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Zom-B #3

Zom-B City

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How many survived the zombie apocalypse?Where do the living hide in a city of the dead?

Who controls the streets of London?

B Smith is setting out to explore...

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

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About the author

Darren Shan

258 books7,953 followers
Librarian's note: Also writes books for adults under the name Darren Dash. And in the past he has released books for adults under the names D.B. Shan and Darren O'Shaughnessy.

Darren Shan (born July 2, 1972 in London, England) is the pen name of the Irish author Darren O'Shaughnessy, as well as the name of the protagonist of his book series The Saga of Darren Shan, also known as The Cirque Du Freak Series in the United States. He is the author of the series The Demonata, The Saga of Larten Crepsley, and Zom-B. He has also released the stand-alone novel, The Thin Executioner, and the stand-alone short novels, Koyasan, and Hagurosan. Plus, for adults, he released The City Trilogy (originally under the name of D.B. Shan), and Lady of the Shades..

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5 stars
1,032 (31%)
4 stars
1,068 (32%)
3 stars
942 (28%)
2 stars
193 (5%)
1 star
36 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
Profile Image for Miranda Reads.
1,589 reviews163k followers
December 10, 2020
B. Smith - part-time derelict snot and full-time zombie

Roughly six months after the apocalypse has come and gone, and a few days after B's escape from the government facility, B sets off to explore what's left of London. Annd, that's pretty much it.

There's a few fun moments, such as when B discovers the extent of her zombie powers or when she meets the undead baby for the first time. Darren Shan does (as always) a great job interweaving the macabre into his stories - I couldn't have been the only one cringing when she started eating!

The confrontation between the zombie hunters and her was a great addition to the novel - I'm always a sucker for those moments when the monster and the humans interact for the first time. Such an interesting dynamic!

Much like the first few books, we are introduced to a revolving cast of characters. There's the four zombie-hunters, an artist, and a bunch of religious zealots. I would have preferred to keep some of these people around instead of the introduce-and-ditch tactic that Darren Shan seems to favor from the last few books.

But who knows, maybe a few will turn up again!

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Profile Image for Diana.
133 reviews23 followers
July 22, 2021
نمیدونم قضیه چیه که هربار من دارم یکی از جلدای این مجموعه رو میخونم مامانم به غذا خوردنم گیر میده😐 هی چیزی نمیگه چیزی نمیگه، وقتی زامبی میخونم میگه چرا اینقدر غذا میخوری. از همون صفحه اول جلد اول این نفرین به جونم افتاد
°°
اوایلشو بیشتر دوست داشتم از کل مجموعه تا اینجا ولی جلوتر، رفت به سمت و سوی خسته کردنم. که خیلی طول نکشید چون کم حجمه🤲
کلا احساس میکنم تا اینجا، هرسه جلد مجموعه، اول و آخرشون خوب بوده
Profile Image for Adeeb.
678 reviews40 followers
April 3, 2013
That cover is BEAUTIFUL! Extremely creepy and well-designed!

After reading:

As all the other Zom-B books, I loved this one. I really did. It was a very good story. And that cliffhanger, AHHH! I need Zom-B Angels now!
Profile Image for Paul.
563 reviews183 followers
December 1, 2017
The continuation of this story is intriguing. I wasnt sure the setup would sustain but little twists and well set up scenario keeps this a very good read.
And if more people read it they'll belive me when I say clowns are bloody evil and should ve avoided at all costs.
Profile Image for Ninth .
25 reviews
August 14, 2013
Weird Underground Complex where many revitaliseds and reviveds were being experimented upon... Something went zeriouzly wrong!

Anyway, our badass protagonist B made it out! Zooray!

So- B is out. B is free. B is free to explore - THE CITY!

Welcome to London, B's City. As readers who've read the previous book well know, it's been more than 6 months since the Zombies attacked the school and many other locations. So, naturally, with so many bones-sticking-out-of-their-hands-and-toes, awesome-nose-and-ear, witless, brain hungry Zombies around, the City has been Zombified.

The first half of the book deals with B learning about many unknown abilities that revitaliseds possess- like leaping like King Kong (On a smaller zombie scale) and stuff. B wanders aimlessly through the undead city- All red. All dead. Zombies hunt down survivors and gladly tuck into their brains, or accept them as their own, gobble, gobble!

B runs into, or it could be the other way around, (many new characters. I'm guessing that some are self-contained, but I'm damn sure that those 4(?) guys will crop up later!)

