Zom-B Underground

Title: Zom-B Underground

Author: Darren Shan

Series: Zom-B, Book 2

Number of Pages: 180

Date Read: February 18, 2013

Genre: Zombie, Horror

Rating: A

Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)

Waking up in a military complex, months after zombies attacked school, B has no memory of the last few months. Life in the UK has turned tough since the outbreak, and B is woven into life- and battle- in the new military regime quickly. But as B learns more about the zombies held in the complex and the scientists keeping them captive, unease settles in. Why exactly was B saved? And is there anyone left in the world to trust?

My Review:

*Contain Spoilers*

So this book was not as good as the first. Yes its still gory (a zombie gets his head cut off but his head and body still work until his brain is pulverized) but nothing else really happens.

The story starts with B waking up in a room with zombies attacking other zombies who are dressed in leather and have weapons. B helps the zombies attack the "people" in the leather suits and then nets drop capturing the rest of the zombies except B who gets taken away. 

Turns out B has "revitalized" which means her brain has come back and she can now think like a human. She is being held in a cell that's in a lab facility underground with doctors and soldiers. B is told that she is called a "Revitalized" zombie and she can think and talk. None of the scientists know how or why a zombie's brain turns back on and it doesn't happen a lot. B learns that the mindless brain eating zombies are called "revived" zombies. 

So B is taught how to file her teeth so she can talk, is feed and learns how to be a zombie. She is eventually taken to a kind of rec room where there are other revitalized zombies who call themselves Zom Heads. B learns later on that the zom heads experiment on revived zombies for the scientists. B has to help them. First she's all into it because she doesn't really know whats happening. She gets to pick a weapon and put a leather suit on. Then she and the other zom heads are led into a room where revived zombies are let loose and the zom head have a free for all with the revived by torching them with flame throwers, hacking them to bits with chainsaws and knives. B promptly freaks out about it. She refuses to help the scientists and now its about her and the zom heads escaping the facility. 

Lets get this clear. I still don't like B and couldn't give a rats ass about her. She tries to make amends for what she did in the last book but I'm not buying it. She finally realizes that she needs to stop blaming her father for her action of throwing Tyler into the group of zombies. She finally takes responsibility for that. Now that she has a heart (not literally since Tyler ate her real one leaving her with a gaping hole in her chest) she feels like she can't help experiment and kill zombies because to her they are still human. She has a meltdown the first and only time she goes to torture the zombies. She is taken to a room with a doctor who tells her a few facts about herself, such as a revitalized zombie has an expiration date of 2 years if their lucky, that if a revitalized zombie doesn't get fed brains daily (like they've been giving her) they will revert back to their original revived state and once they regress they can't ever revitalize again. Oh and it takes about a week of no brains to regress them. So B is given a choice- either agree to help the scientist or be starved and regressed. Since she's trying to win humanitarian of the year now she goes with the latter choice. What she doesn't know but comes to find out is that the rest of the zom heads in her section of the facility are getting starved too. But still she doesn't change her mind~ give me break. 

The other zom heads are typical kids. You got Cathy the only girl and Queen Bee. Rage, the huge asshole bully, Tiberius the nerd, Mark the nice guy, Peder the "token black guy" and Gokham the "token turkish guy". Mark is the only different zom head ~ hes wrapped in bandages because when he revitalized he already was set on fire so hes "basically a skeleton underneath". He doesn't participate in the experiment tortures because the doctors are afraid he'll get hurt. The rest of the zom heads love participating in the experiments and love killing the revived zombies. 

The doctor that is the head guy of these experiments, Dr. Cerveris is a total ass hat~ snobby, thinks his shit don't stink, thinks he's better than everyone else and is cruel. His timely end is fitting of such a monster. I like the human solider Reilly~ he was nice to B and all the other Zom heads and he took care of B. The other human who worked with the doctor, John, was another stupid ass who you could see was cruel as well by the way he smiled when B was told how soon she would die. 

One of the most disturbing characters that was in this book was Mr. Dowling, the scary ass clown. Now I hate clowns and they scare me so this is like my worst nightmare. This clown had people's FACES on his clothes, all different kinds of hair stapled to his head, intestines around his arms, ears pinned to his pants, fleshed carved out of his face, his face bones dyed pink, a human eye on his nose and his hand(s) skin has been shaved off leaving exposed arteries and veins. He comes into B's room dancing a jig and leaving her room door open so she can escape. The best part? Mr. Dowling is NOT a zombie~ he human. Thank you Mr. Shan for those nightmares. ~Shudders~

Anywho, the rest of the book is about B getting out of the facility. When the clown leaves B's door open, she leaves her room seeing that a rebellion of zombies is taking place. The zombie were let loose by someone and they are taking over the facility. By now B and her fellow Zom heads have been starved for a few days so they are in pain and feeling the effects of the regression. Oh yeah remember that zombie Mark? Turns out he's not a zombie but a human who the doctor threw into the zom heads as a experiment. Poor kid didn't even know he was human. Dr. Cerveris did something to him where all his features were zombie like (dry mouth, dry eyes), probably messed with his memory and convinced the kid he was a zombie. How sadistic is that? So at the very end when the rest of the zom heads and B finally get near a locked exit, they realize through Mark's blood and heartbeat he is human. And that zom heads haven't eaten in days? Bye Bye Mark. It was a sad moment to read because Mark was just as surprised as the rest of them when his bandages were ripped off. He really thought he was a zombie. All but B eat Mark.  But don't worry. The Zom heads get theirs~ They get blasted with the flamethrowers they loved using on revivals by Josh and soldiers. and in a weird twist Josh frees B.

I can't wait for the next book and more gore.