You're Dead Review

Title: You’re Dead

Author: Nicholas Adams

Release Date: December 1990

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

Lisa is thrilled when her boyfriend, Skip, makes the school debating team – until the initiation leads to his death. The other members convince her that it was just a tragic accident. Then a mysterious and horrible second incident convinces her that somebody on the debating team does more than just talk.

And now she must run for her life!

After Skip dies, Lisa tries to get her life back to normal. However, there is still suspicion surrounding Skip’s death… can Lisa find out what happened without putting herself in danger? Or does the killer already have her in their sights?

I chose this book purely on its condition. It was returned to library and I just couldn’t resist the old book smell, the yellowing pages and the feel of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really up to scratch. The blurb reveals that Skip dies, which is fine, but  this is a major plot point that doesn’t actually happen until half way through the book.  After reading the blurb, I was expecting there to be mystery surrounding Skip’s death from the off. However, I just felt that I was waiting for Skip to die so I couldn’t get attached to his character or emotionally involved. Skip is actually quite a nice guy and if the blurb hadn’t revealed that he died then I think I would have found the book much more engaging and would have been saddened by his death.

The characters of Lisa and Donna are easy to relate to and after Skip’s death it is Lisa’s character that leads the story.  The setting of Pine Island is well described and does offer typical but effective horror to the book. Unfortunately, this is about all that the story offers in terms of good storytelling. While the characterisation and settings are brilliant, the plot seems to jump about a lot and I struggled to engage with what happened.

In regards to the murder, I was expecting something more dramatic (the haunting cover illustration suggests a very eerie and highly motivated murder) but this seemed missing. Towards the end there is a lot of intrigue as some of the other characters make themselves seem suspicious which did make the ending interesting.  The last chapter is a bit cheesy and (although I normally like a bit of cheese) I was a bit deflated by this. This odd ending altered the entire mood of the book, trivialising the rest of the events.

Overall, I was disappointed by this story. I have recently reread some of the Point Horror books (review) and after reading a lot of criticism on the books, one thing that continually comes up is the simple gratification of the horror genre that the tales offer in comparison to much more complex modern horror stories (I agree with this statement to some extent but I don’t think it is necessarily a negative thing). I thought that this tale, one of the Horror High series, might offer similar tropes to point horror stories. However, I just found it a bit boring. The time frames aren’t consistent and I did feel like I was actually living a school year with the students!

2.5/5 Unfortunately, the blurb revealed far too much too soon.

Zom-B City Review

 

Title: Zom-B City

Author: Darren Shan

Release Date: 14^th March 2013

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

HOW MANY SURVIVED THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?

WHERE DO THE LIVING HIDE IN A CITY OF THE DEAD?

WHO CONTROLS THE STREETS OF LONDON?

B SMITH IS SETTING OUT TO EXPLORE...

B escaped from the underground complex and now has nowhere in particular to go. Will she come across any other Zom-heads or is she destined to wander alone?

The way that ‘Zom-B City’ is written, with the mix of mysterious characters and epically chosen locale appealed much more to my Shan-fan senses than the earlier books in this series.

It is interesting to see how Shan has turned the zombie genre on its head and allows the zombie race to have a voice (see my earlier review for ‘Warm Bodies’ and BBC 3’s ‘In the Flesh’.). B is horrified by the atrocities she committed as a zombie (much like Kieren the main character in ‘In the Flesh’ who is plagued by nightmares) and is determined to allow her body to be used for medical research to try and 'cure' other zombies. Her nature as a Zom-head allows her to view a zombie nation from the inside, rather than running from it, giving the reader an unusual perspective.

It is quite an unusual book in that B spends a lot of her time alone rather than running away from zombies and it is very post-apocalyptic in this sense as B shows us the devastated landscape and recognisable landmarks that have been altered or destroyed. For this reason, I did find the novel much more interesting than its two predecessors.

While B is meandering her way through the broken wreckage of London she meets a variety of odd characters who treat her with caution and occasionally assist her with her progress. She has decided to assist the humans and her ultimate goal in this novel is to be picked up by the army. However, as always, things don’t go to plan and B is left confused and horrified by what actually happens when the army do show up on a rescue mission.  

Those Shan-fans out there who shunned this series might find that this book brings back what they know and love about Shan's work - a haunting sense of beasts and humanity as well as an ending that offers more questions than answers. The illustrations add to the graphic descriptions and the cover design is particularly eerie and colourful without cheapening Mr Dowling’s haunting presence.

I am eagerly looking forward to reading Shan's next novel (already waiting patiently on my book shelf) as I think he has picked up his pace with the series and I am really getting into it! I would encourage people to give this a go. It definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste as the books are getting more graphically gory but those who like a good apocalypse (!) or characters that can give you nightmares will enjoy this one.

4.5/5 Shan is back at his best.