--a few Zombie Hunters (Ah, I'm a gamer, so I love em! Go, Zombie Hunters!!),
--An artist who paints the apocalypse in all its dazzling beauty,
--A few notable Zombies (The ticket guy)
--And some religious, robed people who belong to the ORDER OF SHNAX (I have to admit that I pronounced it 'Snacks' and had a hearty laugh at the beginning)

During the random wandering, B gets some new threads. Later, B goes to the apartment B grew up in. Most of the political leaders either had their skulls cracked open or were cracking skulls and stuffing themselves with brains. So, the Soldiers had taken over. They were the saviors (said the radio)and were planning and rescuing people twenty-four-Seven. Strongholds and Fortresses were built and survivors fought to stick to their humanity. And there was to be a rescue mission in the vicinity, so B decided to go - and TRY to make them understand about revitaliseds.

B visits many notable places in London along the way, (Hell, I think after I've read the whole series, I might use them as a city guide too! And that's a good thing!)And B also runs into trouble many times.

Finally, when B reaches the rescue location along with many survivors and all is prepared for the operation. (B has a bit of trouble here too, as always)

Shan does it, again!

Coz he knows that
When in doubt,
Send in the Clown!


Mr. Dowling- My second fave antagonist of all Shan Books (first being the Ohh-So-Lovely-Lord-Loss!!) pops in with his mutant minions- TADA!

And that next scene would... ah, read it yourself. Cold-blooded.

B meets the Owl Man too, the pot-bellied guy from book 1. He talks stuff, which clears some doubts but throws in more questions.

And the book ends with a cool cliffhanger!(I'm still hanging!)

---

All in all, this book was better than its predecessors, it had a more powerful apocalyptic feel to it because it was open world and not confined to a school or an underground complex. And Shan never ceases to amaze readers with the new ways he thinks up to kill people (or better, ZOMBIFY them). And it's always a treat to read about Mr. Dowling and his beautifully ugly mutants! (Let's Party!!!)

And Shan has Pinky-Bone-Promised that there's gonna be a lot of answers in book 4: Zom-B Angels, which is what we exactly need right now! And I'm waiting to get my bony hands on that bloody book (Look at that cover art, Zombies all around are gonna be like "Hey, Zhexy!, you look delicious")

---
Choose Brains.
Choose Blood.
Choose Zom-B.
Profile Image for Faseeh Ilahi a.k.a Sunny.
66 reviews28 followers
March 14, 2019
So I just finished Zom-B City by Darren Shah.

It's the 3rd book in the Zom-B series.

Rating: 3.5/5🌟



If you guys haven't read the first 2 book then stop reading this coz It might spoil those book for you.

The story starts where the 2nd book ended, when Brian got out of the military underground complex and now she is in the abandoned city of london crawling with mindless dead zombies.

This book story is basically how Brian struggled with the city zombies and how she dealt with them.

This book also tells how she was ready to surrender herself to the scientist to study her and find a cure for the zombies.

I liked it a lot although I did had some issues. But any zombie lover would love this.
Profile Image for Jamie.
1,531 reviews1,246 followers
November 2, 2017
This series is really improving! B's interactions in this book are so insanely varied. We meet all sorts of new characters. The religious group is the typical religious fanatics that actually cracked me up. The artist with a very unique perspective not to mention the two different factions B is stuck between. Hunters and the zombies and mutants.
This set the stage for the world a bit better but no real understanding of the who, what, when or why and that is driving me nuts!
Profile Image for theBookDevourer.
128 reviews12 followers
August 9, 2018
It's getting better! I still don't like B and there's possibly too many players in it but ... I'm enjoying it enough to keep reading!
Profile Image for Natalie.
28 reviews1 follower
November 16, 2015
This one was the same as last because their was a lot of action but this one wa different because she was thrown out of this place and now she is all by her self in the city of zombizes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Clare.
485 reviews25 followers
May 23, 2020
4.5 out of 5 stars

I like Darren Shan's books. I have since I was in school and discovered The Demonata series. I was one of the few kids genuinely excited when my school offered me and a few others in my English class the chance to go see him in person at a Waterstones talk when Hell's Heroes was released. I still have the signed book plate from the event.

So when the Zom-B series was released I was excited. I loved zombie stories and having something new was amazing.

