Publisher:
Simon &
Schuster
Release
Date: 26th
September 2013
Edition:
UK hardback,
review copy
When
B Smith turns her back on Dr Oystein and strikes out alone, she is shocked to
meet the baby from her nightmares – a strange, sexless, zombie baby...
I
come within sight of the baby and I freeze. I feel the walls of reality
crumbling around me, the world tilting on its axis, the fingers of a nightmare
reaching out to grab me.
The
baby is dressed in a long, white christening gown. Its face is a stiff mask,
like a cross between a human’s and a doll’s, but there’s nothing human about
its mouth and eyes. The small mouth is open, fully of tiny, sharp teeth. Its
eyes are pure white balls, no pupils...
‘It’s
not real,’ I croak.
Book five in the Zom-B series is already here! I really
love that we get a book every three months; it’s long enough to get to
delicious wait for a next instalment but not so long you forget everything!
These are also beautiful books,
physically. Simon and Schuster really stepped it up with Zom-B Baby as well. The illustrations are peppered with blocks of
red, the chapter titles are coloured red and there are bright blood splatters
covering the page number. They must have been incredibly expensive to produce,
but definitely worth it.
Darren Shan took on another
controversial topic in this book: religion. Many issues have already been
tackled so far, but I think that this is the one that could have caused the
most offense. At the end of Zom-B Angels,
Dr Oynstein reveals that he’s been ordered by God to lead the revitaliseds
against Mr Dowling and his mutants. B’s history with being led by other people’s
ideas isn’t very positive so she freaks out and leaves. Her reasoning behind
her actions were very thought-provoking. I love that Shan was planting the idea
that you don't have to blindly follow the beliefs and ideas that you’ve been
taught; you are free to make up your own mind. He delivers another subtle and
important message in a high-octane and addictive story. Bravo.
Though Zom-B Baby isn’t the most action-packed of the series so far, or is
it the one with the biggest plot twists or cliffhangers, but it is up there
with the creepiest. The baby made me shudder in horror. The sexless,
zombie/human monstrosity just got more and more unnerving as B discovered more
about it.
I’m already looking forward to
book six, Zom-B Gladiators, to see
what trouble B gets involved with next.
For my 2013 British Books Challenge
Thanks to S&S for sending
me a copy for review.
Sophie
Argh! This looks so scary. Still, now I've read your brilliant review, I'm going to look out for it for my kids. Thank you!
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