Billy Barton watched the falling star from his bedroom window and then made a wish. On the night of his twelfth birthday Billy wished for a friend. He was an overweight kid whose father had run off some years before, and who was relentlessly bullied in school. All he wished for that night, though, was a friend. That falling star was a meteorite that landed just a couple miles away from Billy’s house, in a cemetery, cracking open and dripping a yellow pus-like substance int More...

This book stands out in the current blitz of zombie fiction, distinguishing itself as not yet another apocalyptic use of the monster trope. Instead, author Howe chooses to take the zombie monster, and turn it on edge, and use it to plumb the depths of the story of a young boy, and how he reacts to the world around him. It's a story about an underdog, Billy Barton, who is tormented by his pre-teen peers, and as anyone who went through such experiences can tell you, the real monsters in this story More...