I've already said my thoughts about the first two books on their GoodReads pages, but I have to say the series is only getting better. I mean, right now is probably not the best time to be reading about a pandemic but I think that has morbidly enhanced my experience with this book.

It was published in 2013. 7 years ago. And yet some of the plans laid out for quarantine, for example, just felt so simple and yet non-existent when shit really did hit the fan. The whole thing about this book, travelling through a lifeless city, watching how the world reacts to there being no humans around poluting everything... I don't know, it was just so fascinating to me how fiction of 7 years ago sometimes lined up with the reality of present day.

Obviously with less zombies, just the social impact something like this has on a world.

I got through this book pretty fast because it was a nice easy read despite the nature of the story. I prefer the writing style in this to The Demonata series, it flowed better and I could really imagine B's voice. Also, despite getting through the series as a whole pretty slowly, I remember enough each time to see the huge character development that B is going through. She is still a gobby little cow with an attitude problem, but she's growing so much from book to book. It's nice to actually see a character maturing during a dystopian-style novel and not regressing to an oversized playground bully.
Profile Image for Odette Brethouwer.
1,652 reviews293 followers
June 14, 2020
I loved this setting much more than I did the setting of the second book. Therefore, I enjoyed everything a bit more. I liked the action, and I liked the developments in the story and the world.

Oh and that little story after the note from the author.. that was just gross! But hey, it's Darren Shan, so what else to expect (:
Profile Image for Sharon Mariampillai.
2,218 reviews93 followers
May 20, 2017
Actual Rating: 3.25

This was an okay read. This was an improvement from book 2 and a definite improvement from book 1. I am now interested to see where this story might go. I think the characters and the writing got better in this book. Hopefully it continues to get better. I think this series has the potential to be a good one. The ending was good. I can't wait to read Book 4. I heard that book 4 is where the story really begins, so I can't wait. Overall, an alright read.
Profile Image for Ariel.
227 reviews16 followers
April 16, 2017
I feel like this series has been solid three star books the entire time and I think that's largely because they are so darn short. I know I should be reviewing even easier because of this, but it really impacts the quality of the story itself.
B still hasn't done much. We have quite a few interesting characters that are short lived (some literally). But other than her running around the sitting and her running into the "owl man" after, not much has happened. How many books are even in this series, because I can see it lasting for a while at the pace it is going.
Profile Image for Erin.
762 reviews7 followers
July 6, 2020
B escapes the underground complex and stumbles into a city overrun by zombies. She catches radio transmissions about an escape attempt and decides to give herself over to the military as an aid. The escape attemtp is botched by Mr. Dowling with the humans being massacred and Z barely escapes him. She wanders around injured until she follows a series of Zs.
Profile Image for Apip.
70 reviews3 followers
April 27, 2020
This one is quite slow though but I guess it was intended to be. Only at the end the plot started to took off and looks interesting.

Hoping for a much more interesting plot for the next one.
Profile Image for Kaiki Gray.
21 reviews
August 21, 2024
Darren Shan naming a religious order the ‘Shnax’ and its leader after someone he knows who sells snacks is ridiculous but brilliant
Profile Image for Ashlyn.
162 reviews23 followers
March 9, 2017
Imagine this. You're strolling through whatever the zombie equivalent of a "park on a nice day" is, having a good, reasonable, zombie-filled time, when you round a corner, and there's a horrific scene playing in front of you. And I mean horrific to someone who's become accustomed to zombies. That's how this book plays out. It's a joyful zombie experience for about two thirds of the book, and then you're slapped in the face with all the scary bad things. And Darren Shan does it all delightfully.
Profile Image for Sally Kruger.
1,094 reviews8 followers
Read
April 20, 2013
When all hell breaks loose in the underground science lab containing the revitalized zombies, B is miraculously able to escape. After witnessing the flame throwers, chainsaws, and other instruments of violence used against the revived zombies and any humans unlucky enough to get in the way, B is determined to find somewhere to hole up by herself.

Dressed in multiple layers, wearing sunglasses and an Australian-style Outback hat, she is able to withstand the sunlight enough to head toward home. B isn't sure why that's important since she knows her parents have probably become victims and are either dead or zombies, but she needs to see for herself. When she finds her home, everything is just like she expected. Hopefully, her mother was able to make it out of the city to safety, but she accepts the fact that she will never know.

As B continues to wander, she begins to formulate a plan. Maybe she can locate some soldiers and offer herself to them in hopes that they could use her revitalized blood to concoct some sort of serum that would save some of the zombies. She knows from what the scientists revealed that her life is limited to maybe a year and a half tops, but at least she can still think and expressive herself. The zombies she sees as she travels are just too pathetic for words.

