Sick

Brian is kind of a slacker in school. His grades aren't the best and he isn't adverse to ditching a few periods with his friends. One day, he chooses to ditch school and notices a lot of sick people around. His mother is a doctor and gets called out of town to assess a mysterious situation. This all while spreading reports of violence plague the news. He thinks it's a bit weird, but goes on with his life. Brian returns to school and helps build sets for drama instead of going to a pep rally. Lucky for him (an unlucky for everyone there), the pep rally turns into a riot as people they know have lost their minds, attacking others. Now his sister and ex-girlfriend are trapped in the school somewhere and Brian sets out to save them.

Brian and his friends are the most unlikely heroes for the zombie apocalypse. Brian is a nice person, but slacks in some areas. His best friend Chad is an aggressive jerk who doesn't care about offending people or getting in someone's face. Both of them really step it up o save their friends. Brian is surprisingly protective of his sister and discovers he still has feelings for his anxiety ridden ex. Chad finds he's not as bloodthirsty as he thought and acts nobly to save as many people as possible. I thought I would hate them at the beginning of the book, but they actually grew and became people I like over the course of the novel.

The zombies are a little different than the normal. The first signs of infection are normal cold or flu-like symptoms with crystal-like formations. These formations get more and more out of control until they finally become full zombie. Brian thinks they consume bone marrow to try to cure their illness, but it's never seen how true that is. Brian's mom insists that they should hurt these sick people, but that's incredibly unrealistic. When people are salivating after my flesh, I'm going to fight back and so do Brian and his friends.

Overall, I liked the book and it's design. The chapter pages has the time and a growing amount of zombies as it goes along with blood splatter on the first pages of each chapter. It's a cool effect that illustrates how dire the situation is and how many zombies populate the world. The book has some flaws. Too much time was spend being holed up in the drama room. I felt it was a missed opportunity and the pacing of the novel suffered. Brian's ex-girlfriend has an anxiety disorder and I thought it would be an interesting opportunity in an apocalypse situation. Somehow, she doesn't have an negative effects because of it as if it was magically cured by something extremely anxiety inducing for everyone. It was enjoyable and it was a very fast read. I would read a sequel to see where the story goes.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins