Unfed (Undead #2) by Kirsty McKay

First I have to say thanks to Scholastic and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book.  I got the first book in the series last summer when I went to BEA, so was very excited to see this become available on Netgalley.  I wasn't disappointed, I liked where the story went.  Because someone asked on another sequel review I did, I will tell you that if you haven't read the first book, there will be SPOILERS.  Also since my review contains a synopsis of the story, I promise that I won't give away anything that I would feel is a spoiler.
Where we left our main character, Roberta, or Bobby as she prefers to be called, was on a school bus with her friends that were left, trying to escape the zombies.  The bus crashes, and we join Bobby in a hospital.  But according to the nurse, only 4 people survived the wreck.  And her mother was not one of them.  Bobby is in and out of consciousness as this hospital is keeping her drugged up.  She wakes up to an alarm, and the sound of banging against the door of her room.  Turns out that the zombies locked up in this hospital escaped somehow and have killed the people running the place.  As Bobby tries to escape, she finds the only way out is through the air ducts.  As she slowly makes her way through the duct, she ends up in Alice's room.  Alice is her same old lovely (not) self.  They are able to make their way to find Pete, one of their other friends, and the other survivor from the crash, Russ.  At this point, Bobby is pretty sure that Smitty, who she really thought maybe they had something going, must not have survived the crash.  Which is a really bad thing, as Bobby used the cure to save his life, and there is no cure left.  But when Bobby gets out her cell phone to try to use it to get help, she finds some messages and new contacts that weren't there before.  Knowing how her mother is, she knows this means that her mom is probably still alive and has left her clues.  One of the clues makes her change her mind about Smitty's being dead, and convinces her that they must go find him and he will help them get away.  Of course while this hospital looks like it is out in nature, they get another surprise when they find out it is actually down under the Earth.  Trying to escape what is now known to be a Xanthro lab, they are attacked by soldiers.  Soldiers that they overhear talking about how they are not supposed to kill the kids, although some say they wouldn't be upset if it accidentally happened anyway.  When they find their way out of the lab, to the surface, they see a world changed, full of zombies.  From what they hear, Scotland has been closed off to try to take care of the problem.  And now they are out in the open trying to find their way to Smitty and Bobby's mom using the clues left on the phone, while Russ seems to not be sure whether they should trust Pete.
A really good story, I enjoyed all the ups and downs, and the little obstacles they had to face, like the fact that Bobby had no pants for the first part of the book, because the ones she'd been wearing on the bus before it crashed had been destroyed from the crash, and she had no other clothes.  A great story.  Loved that it wasn't all about a "romance" between Bobby and Smitty, that it was kinda realistic for a zombie apocalypse story.  I don't see that there is a third book in the series, and it definitely left off that it could be the end, but there was also a lot of openings for another book, which I'd love to read!

Waiting on Wednesday: Unfed (Undead #2) by Kirsty McCay

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.   This week I've chosen a book that is in keeping with the current zombie trend/obsession of mine.  I got an ARC of the first book last summer at BEA 2012, and read it last year of course.  It was a fun, quick read about zombies called Undead.  What's so fun about the cover is that you only see the bottom of a person, and she is in a cheerleading skirt holding an ax dripping blood.  This is a book from the UK, so actually the sequel has already been released over there last fall.  But it will be here in the US this September.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:  

Just when you think you're out...it's the morning after the night of the return of the living dead. Or something like that. After running/bus-driving/snowboarding for her life alongside rebel Smitty, geeky Pete, and popular Alice, Bobby thought she'd found the antidote to the Carrot Man Veggie Juice that had turned the rest of their classmates into zombies. When Smitty (mmm...nom, nom) got chomped, Bobby pumped a syringe full of it into him herself.

But now Bobby's a prisoner in some hospital of horrors, with no clue how she got there. And Smitty is missing. What if he isn't cured after all? Bobby knows she's got to find him, even if it means facing Scotland's hungry hordes -- plus Alice's buckets of snark -- again. And this time, zombies aren't the only evil stressing her out. The brain-dead are bad enough, but how can Bobby stop the big pharma business behind the epidemic? Especially when her own mom works for the company?

So, if you're a zombie fan, you should check the series out if you haven't yet.  Otherwise, what books are you anticipating this week?

Undead by Kirsty McKay

Another cool ARC I got from BEA last summer, and just hadn't been able to get to until now.  Unfortunately, it's not autographed.  So that means I'll take it in and put it on my "check out" shelf in my classroom for my students to borrow.
This is a book for people who like zombie stories, as you can definitely tell from the title.  Although I guess it could be about vampires too.  It has some good humor, the zombie back story is pretty good, and it goes back even further than we know until the end.
The main character is Bobby, at first you know it's a girl, but then the name throws me for a bit, and some of the way the story goes is a bit gender neutral.  Bobby is not the cheerleader on the cover, that is Alice, or Malice as she is called by Smitty, kind of the bad boy of the school group.  And the other main character is Pete.  Bobby has just moved back to England from living with her family in the States.  And her parents idea is to send her on a school field trip right away!  They're heading home from a ski trip in Scotland.  The bus stops at a roadside restaurant to get some food.  Bobby doesn't want to get off and deal with the other kids who have been so rude to her the entire time.  She ends up left on the bus with Smitty, who is made to stay there because of his behavior.  Their teacher goes in to get Smitty some food, and it seems that is when all hell breaks loose.  Everyone inside the restaurant all of a sudden has turned into zombies, which Smitty and Bobby don't quite realize for sure until Alice shows up at the bus banging on the door to let her in.  The bus driver goes out to try to help, but gets attacked and falls.  They think he's okay, so let him back on and try to help him.  While barricading the bus doors to keep themselves safe, they stay there and kind of watch as things seem to go from bad to worse, to kind of calm.  They attempt to go to the gas station for help, and end up finding Pete hiding there.  They blow up the gas station to try to clear any zombies out there.  Then they head back to the restaurant, and after checking it to make sure they're safe, they set up what they think is a safe area to stay.  Pete thinks it is all a set up, that everyone ate something in the cafe and got turned into the zombies.  They find the restaurants security cameras and do some investigating.  They figure out what might be going on, just as another zombie shows up and chases them back to the bus.  From there they end up adding two more to their group, a girl a bit older than them and her younger brother, and soon they even have to leave the bus. They walk on looking for a safe place, and find a castle.  But the castle soon turns out not to be as safe as hoped.  They run into the people who may have begun this whole epidemic, and learn things about each other that are important to the whole story.
Okay, good story, but I had a bit of confusion with Bobby's family.  At the beginning it is Bobby's father telling her to go on a trip, so that would be right before the trip, right?  But then at the end we find out that Bobby's father died, so the timeline on that is a bit confusing.  But other than that a pretty good, edge of your seat, zombie tale.  There is going to be a sequel, good thing because you're totally left hanging.  I'd call this a quick, fun read for people who enjoy zombie stories.