Book Review - Zom-B Angels

Zom-B Angels
Author: Darren Shan
Series: Zom-B #4
Genres: Paranormal, Horror, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 20th June 2013
Publishers: Simon and Schuster
No. Pages: 240
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

After spending the last few months wandering around London - a city filled with the dead - B Smith has given up hope for any sign of normal human existence. But then B finds strange signs all over the city - a 'Z' plus red arrows. Following them, B finds The Angels - a group gathered in the hopes of combating the evil dead and the forces that introduced them. But all is not as it seems and it's up to B to find out: what battle are they truly waging?

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

As you may or may not already know, I'm a huge Darren Shan fan, he's one of my all time favourite authors. And with this 10+ years of loyalty comes the assumption that anything that Darren writes will be nothing short of perfect. I will admit though, when I first heard all those years ago that he would be taking on zombies now I was a little bit cautious. We've seen him do vampires and demons, and maybe its just because on paper I've never really been the biggest fan of zombies (if you don't count The Walking Dead I'm not a fan of them at all.... they scare me! haha) but like I said, I just didn't know if Mr Shan would be able to pull off another brilliant 12 part series. When I first started the series, though I enjoyed it, I did feel like maybe he was out of his depth a little and that was upsetting, I've never disliked anything his written. Zom-B was slow to start, focusing more on B as a person than what was happening around her, Zom-B Underground and City were better, I felt like the storyline had really began to take shape and then I started Zom-B Angels and all my doubts washed way, I was finally hooked in the story and on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next.

Darren Shan is famous for a few things, long series but short books very rarely having more than 250 pages. I myself have in the past complained when a book is too short, because it lacks something, but thankfully that’s not something I've ever felt with he's work, he always manges to pack so much action and suspense into his stories and with the Zom-B series we are also graced with brilliant artwork to add to the image of blood, guts and gore.

 
So what happens in Zom-B Angels I hear you say? well as we know Becky Smith isn't your typical brain dead zombie, she like a lot of others called revitalised are different, on a healthy diet of brains they can function almost like any other living person (except they are dead of course). While there is a faction of people that get to keep their senses after turning the harsh reality is that the majority of people these days are the zombie's you know and are scared of. So the question is where do the revitalised go when the reviveds aren't the worst thing on the streets? B finds out once she crosses paths with Doctor Oystein. Doctor Oystein and a whole bunch of revitalised are all holed up in a building, learning, growing and training for a war that B isn't sure she wants to be apart of. Though she knows that sticking with her own is the probably the only chance she will get at a some what normal life, she's always had trouble being told what to do or believe, so when Doctor Oystein's long and tragic story is revealed, Becky Smith who's first instinct is to distrust everyone, is left with a very hard question at the end of the story, stay and fight going on blind faith or make it on her own?..

Like I've already said, I'm finally really starting to get into the story and really think that the characters development is really starting to form and it's wonderful to see. I never liked Becky in the first book, mainly because of her dad but she's started to warm to me I'm really enjoying the sarcasm and the wit that I've come to associate with her character. Zom-B Angels is what you expect from any of Darren's other books, he is never afraid to go the extra mile for the gore but doesn't put it in his books for the sake of it, it all has a purpose. Yet again, like almost all his others, this book ends on a cliffhanger. But you never have to wait too long between the books so it's not that bad.

Overall, the book was enjoying and a really easy read. It isn't for everyone, but I myself think that the storyline still has so much to give and you haven't seen the best of Becky yet, make no mistake about that.


And with that I leave you with Wake The Dead by The Used (a favourite of mine).
While I was writing this review I could think of nothing else but the song and thought it would be very fitting :D