, like stop and smell the roses.

What do you think about series?

If you’ve read more Zom-B, do you think I should continue?

Does it develop or is it more of the same?

I think I waited too long on Ryu Murakami… his work doesn’t appeal to me as much anymore as it used to in my 20s.

I would like to finish Pita-ten, I just need to get over the fear of wasting time/not being productive. 😊