What’s Zombie Youth: Borrowed Time about?
In the war between the living and the dead time chooses no sides. Every minute is borrowed.
Two years have passed and the Montville survivors have finally begun to live.
The Pillar of Zion Church lies in ruins, but an old threat stirs beneath the ashes.
The origins of infection lie buried deep within the mysterious Stone Creek. Vicious Ferals run wild through the surrounding woods.
Montville has outlasted both men and monsters, but the relentless march of time brings the Zombie Youth closer to the day that they may become what they have feared most
Our Zombie Youth: Borrowed Time review
Borrowed Time is H.E. Goodhue’s second installment in the Zombie Youth series and picks up a couple of years after the first book, Playground Politics, leaves off. If you haven’t yet read the first book, I strongly encourage you to do so. Although Borrowed Time can absolutely stand alone, book one gives a lot of character development and background that adds to the overall experience of book two. That being said, on to the review…
Borrowed Time begins with a new character, Dr. Corvis, who heads a military research facility. Dr. Corvis – a self-serving “mad scientist†type – is looking for world recognition for her work researching a virus and possible cure when it appears to mutate, turning its subjects into ravenous cannibals. Abandoning her research facility and transferring her work to another facility, her story is running parallel to the story line occurring in Montville.
Montville School, which houses the survivors from book one, has grown from its original group , added many more survivors, and has evolved into a well-functioning community (as well functioning as you can be in the wake of an apocalypse, anyways). The original students formed a council that makes decisions for the good of the group, but as time progresses, a new threat arises. Zombie Youth is an apocalypse novel where the youth survive the virus that seemingly only affects adults. As time goes on and the older students begin approaching early adulthood, worries about contracting the virus grow and concerns about the future of Montville weigh on the council.
A group from Montville decides to go on a mission to search for young survivors. What they find is not at all what they expected. If you took my advice and read book one, you would remember their run-in with the Pillar of Zion church. In their seach for other survivors, their story intertwines with Judith – a former member of the church, Dr. Corvis, the “ferals†and some other interesting zombie variations along the way.
As the story culminates, an interesting twist that I didn’t expect appears that left me wanting more and hoping that Goodhue is planning on making Zombie Youth a trilogy.
As I mentioned in my review of Goodhue’s first Zombie Youth, the book is written as both an adult and young adult read. I did notice a slightly darker tone to Borrowed Time that wasn’t as apparent in the first book. As the characters are maturing and evolving in their ability to cope with the apocalypse, the author has adapted the characters’ mental state to reflect a slightly more hardened attitude. A benefit of reading both books allows you to see the smooth transitions and character evolvement. The author had a unique way of introducing different variations of the traditional zombie and the second book did not disappoint. Along with the zombie variants, a twist in the book integrates a new type of “human zombie†that has not been done before. The book was long but did not feel rushed. Everything happened very methodically and each storyline was running parallel and on pace with each other. Throughout the book there is a good vs. evil undertone and it’s not zombie vs. human. All I can say is I’m looking forward to the third book!
A good review should highlight the positives and any potential negatives found in the book but I can honestly say that there were very few negatives I can mention. The only thing I can say is I’m not very science literate, so I did glaze over a bit when Dr. Corvis was explaining her experiments and the particulars of the virus and zombie infection (which are still an important piece of the puzzle when putting the story lines together). Other than that, overall I highly recommend Zombie Youth: Borrowed Time – it’s an excellent read and as with the first installment, leaves itself open for another sequel!
