When I saw the cover of the book Rise of Zombert, it spoked to me. And the blurb also sounded promising. I absolutely had to read it.
The cover image has so many adorable details and I loved the highlighted font so much. And there are many more illustrations inside by Ryan Andrews. I was blown away and very excited to see the contents.
What It‘s About:
While helping her best friend, Danny, film his latest horror flick, Mellie discovers a scraggly cat behind a dumpster outside the YummCo Foods factory. Mellie names the stray Bert and hides him in her room, knowing her parents won’t let her keep him. But soon Bert has decapitated all her stuffed animals, and before long he is leaving the headless corpses of birds and mice as gifts for her. Danny is convinced the cat is a zombie, living on the brains of his victims. But is that what is really going on? Award-winning author Kara LaReau lets loose a fresh and sharply funny new mystery series, with an irresistible touch of the macabre. Fans of creepy stories and animal lovers alike will devour this fast-moving first episode in one gulp.
Could Bert really be a zombie cat? Two friends put their brains together to find out in a wry new mystery series.
(Source: Candlewick Press)
My rating to Rise of Zombert:
In „Rise of Zombert“ the story is told on three narrative levels. You accompany Mellie and Danny on their small town adventures, you get what’s going on inside Bert and you find out what happens behind the walls of YummCo.
Each chapter is a different narrative level and, like a jigsaw puzzle, the story becomes clearer and clearer piece by piece. The main part of the story centers around Mellie and her best friend Danny doing everything together. After finding the unfortunate kitten in a dumpster outside the local food factory, they hide it from Mellie’s parents as she‘s afraid that they won‘t let her keep him.
Her parents run a family and food blog and they are clearly distracted by taking pictures of the younger twin siblings for the blog so that Mellie has a lot of freedom.
Bert, aka Y-91 as he was named in the animal labs of YummCo, narrates from his point of view in a few chapters . We learn how he escaped from the lab, how he perceives Mellie, and how he hunts in the local area.
We‘re also part of what happens at YummCo on the 3rd narrative level.
The characters:
I liked the main characters: The smart and adorable Mellie, the loyal and kind Danny, and their families. Even the class bully isn‘t as evil as he seems to be all the time. And Bert? Yeah, you don‘t know what happened to him and what he will do next. He is the big secret in this series.
My conclusion to Rise of Zombert:
I liked the story very much and I was very much with Mellie, Danny and Bert. However, you notice this is the first volume of a series. Unfortunately, the end is very abrupt; no conclusion of the first part, no appetizer what could happen in the second part … nothing. Simply the end.
After all, I‘m sure that smaller kids will love the story and if you want to know what comes next you should read part two, „Return of Zombert“, which is available since July 2021.
Enjoy!
Dirk
P.s. If you’re looking for more spooky entertainment for kids, you might also want to check out Zombierella. You can also find the review here on Deborah’s Book Heaven.
Advertisement due to § 2 Nr. 5 TMG (only for Germany):
Thanks to Sara from Walker Books for this review copy of Zombert from Kara LaReau.
I mark the following links (and also those mentioned above) as advertising in accordance with § 2 No. 5 TMG:
Zombert is published by Candlewick Press. More information around chapter one and two of „The Zombert Chronicles“ you can find here:
#1 Rise of Zombert:
https://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=1536201065&pix=y
#2 Return of Zombert:
https://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=1536201073&pix=y