Darren Shan continues the ZOM-B series with this third installment. As he describes the wanderings of B, he includes more fascinating characters including a surviving artist struggling to remain human as he captures the death and destruction in his paintings and also an odd group claiming to be the final survivors with some sort of alien connection. The terrifying Mr. Dowling and several others from the underground make a reappearance that reinforces just how sick the world has become. Fans of this new series will not be disappointed as the action and adventure continues.
Profile Image for Stormy.
357 reviews25 followers
April 17, 2015
what can I say once again a great book from Darren Shan. In this book b escapes from the Underground first she nearly get killed by the Hunters but they spare her because she's not like the other zombies b finely makes it to her house and stays there for awhile what she hears on the radio that the helicopters are coming to save some people in London so she makes her way there on her way she meets a painter this character was very funny but she doesn't stay there for long she makes her way to where helicopters will be in London that's when we meet Mr Dowling again I absolutely love the pictures in this book and all his books it makes his books come a live
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Book Mitch.
736 reviews17 followers
June 8, 2013
3.5

This book feels like an interlude. Since the books in this series are so short, it's almost like Darren Shan is catching us up on what the city is like while B has been busy. Sort of like, a day in the life of a lucid zombie. But boy these cliff-hangers get me every time! I will for sure read the next book!
Profile Image for Clover Lemke.
6 reviews
January 18, 2017
It was good just like the first two books, but it got pretty weird. I guess I'll just have to read the rest to make sense of all of it.
Profile Image for Geoffrey.
664 reviews2 followers
November 12, 2022
I’m glad that this book started out with a little recap because it has been awhile since I read the first two books in the series. I’ve always found Darren Shan’s writing style to be charming, it reminds me of an edgy/darker version of R. L. Stine but for preteens. I loved The Demonata series and the world Shan built for his demon mythology, and I’m just as curious and fascinated by this undead zombie world that he’s built here. While the first book is set during the initial outbreak and the second follows the characters in an underground military complex, this book follows our protagonist through a post-outbreak city filled with the undead. B roams the streets of a very changed London, dirty and dangerous and eerily quiet, except for the shuffling of the undead. Once again, B must find a way to survive against brain-eating zombies, and now also against those who have seized control of the city. With danger lurking around every corner and no one to trust, B must decide whether to join the creepy Mr. Dowling in exchange for his protection. B is much more interesting as a protagonist in this book than I remembered from the first book. I thought it was interesting and risky for the author to choose a character like B as a protagonist. I liked the initial twist in the first book that B is a girl, but I thought that having her be an ignorant racist was an intriguing but risky move. It’s nice to see B’s character arc from book to book and how much she’s grown in such little time, which makes me wonder how far the author will take her character in later books in the series. This book made me admire Darren Shan’s horror books for young adult audiences, I loved how this book is dark while still being easy to digest for younger audiences, and it never talks down to its audience. I like how the world building in this book extends our perception of this world and these characters. We get another interesting look at the group of antagonists from the previous books and we get a small look at how they operate. We don’t learn much more about them in this book but we do get more intriguing scenes with them that will make readers curious about their motives and what role they’ll play in the larger story. I like how we get our first glimpse at a post-apocalyptic zombie city in this book along with the different perceptions and ideas that human beings have about why the zombie uprising is happening. One thing that I want from this series is for the next books to introduce a larger cast of characters to follow and root for. While I find B intriguing, I did prefer Shan’s The Demonata series for introducing the reader to many interesting recurring characters. There may have been more important character introductions in this book than I realize, but I’ll have to continue reading in order to see if any of the characters briefly introduced here will become major players in the series overall. I like how short these books are and I like how each one takes a big step further into the world of this story. I highly recommend this book series for fans of zombie stories and fans of Shan’s previous books.
Profile Image for Haley.
442 reviews39 followers
April 13, 2017
This book was slower for me in the beginning because it was mostly B walking around London seeing who was about. She didn't have any purpose in where she was going and just was in search of a brain to keep herself alive and anything that could be of us. Along with her travels, she comes across soldiers that almost kill her until they let her go because they realize that she's different. This is when she starts to realize she can have a purpose in trying to find a cure to this zombie disease. It becomes more interesting after she comes to this conclusion because she heads home to see if her mom is there. Nope... Still no word on what has happened to her mom. She heads further into town until she sees Timothy (a strange guy who is painting pictures of zombies.. freaking weird other people are running for their lives and he's just chilling) B wants to find the place where they rescue people to try and explain what her situation is only the thing is they don't listen and take fire on her. Then out of nowhere Mr. Dowler comes out with his mutants and causes even more mayhem... Then Owlman comes out as well and explains to B that they will always know where she is. For some reason, I thought Owlman and Mr. Dowler were the same people, but I guess not. At least in the next few books things will become more interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
5 reviews
December 10, 2019
The book Zom-B City by Darren Shaun is a somewhat good book. This book is the third of it’s series, Zom-B and Zom-B Underground being the first two. It takes place right where book number two stops. This book is obviously is in the city where as book one was mainly at the school and the main characters house, and two was underground in a facility where they kept all the zombies that they were testing. Once B Smith, the main character, escaped the holding facility she wakes up barely able to see because she hadn’t seen the sun in so long. She goes along trying to first find food because if she doesn’t eat she would go full zombie instead of only partial like she is. Then she begins looking for civilization, running into a few herds of zombies but they only pass her by once they see the hole in her chest.
My favorite character of the story is B Smith, She has been the only character throughout the series that has been a constant character. She likes to crack jokes and yet be serious at the same time. The characters don’t feel as real anymore as they were more real in the first book. They are never the exact same characters as the other books, but that kept me guessing throughout the book as to who would maybe come back or if there would just be new people. My favorite part of the book is when B finally makes it to the main city and is met with civilization, this is my favorite part because it was almost more relatable or I could picture it more clearly. The book didn’t so much connect to my emotions and I think the only reason is because I am not as into the series anymore.
What I disliked about this book was that it was almost the same as the other books, or movies, and shows. It just keeps sticking to the same things and takes too long and detailed to get into the book for me. These books are just getting less and less interesting to me and that is why I said it was only a somewhat good book.
Zom-B underground is a book that I suggest someone who is really into the same zombie stories and is a fanatic about this series. It starts slow but is packed with maybe too much stuff in the middle. For this reason I am only rating this book a 5/10.
Profile Image for Ashley W.
805 reviews20 followers
February 24, 2021

