McKay, Kirsty. UnDead.

McKay, Kirsty.  UnDead.  Scholastic/Chicken House     2012  263p  ISBN 978-0-545-38189-5  ms/hs VG-BN      Horror     

One does not have to be a fan of the zombie genre to enjoy this book.  First, the comedy abounds in the relationships that author Kirsty McKay creates between her characters.  Secondly, McKay’s clever entry right into the thick of things will entertain readers who want lots of action.  Finally, her descriptions are wonderfully gory yet delightful, even when she describes one’s worst nightmare, that of entering the world of the undead, or that of being chased by a member of the world of the undead.  When Bobby returns from a ski trip with a busload of fellow high-school students, she inadvertently remains in the bus at the Cheery Chomper cafe with Smitty, a delinquent who tried to buy liquor while on the trip.  By the time Alice Hicks fights her way aboard the bus, Bobby and Smitty know that they are in trouble, especially when Alice announces that everybody in the cafe is dead.  That begins the chase of a lifetime.  Zombies are after anybody they can find, and Bobby, Smitty, and Alice join forces with fellow survivor Pete to navigate the dangerous snowy roads in search of a safe haven with computer or cell-phone capability.  They stumble upon a castle in which they can recuperate and develop an escape plan, but things go awry when three university students show up, threaten them and demand the key to the tower.   What is in the mysterious tower?  Bobby overhears a conversation between the three students and learns that they are involved in the invention of an antidote to zombie attacks that could be worth a lot of money to them.  Who will survive?  Readers will either love or hate the ending.  Whatever their reaction, they will enjoy the story.                 

Summary: Bobby is unhappy with her mother’s decision to return to Great Britain to work.  She is even unhappier when she has to take a ski trip with schoolmates to Scotland.  She is forced into new friendships when zombies threaten the survivors at a pit stop at the Cheery Chomper cafe.

Zombies-Fiction, Fantasy                                    --Martha Squaresky