Zom-B


Zom-B is a young adult zombie apocalyptic-thriller novel series by written by Irish author Darren O'Shaughnessy under the pen name Darren Shan. The series is told by first-person perspective of B Smith, a teenager turned into a zombie. Like Shan's previous series, Zom-B is notable for exploring themes of racism, xenophobia, and the sociological concept of "us and them".
The series has received a universally positive critical reception.

Works

Publishing order

Cover illustration copyright Warren Pleece
  1. Zom-B Chronicles – 27 September 2012
  2. Zom-B: Underground – 3 January 2013
  3. Zom-B: City – 14 March 2013
  4. Zom-B: Angels – 20 June 2013
  5. Zom-B: Baby – 26 September 2013
  6. Zom-B: Gladiator – 2 January 2014
  7. Zom-B: Mission – 27 March 2014
  8. Zom-B: Clans – 3 July 2014
  9. Zom-B: Family – 25 September 2014
  10. Zom-B: Bride – 1 January 2015
  11. Zom-B: Fugitive – 10 September 2015
  12. Zom-B: Goddess – 22 March 2016
A short novella titled Zom-B: Circus, set between Zom-B: Gladiator and Zom-B: Mission, was released on 27 April 2014, following one of B's teachers, Cat Ward.

Plot

The series centers around Becky "B" Smith, who finally rejects her racist father at the beginning of a zombie apocalypse after being forced by him to throw a black classmate to the zombies. B later has her heart ripped out by the same classmate. Awakening eighteen months later as a "reviitalised" zombie, B explores the world at large, the ongoing battle between Dr. Oystein and his Angels and Mr. Dowling and his mutant-controlled zombies. The series also explores B's own connections to the instigators of the apocalypse, including the Owl Man and a mysterious group of babies. The majority of novels in the series are written as concluding with a cliffhanger leading to the subsequent book, structured in a manner similar to television serials.

Characters

In the first novel, the titular B Smith is described with gender neutral terms until the final chapter, in which their first name is revealed to be Becky. The decision to leave B's gender initially ambiguous was explained by Shan to allow the reader to question their own assumptions and biases with regards to the way B acts and how women "should" be written in works of fiction.

Smith–Dowling family tree

Overview

Reviews

Zom-B opened to largely positive reviews by critics.
  • Olivia Johnson :
  • Brown Little :
  • Martin Chilton
  • Ian Berriman :
  • Rachael Simpson :

    Adaptation

In May 2019, Zom-B was optioned for a ten-part television series adaptation by London-based production company The Electric Shadow Company. In March 2020, it was announced that The Electric Shadow Company had partnered with Slam Films in developing the series. In March 2021, Susan E. Connolly was announced to be attached as the lead writer on the project, with The Electric Shadow Company releasing a teaser image depicting a blood-spattered B Smith opposite her best friend Vinyl to their website.
In December 2022, Darren O'Shaughnessy confirmed that while the series' television pilot script "didn't get any takers in the UK", that it was still in active development in "a different part of the world" as a non-English language series. In January 2024, O'Shaughnessy announced that the adaptation was "no longer under option" following an unsuccessful succession of pitches in Finland.