Review: Zombie Season

Zombie Season
By Justin Weinberg
New York: Scholastic Press, 2023. Fiction. 228 pages.

It's summer, which is zombie season in California. Things are getting intense and people are being told to flee but three kids in town have their own agendas and evacuating isn't on the list. After Joule's dad goes missing the year prior, her mom is determined to move far away, but Joule can't stop looking for her dad. Regina is determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious zombie tech that her parents are creating and in the process finds herself face to face with a zombie unlike any she's ever encountered. And Oliver wants to help fight the zombies, not just run away, but the grown-ups in his life are making that very difficult. Can they all work together to stay alive?

Zombie Season is the first action packed book in the series and features zombies that are legitimately scary, which is not always the norm for juvenile fiction books about zombies. While zombies in this book actually kill and destroy, there is no gore and very little explicit death, which makes it a good choice for younger readers looking for some age appropriate scares. There is, however, some intense scenes, including the opening scene that actually gave me chills, and loads of excitement as our heroes and heroines have narrow escapes, epic battles, and surprising revelations. Although I didn't care to try out the video game aspect of Zombie Season, that addition will definitely be appealing to a lot of kids. I will definitely be checking out book two!

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