The Rabbit Hole

Zombie High: First in Class is a short story primarily told from the viewpoint of the main protagonist, Brand. Brand has recently moved against his will. 2 weeks in to his new life, a zombie outbreak hits his school. The action lands within the first page and it is a decent page-turner from that point onwards.

This is a decent read. It's got an original enough premise, and though whilst some of the plot points are a little hard to swallow we are talking about a zombie outbreak here, so I'm more than willing to cut the author slack in terms of artistic license.

I really liked how the author gave you flashbacks to the lives and histories of the secondary characters. It lent more depth to the overall body of fiction. There is a formulaic range of high school characters (new boy, loner, fat geek, jock, overly-happy twins) but I say again, this is a zombie book. Let's not get too carried away with characterisation :)

I liked Anthony's tone - it suited the narration style of the story. I also thought he did well enough with his back story; I would like to see this built in to more of a novel than a short, though. And there's something else I would like to see, which explains my giving this 3 stars instead of 4. I really don't think this book has been proofread. If it has, he should get a second opinion. I will happily increase my star rating if the dozens upon dozens of typographical and grammatical errors are cleaned up. There are also one or two elements of the plot that had me grimacing in action movie cliche. Whilst I can see one as a homage to a certain scene in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, I feel compelled to point out to the author that fencing swords are not sharp and are designed to bend to as not cause people injury. The likelihood of someone being able to decapitate with one is low. Almost as low as "taking someone's head off" with a basketball.

These gripes aside, it's a good space-filler for the commute, and I'll happily check out more of Anthony's work in the future.