Undead by Kirsty McKay
May. 13th, 2011 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
It was just another school trip – stuck on a bus with a bunch of freaks …
When their ski-coach pulls up at a roadside café, everyone gets off except for newbie Bobby and class rebel, Smitty.
They’re hardly the best of friends, but that all changes when through the falling snow, they see the others coming back.
Something has happened to them. Something bad. Soon only a pair of double doors stands between those on the bus and the Undead outside.
The time has come to get a life …
When the bus bringing a class of teenagers back from a school ski trip to Scotland pulls into a service station for a comfort stop, Bobby elects to stay on board rather than face the name-calling and derision she normally gets from her classmates. Her only companions are Smitty (an emo kid/rebel who’s been grounded due to bad behaviour) and the driver.
As the snow begins to fall, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong. People keep slapping at the bus windows and when the driver goes out to investigate, he’s viciously attacked. Things get weirder when Alice (a girl who hates Bobby) runs back to the bus babbling about how everyone’s turned into monsters. Soon the three of them realise that something has turned their classmates into the flesh craving undead and worse – they’re trapped on the bus, with no obvious means of escape and surrounded by scores of undead who want nothing more than to eat them …
As a dedicated zombie fan, I was really looking forward to reading this YA novel because it has all the elements of a cracking story – teenagers in peril and hordes of zombies closing in. The problem is that there isn’t anything terribly new here.
Bobby, Smitty and Alice are painted with a broad brush and I never really understood why Bobby was given the convoluted background of being a Brit raised in America but now back in Britain other than to give her a US accent. Although there’s plenty of action, sometimes I found it difficult to follow what was happening and to who. Also, while McKay’s characters show familiarity with zombie culture, they conveniently forget the tropes at key moments.
McKay introduces a conspiracy element to the story but it developed too late in the story for me and the premise on it didn’t work for me (mainly because of the nature of the product involved) while the twist at the end was predictable.
There are some good scenes (notably those where the teens hide in a castle and can enjoy some brief normality) and I liked McKay’s willingness to kill some characters who I thought would make it. However there simply wasn’t enough here to make it stand out for me from other YA zombie novels and while it’s an okay read, I’m not that interested in reading on.
The Verdict:
Hardcore zombie fans may be disappointed with this YA zombie novel, predominantly because it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. That said, it’s an okay read with some strong scenes but all in all, I didn’t feel drawn enough to the characters and the conspiracy element storyline didn’t work for me.
UNDEAD will be released in the UK on 1st September 2011. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
When their ski-coach pulls up at a roadside café, everyone gets off except for newbie Bobby and class rebel, Smitty.
They’re hardly the best of friends, but that all changes when through the falling snow, they see the others coming back.
Something has happened to them. Something bad. Soon only a pair of double doors stands between those on the bus and the Undead outside.
The time has come to get a life …
When the bus bringing a class of teenagers back from a school ski trip to Scotland pulls into a service station for a comfort stop, Bobby elects to stay on board rather than face the name-calling and derision she normally gets from her classmates. Her only companions are Smitty (an emo kid/rebel who’s been grounded due to bad behaviour) and the driver.
As the snow begins to fall, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong. People keep slapping at the bus windows and when the driver goes out to investigate, he’s viciously attacked. Things get weirder when Alice (a girl who hates Bobby) runs back to the bus babbling about how everyone’s turned into monsters. Soon the three of them realise that something has turned their classmates into the flesh craving undead and worse – they’re trapped on the bus, with no obvious means of escape and surrounded by scores of undead who want nothing more than to eat them …
As a dedicated zombie fan, I was really looking forward to reading this YA novel because it has all the elements of a cracking story – teenagers in peril and hordes of zombies closing in. The problem is that there isn’t anything terribly new here.
Bobby, Smitty and Alice are painted with a broad brush and I never really understood why Bobby was given the convoluted background of being a Brit raised in America but now back in Britain other than to give her a US accent. Although there’s plenty of action, sometimes I found it difficult to follow what was happening and to who. Also, while McKay’s characters show familiarity with zombie culture, they conveniently forget the tropes at key moments.
McKay introduces a conspiracy element to the story but it developed too late in the story for me and the premise on it didn’t work for me (mainly because of the nature of the product involved) while the twist at the end was predictable.
There are some good scenes (notably those where the teens hide in a castle and can enjoy some brief normality) and I liked McKay’s willingness to kill some characters who I thought would make it. However there simply wasn’t enough here to make it stand out for me from other YA zombie novels and while it’s an okay read, I’m not that interested in reading on.
The Verdict:
Hardcore zombie fans may be disappointed with this YA zombie novel, predominantly because it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. That said, it’s an okay read with some strong scenes but all in all, I didn’t feel drawn enough to the characters and the conspiracy element storyline didn’t work for me.
UNDEAD will be released in the UK on 1st September 2011. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
