The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade by Max Brallier is a young adult book geared for middle school kids and perhaps more for boys than girls. Some might call this a little horror novel or even dystopian, but I am going to go with Dark Fantasy with this one. Those who have read some of my past reviews might remember for me Dark Fantasy novels are those where the heroes fight monsters and usually win, where horror are the tales where loads of people die.
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Viking
Released: 2016
Stars: 4 Stars
Reviewer: Michael D. Griffiths
The story centers around Jack and his small group of friends who struggle to survive in a world full of monsters and zombies, but absent of other humans. Some of the monsters they discover can be befriended and they meet a bipedal creature named Thrull. Thrull helps them in battle and becomes an ally. He also gives them a book be used as a bestiary to collect samples of the monsters which have moved onto Earth.
The teens collect samples and fill up the bestiary, but as they do, they become aware of the strange absence of zombies which used to cover the town. As they explore this mystery, they uncover a new plot to destroy their planet by bringing another wave of monsters to Earth and the Bestiary might be the lynch pin of this dastardly plan.
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This is a fun book and written well. A good book for kids which a fantasy loving parent will get a little something out of while they read it to them. There is also a Netflix series available but try to read them the book before you let them see it.
As far as appropriateness for children, I think this ranks well. There are fights, but not any deaths. The heroes realize fighting first is often the wrong answer. There is also no cursing or even vague sexual content. I do not even think there was a fart joke.
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I think this book delivers what it sets out to do. Downsides include the idea the whole human race is gone except these four kids and those kids must save the world which happens to be in danger a few blocks away. Kind of silly, but what the heck, it is a kid book. Also, some of the creatures they battle are things like insane giant floating eyeballs which fire javelins, but nothing worse happens to them than spilling ice cream on their heads.
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Again, this is fun books for the kids which maybe a parent can enjoy more than some of the Young Adult literature out there. Also, this is for younger children so you could roll this out before Harry Potter.
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