Short story that reminded me of Freak the Mighty. With zombies.

Well, pretend zombies. Clucky (Martin's nickname) sees the world as numbers, and looks after his chickens, selling their eggs, when a neighbour's dog kills one of his birds. With his mum reclusive since the accidental death of his father, he goes round and confronts Vusi, punching him on the nose.

Later making friends, the pair end up making a zombie movie together, and form a close bond.

This is a very short story, but it takes the turns a much longer book might take more time over, but manages to cover the same kind of ground. I enjoyed Clucky, I have a liking for savant-type characters, and unfortunately, he was the best-characterised of the protagonists.

I did think everything seemed a little brief - the friendship and movie-making, a love-interest, Clucky's mum recluse story and that of his father, the plot involving some nefarious local scoundrels. Nothing was really given much depth, all glossed over.

There are moments of emotion, and a good amount of humour from Clucky's narration. I do wish it had been more fleshed-out though.

The readership, because the story is quite short and slight is a little younger than the subject might otherwise warrant, around ages 10-13.

With thanks to Netgalley for the sample reading copy.

Note: Oneworld Publications allowed me access to the ebook via Netgalley. Thank you!

On with the review...

A Good Night for Shooting Zombies is the sort of book I have a hard time classifying. Clucky is the sort of able narrator who gives just enough humor to temper the difficult things while still being precise enough to not have to ramble on for pages and pages to make his point. However, there were times it feels like the narration is for a younger audience than may be appropriate. Clucky (not his real name, just his nickname because he keeps chickens) is in that transitional moment of his life having just become a teenager trying to find his place in the world. He meets Vusi, the kid next door with a cancer diagnosis that wants to make a zombie flick. The two seem like opposites, but that's part of the charm of their budding friendship.

As this short novel for the middle grade/YA set progresses, the odd couple grow closer while also risking more than they thought just to make Vusi's dream of the zombie film come true. There are surprises here and there that give some depth to the characters. Furthermore, a subplot puts one of them in danger giving the final push of the story a bit of gravity. Personally, I would have liked a bit more from the book as the first person narrative zips along so fast that some events feel a bit lost. Overall, this is a fun book that manages to dig in just enough to be satisfying without over explaining with appeal to a wide range of readers.

Kids will love A Good Night for Shooting Zombies. It has a lot to like: zombies (the imaginary kind), friends, a budding romance, humor and genuine emotion. Clucky, a math whiz, is still mourning his father, and raising a flock of chickens and selling their eggs. He meets his new neighbor, Vusi, when Vusi’s dog kills a chicken. After a rocky start, they start making a zombie movie together with help from Chris, a very tough girl. Burglars and cancer provide the darkness but friendship provides the light.

"She said that her husband died ten years ago. That amounts to 3,652 days, if you add two days for leap years. And that amounts to 87,648 hours. How do you survive that many hours when you're as lonely as she is?"



Martin lost his dad when he was eleven years, seven months and six days old. After that, his sister became distant, his mother became an extremely agoraphobic, and all Martin - also known as Clucky - has for company and solidarity is his chickens. That is, until he punches his neighbour in the face who, incidentally, is also dying of cancer. An unlikely friendship forms and Vusi, Clucky's neighbour, ropes Clucky and his friend, Chris, into shooting a zombie film.

A Good Night for Shooting Zombies has been translated from Afrikaans - and also has a movie adaptation (which I need to see)! - and will be published in English on October 11th 2018.

This book is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - meets the PG rated version of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The narrative is logical, simple, yet sweet. Yet with lots of hard-hitting, relevant topics that plague society today; cancer, losing a parent, different ways of grieving, bullies, et al. My one gripe is that the book is not long enough to properly explore each of these themes, I finished it in around 2/3 hours and it only seems to briefly touch upon all the sadness that expires surrounding these subjects.

Regardless, I really did enjoy this novella. In such a short space of time (and words) it made me laugh, and cry. And whilst I wished the story was longer, I'm not entirely sure my emotional palette could take much more, never mind a child, so it is probably for the best that it is the length it is.

Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC of this book.