I’ve long been an admirer of the work that specialist publisher, Barrington Stoke, does in supplying books for reluctant and struggling readers. I’m also a massive fan of Tommy Donbavand’s hilariously spooky Scream Street series. You can imagine my excitement, then, when I found out that Tommy was writing a book for Barrington Stoke entitled simply ZOMBIE!
Like all the publisher’s titles, ZOMBIE! is written in simple language, with short, easily digestable chapters. And, like all Tommy Donbavand books, it’s a fantastically funny adventure, with spooks and scares aplenty.
ZOMBIE! tells the story of Nathan and Olivia – a brother and sister who regularly visit the grave of their grandfather, who died several years previously. On one such visit, the siblings have a terrifying encounter with a walking corpse, and in many other books, predictably horrifying results would ensue.
However, Tommy has a knack of merging the macabre with the mundane to create characters that are both monstrous and inately human at the same time. Anyone who has come across his house proud bog monsters or surf bum zombies in Scream Street will know what I’m talking about, and he uses the same techniques here to brilliant effect.
Like the zombies in Scream Street, those in ZOMBIE! just want to party, and rather than running for their lives, Nathan and Olivia find themselves trying to help him shop for lemonade and party food. But when a zombie-obsessed supermarket security guard begins to close in on them, the siblings and their new undead buddy find themselves in terrible, terrible danger.
What struck me most about ZOMBIE! wasn’t the humour or the scares (I was expecting those), or the simplicity of the writing (I was expecting that, too). No, what struck me most was that the story – despite being about the living dead – has real heart to it. And no, I don’t mean a decomposing zombie heart, before you ask.
With just a few deft strokes, Tommy adds a note of tragedy to what is essentially a comedy romp. From the opening paragraphs with Nathan remembering the times he spent with his grandfather, to the zombie, Jake, realising how much has changed in the time since he died, there are moments throughout the book which are genuinely touching, without ever sinking into melodrama or soppiness.
In fact, without once resorting to using flowery, emotive language, Tommy managed to bring a lump to my throat with the final page of the story. This, combined with the humour, scares and fast-paced action, make ZOMBIE! a book I can’t recommend highly enough.
