[Arc Review] Undead by Kirsty McKay

UndeadUndead #1
Kirsty McKay
September 1st, 2012
Chicken House
272 pages

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 Out of sight, out of their minds: It's a school-trip splatter fest and completely not cool when the other kids in her class go all braindead on new girl Bobby.

The day of the ski trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch. Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with rebel-without-a-clue Smitty.

Then hours pass. Snow piles up. Sun goes down. Bobby and Smitty start to flirt. Start to stress. Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back.

But they've changed. And not in a good way. Straight up, they're zombies. So the wheels on the bus better go round and round freakin' fast, because that's the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates' next meal. It's kill or be killed in these hunger games, heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.

"It's Speed meets The Shining meets Shaun of the Dead meets The Breakfast Club, and, if you'll permit me a Briticism, it's a bloody scary, bloody funny romp!" - Barry Cunningham, publisher

This is what I was promised. What I got was a cliched lump of writing that was fun to read but overall didn't strike me as special.  The elements mentioned include a bus, a creepy mansion, some zombies and a rag tag group of school children. Sure, on the base level it could be compared to those, but not really. I also didn't find it very funny. Perhaps my humor is more mature, or I expect more amusing anecdotes from British schoolchildren. It didn't deliver.

If I could compare it to anything, I'd compare it to The Faculty. High school kids reacting appropriately to a supernatural presence and getting high or in this case, drunk, in the process. They make stupid decisions, they actually act scared. No one is really a hero.

With a zombie outbreak to deal with, crazed hipster scientists, a zombie toddler, and one of those plot twists you can see coming from four miles away, this book was pretty straight forward. Nothing really set it apart. Even the horror movie cliffhanger felt overused and unengaged.