Undead

by Kirsty McKay

Overview

Out of sight, out of their minds: It's a school-trip splatter fest and completely not cool when the other kids in her class go all braindead on new girl Bobby.The day of the ski trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch. Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with rebel-without-a-clue Smitty. Then hours pass. Snow piles up. Sun goes down. Bobby and Smitty start to flirt. Start to stress. Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back. But they've changed. And not in a good way. Straight up, they're zombies. So the wheels on the bus better go round and round freakin' fast, because that's the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates' next meal. It's kill or be killed in these hunger games, heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.Combining the chill of THE SHINING, the thrill ride of SPEED, the humor of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and the angst of THE BREAKFAST CLUB, Kirsty McKay's UNDEAD is a bloody mad mash-up, a school-trip splatter-fest, a funny, gory, frighteningly good debut!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545473460
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2012
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	757,998
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

KIRSTY McKAY, born in the UK, now lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has written and acted in several children's plays for regional theater. UNFED is the sequel to her debut novel, UNDEAD. Visit her website at www.kirstymckay.com and follow her on Twitter @kirkybean.

Read an Excerpt

From Undead

A crimson trail leads from the puddle to the front of the bus.

"What the...?" Smitty backs up into me.

The screech comes again, closer this time. I stare into the snow, eyes straining. A vague shape is stumbling in the whiteness.

"Move!" Smitty is behind me now, in the driver's seat. He slams the lever and the door unfolds shut.

"Hey!" I protest, then fall back in shock as the screech appears at the door, slapping hard and fast. Through the glass I see baby blue and yellow, a bundle of blond hair, and shiny pink nails scraping the glass.

"Open the door!" I shout at Smitty. And when he doesn't obey, I scrabble up the steps and hit the lever myself.

A manic figure propels itself into the bus. It's Alice Hicks. She lifts her head, black mascara dripping down her pretty face.

"Dead!" she screams. "Everybody's dead!"

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6 Up—While on a field trip, four teens get snowed in at the Cheery Chomper café in rural Scotland. Their classmates and teachers have been turned into zombies, and the guy in the carrot costume might be responsible. Or not. Bobby, Smitty, Alice, and Pete are the only ones not infected with the zombie virus. In their efforts to get help, they end up uncovering a pharmaceutical conspiracy. With a hilarious and lively mix of cunning, bravery, and tomfoolery, the teens face explosions, projectile doughnuts, dead ends, an underground tunnel, an iced-over lake, countless drooling zombies, and that guy in the carrot costume. Bobby's narration is spiked with wit and perceptive snarkiness, revealing the personal issues she faces. Having already bound a gaping wound with the cashmere scarf her mother lent her, she responds similarly to help Pete with a wound: "I'm quick to retrieve a clean handkerchief that my mother thoughtfully placed in my jacket pocket for just such an occasion. (One of her token gestures to make up for never actually being there, I guess.)" There is a lot of blood, but the actual violence is cartoony and short-lived. Romance is limited to having a crush. Witty Briticisms and one-liners abound. With the exception of Bobby, the teens are stereotypes (tough guy, mean-girl cheerleader, geek). However, readers will get so caught up in the cliff-hanger chapter endings, endless action, and elements of surprise in this debut novel that character development will not be missed. First-rate fun.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Library, NC

School Library Journal

An unlikely group of English teenagers work together to survive a zombie outbreak during a school ski trip to Scotland. With most of their class turned into flesh-eating monsters, Roberta, Alice, Smitty, and Pete find temporary refuge on their bus. Low on gas, surrounded by enemies, and unable to contact the outside world, they band together, taking shelter in a nearby castle. As can often be the case in zombie stories, humans threaten to become the real villains: the other inhabitants of the castle have their own malevolent agenda and may know more about the zombie outbreak than they let on. Blending comedy and violence, debut author McKay relies a bit too heavily on coincidence and convenient plot twists (out of all the castles in Scotland, the group walks into the one tied to the zombie outbreak). The characters—whose personalities are developed as they bludgeon their way through the novel—are the real draw in a story that otherwise covers well-shambled ground, entertaining but blending in with its gory bedfellows. Ages 14–up. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Associates. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A kick-ass teen-action zombie fest. Fast, furious, freaky, funny, and seriously sick. Oh, and did I mention it kicks ass?" — Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond and Enemy series"I loved the black humor of this school-trip gone bad. Think Shaun of the Dead in the Scottish wilderness. The teen dynamics are spot on, too." — The Bookseller UK"Hysterically funny, suspenseful, and altogether superior fare." — The Times of London

From the Publisher

There's no better place to begin the zombie apocalypse: a Scottish roadside convenience stop called the Cheery Chomper. Narrator Bobby doesn't actually see it happen; just returned to Britain after several years in the United States, she has holed up in the school bus for some peace and quiet while the rest of her classmates on the school ski trip pile out. But she notices it pretty darn quick in the pools of blood on the snow, the panic of her two classmates who have escaped and the shambling form of their former teacher. Loner Bobby, wiseass Smitty and popular-girl Alice are soon joined by annoying-nerd Pete and a couple of local kids, an older girl and her little brother. Together they bicker, defend their bus, bicker, try to figure out what happened, bicker and take shelter in a seemingly abandoned old stately home. Although Bobby has (mostly unplumbed) emotional depths, McKay plays her tale for maximum snark: As Bobby reflects, "you'd think that, when faced with an Undead army, random human survivors would find a really good reason to get along, but that certainly hasn't happened in our own little test group." Although humor and action keep the pages turning, readers may still find the plot dragging toward the end--which (gasp!) may not really be the end…. Blood spurts; entrails drag; body parts shed; hearts (living ones) throb--it's all good, gory, formulaic fun. (Horror. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews