Undead (Undead, #1) by Kirsty McKay

Undead by Kirsty McKay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Told from the point of view of a young woman named Bobby, a native of the UK who has spent enough time in the USA to mess up her accent and therefore be made fun of by co-students, who is now returning from a school ski trip (a school Bobby has not yet joined, but will shortly since they have just moved back to the UK (they being Bobby and her mother, 'mum', but not dad since dad's dead - though glimpses of him are seen in flashes - ETA: flashes = flashbacks. ETA added because remembered this be a zombie book, dad not zombie).

The book opens with Bobby resting her face against a bus window watching as her classmates head to a café through the snowy-blizzard like conditions to eat some food. She's tired of being near people who make fun of her, had prepared a sandwich for herself before the bus trip started (the bus trip, by the way, to take the kids from the ski location to . . . well, never actually stated). Eventually she's left on the bus with only the bus driver, one of the teachers, and Smitty, a young rebellious man - co-student. Smitty is being forced to remain on the bus due to . . . um, reasons (stuff he did or didn’t do or whatever). He, Smitty, convinces the teacher to go get him a sandwich. Leaving the bus down to the bus driver, Smitty, and Bobby.

Somewhere along the line, either before or after the bus experiences a few bumps, a car slams into the back of the bus. The bus driver exits to investigate. Leaving Bobby and Smitty alone. But not for long, for suddenly one of the more popular girls on the trip, Alice, ends up on the bus, collapsed on the stairs in her skirt (like on the cover of the book – re: cover, Alice is not the main character, who is wearing pants, and neither Alice nor Bobby ever weld an axe (though Smitty does at some point). She’d been yelling at them. Something about all of them being dead and to close the bus doors.

And so, things proceed. The people on the bus gaze at the café through binoculars, see everyone slumped over (everyone they can see). Then Smitty remembers the bus driver is out there somewhere and goes and gets him – only to find him slumped over injured. Alice locks Smitty, the driver, and Bobby out, but the driver revives enough to indicate how to open the door from the outside.

Meanwhile, many attempts are made to make phones and/or radios work. None of the attempts work. Eventually it is decided to attempt to go the gas station. Which is where Gareth and … um, Pete, I think his name is Pete, are added to the small group of people wondering just what is up, what’s going on. Mind I’ve already overlooked the fact that the teacher had returned to the bus at some point, pounded on the door, and wanted in. Many indications, though, were there that the teacher was no longer human. As happens more times than I’d like to see, one of the characters is reluctant to use the Z word, you know, Zombie. But he’d been zombified.

Right, so – everyone but a few school students, and a gas station attendant had been turned into zombies. In their set of resources the kids have everyone’s luggage, and a bus. And no way to contact anyone. And so they wander around attempting to figure out how to save themselves, exploding things, picking up other live humans, getting trapped, escaping, etc. etc. All against the backdrop of some snowy location in Scotland.

Interesting enough zombie book. I suppose the one negative I can immediately note is the part where the author was good at creating teenage characters (as opposed to a bunch of adults in teenage bodies). A negative because . . . well, it’s exhausting reading a bunch of whiny, posing, vicious people interacting and attempting to live. (But then I remember the few scenes I’ve caught here or there from that Walking Dead show and . . . well, heh. Actually, I’m thinking more of the 14 or 15 graphic novels I’d read in that series before the show ever aired, but I have seen a few episodes from that series).

There is a sequel. I’ve no idea what the sequel is about and/or if the same characters are in it. I do not know if I’ll read that sequel.

Rating: 4.15

January 5 2018



View all my reviews