Zomburbia

Gr 9 Up—Courtney Hart, 16, is a typical teen living after the zombie apocalypse that wiped out the human population in the world's major cities. She hangs out with her friends when she's not working at her part-time job at Bully Burger and hopes to become a zombie researcher and move to New York when she graduates high school. Courtney also carries a gun for protection, and her school closely resembles a high-security prison, built to keep humans safe inside and zombies outside. The virus that created flesh-eating zombies pushed survivors to escape to smaller rural areas. However, Courtney starts to notice a horrifying trend: a crop of very humanlike zombies have started to gang up on humans. The heroine suspects it has something to do with a methlike drug called Vitamin Z that is made from actual zombie brains and that she sells. When one of her friends succumbs to zombification after getting high with Courtney on Vitamin Z, the teen starts reevaluating her life and whether the popular crowd and boy she's been dating are truly her allies. And when her nerdy coworker saves the day at a zombie-infested party, she begins to see him in a new light. A mostly likable protagonist, Courtney may frustrate readers at times with her misguided choices. Fans of zombie fiction will devour this book; teens who haven't made the leap (or shuffle) to the genre will be hooked. A gory, campy read.—Julie Shatterly, W. A. Bess Elementary School, Gastonia, NC