B seems to be the only continuing character through the series. And she isn't even the best one. Getting kind of repetitive.
B in a nutshell:
I'm a zombie and it's so weird.
Sod off!
...so that's it.
Timothy was honestly the best character to happen to this series so far and he was only in a few chapter. He actually had some depth and said things worth saying. Granted, he was a religious fanatic, but at least something was important to him.


A lot of this plot seemed to be B wandering around and figuring out what this new zombie world is like outside of lab. That could have been freaking awesome. But it sort of fell flat. It was sort of the same thing over and over. One cult after another. Or being hunted, which could have been pretty exciting. But again, a lot of repetition.
I think the concept of the zombies being the ones to hide from the humans was unique and had a lot of potential. I'm hoping that they eventually band together.
2 reviews
March 13, 2019
The Genre of rhis book is horror. It is either book 2 or 3 in the zom-b series. I enjoyed the start and the end but the middle part was quite boring. The story is quite scary but exciting and it's a good page turner. The ending was good as we saw the character mr. Dowling again who is a very mysterious character. I would recommend this book to most teens but not younger kids as they might get scared.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2021
بعد مرور ستة أشهر على هجوم الزومبي على مدينة لندن، تحاول (بي) التأقلم مع الحال الجديد واستكشاف جميع القدرات التي قد تنقذها في شوارع المدينة الفائضة من الاحياء الاموات.

هالسلسلة شخصيًّا بتذكرني بالماضي، واول كتابين قرأتهم وانا طالب بالمرحلة المتوسطة، ولاني افتقدت اقرأ كتب دموية، فالكاتب دارين شان عنده اسلوب كتابة مميز وبسيط. عمومًا الكتاب الثالث كان جيّد، عم يحاول يبني ويصوّر تفاصيل العالم ويعرفنا على شخصيات جديدة، ومتحمس لأكمل قراءة السلسلة

3 / 5
Profile Image for Robin.
518 reviews6 followers
June 23, 2017
This series is really growing on me. I'm enjoying seeing the world development going on, and this novel especially made me want to keep reading. It's an interesting Zombie world that Darren Shan has created here, with lots of secret motives and mystery plots going on.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews

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