One more book for Halloween Bingo! This is obviously for "The Dead Will Walk" square when it is called.
High school is a place where many kids feel like they just don't fit in. That is definitely true for Brian and his friends, a collection of misfits who decided to skip a few classes they day of the school pep rally. They get back to school just in time for stagecraft class, and for a deadly virus to take hold of their school. A strange sickness has rapidly spread, something that gives people a drawn, wasted look and develops crusty scales, oh- and it gives the infected person a taste for human bone. Ground zero is the pep rally, but the theatre building is farther away and able to be protected. It's too bad that Brian's sister and ex-girlfriend decided to go to the pep-rally, now Brian has to find a way to get the girls out of the zombie infested hallways as well as the stagecraft class.
This is a very fast-paced young adult zombie outbreak story that does not skip on the gore and held me in suspense. Centered in a high school with high schoolers as the only uninfected people left, I was really interested to see how high school dynamics would go into play. Especially since this high school was overcrowded, had a lot of racial tension and general intolerance of anyone who is different. Luckily, this group of survivors is centered in the theatre, where different is the norm. When any differences are brought up, they manage to be quickly resolved or changed in the minds of the teenagers for the benefit of survival. I was really interested in the virus itself and I got a little bit of information on it through Brian's mom, who was on the first response team. I did want to find out if there was a cure and how it began. The book really just focused on the outbreak itself and how this small group of highschoolers was able to survive. There were some very awesome moments of zombie smackdowns and creative weaponry, but there was no resolve after the teens were rescued from the school.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.