Zom-B Bride, Darren Shan

Page: 234

Publisher: S&S

Release Date: 12^th February 2015

Edition: UK hardback, review copy

Other Titles in this Series: Zom-B, Zom-B Underground, Zom-B City, Zom-B Angels, Zom-B Baby, Zom-B Gladiator, Zom-B Mission, Zom-B Clans, Zom-B Family

B Smith has cut a pact with Mr Dowling and is living in his filthy, blood-smeared underground lair...What sick plans does the psychotic clown have for her now?

‘What’s so different about me?’ I whisper. ‘Why does the clown care? Why has he been shadowing me for long?’

Mr Dowling shakes his head softly and his eyes start rolling madly again. He reaches up and runs a blood-drenched finger across my left cheek, drawing some sort of a pattern on it. Then he runs the fingertip across the tops of my severed years. I wince but he doesn’t withdraw. Instead he gurgles something.

‘It’s time,’ translates Kinslow.

‘Time for what?’ I squint.

Kinslow grins with sadistic relish. ‘Time to build a new Becky Smith.’

When I first picked up Zom-B I never expected to be devouring book ten as soon as it arrived through my letterbox, but I gobbled up Zom-B Bride in a matter of hours.

We left B as she made a deal with the devil (super creepy clown, Mr Dowling) in order to save the humans left at the power plant. Being carried across London by a hoarde of zombie babies is seriously creepy and a brilliant image, but I was more disturbed by B’s seeming ease with the babies! But once they arrived at Mr Dowling’s it suddenly made sense. In revealing his plan, Dowling shed some light on some of the stranger things he’s done to help B over the course of the series. It was a total surprise and I love the direction it took, even if it was slightly creepy.

As B spent more and more time with Mr Dowling, and communicating with him in surprising ways, I actually began to feel a little sorry for him. He was a man once and Zom-B Bride explored that wonderfully; his dissent into crazytown and how it has affected his judgement and morality was really interesting. I love how Darren Shan uses Mr Dowling to look at good and evil and how it can blur when you put the actual human being into the equation. Brilliant!

As always, I this instalment of the series and I can’t wait for the next. It does make me sad that there are only two left, though...

Thanks to S&S for this!

Sophie