Cover Image: Horrificata Book 1

Horrificata Book 1

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If the Breakfast Club meets the Walking Dead , this would be their kid

Why : teens in detention at school when everything hits the fan and they have to find away to get out safe and sound .

So yep it kind of reminded me of those two the Breakfast Club meets the Walking Dead, with all of the best parts from both of them , runny through the school, the blood and gore, the mixture of mix of scares, humour .And trying to not get caught .

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This is a cute MG story that I think fans of Goosebumps would enjoy. The characters are well fleshed and quite funny at times. The dialogue flows well and gives each of the kids a unique voice.
The plot itself is simple enough: kids in detention have to survive the day against multiple villains and their creations. The zombies and killer plants made for a fun addition. There was just enough gore and grossness to keep it interesting. It's also quite a Scooby Mystery as the kids try to figure out who the bad guys are and why they are doing this.

I'm not positive that this story is as age-appropriate as the author might have been intent on making it. There are many physical and moral topics that I think would pass over the average 13 yo head but older teens would get them. The question is then would the characters be too immature for the older kids.

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Horrificata School’s Dead Boring is the first in a series and is a comedy/horror suitable for ages 12 – 18.

Desmond is having one of those days. School is bleuch, and he has football on his mind. The teachers suck and it’s certainly not his fault he got detention! So you can imagine his horror when he learns that there is a secret experiment taking place at the school where a gas is used to make the pupils into flesh-eating zombies. He and the others stuck in detention either need to evade the zombies and escape from the school, or figure out what is going on and stop it all before the zombies get out.

What follows is a mix of scares, humour, and a bunch of questions about “who”, “why”, and “how”. And this leads nicely into the next book where the question is “what next?”

The book is more than just a story about zombies and experiments. It also focuses on bravery, friendship, and doing the right thing. The story moved well and was easy and comfortable to read, with no major grammar and punctuation mistakes to interrupt. The only thing that happened in my kindle version was that sentences were cut in the middle and made into new paragraphs with an indent, which was confusing as you weren’t sure if the same person was speaking.

All in all a fun read, so thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

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Horrificata Book 1: School's Dead Boring by Daniel I. Russell is one of those books I'll readily admit that I totally picked up for the cover. I mean, look at it. It is so creepy, isn't it! I wouldn't call the final product a favorite or anything, but it was certainly delivered in the yikes factor. If you interested in zombie books that make you wonder what the heck is really going on, this might be for you.

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*Teen read
*Zombies
*Highschool Setting 🏆
*Science-y ⚗️
*Likeable characters & protagonist
*Fast-paced action
*Fun & suspenseful

There was more to this than I expected going in. Overall it was quite enjoyable!

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Rating: 3.3 / 5

Okey, dokey.

First off, this book was better than I expected it to be, and I wasn't expecting much. I'm not your zombie-fan, gore-fan, COD-fan or really any fan of anything that's in this book. I literally just read it on the spur of the moment, and because I wondered what an apparently "school age" zombie book would be like.

Well...I can't say that the author really succeeded in making this PG-13--if that's what he was going for. Rated 16+, sure, but NOT PG-13.

Ahem, so, what's the deal? Well, Desmond Kingsley's your typical athlete in school, who's into his football and...not much else. Except he's at this school that's kinda described as more of a prison than a school--with a geography that I really didn't understand, by the way, so having a map of the layout would've been helpful--and his teachers all seem to be sadists/nuts. Letting us in on this secret about his teachers kinda gives them all a suspicious vibe, and we see how justified this is later on.

Anyway, Dez lands himself in detention along with four other people, none of whom are his friends. First, there's Dee, the smart brainiac who of course Dez isn't into cause she raises her hand and knows all the answers and whatnot. Then there's Todd, a larger boy who's bullied because of his size and who can't do much besides fix things and work with tools. There's also Blob, who's about as stupid as his nickname sounds, but he's also the largest of the kids, so...yeah, just imagine a high-school-aged Shaggy, and I guess that's Blob. And finally there's Craven, a nerd who's also the oldest out of all of them and has a video game addiction which OF COURSE makes him the leader once the zombie stuff gets real.

Together, these five kids (who are quickly cut down to four, though I won't say which one) have to survive and get the hell out of their suddenly zombie-infested school.

__________________

Now, in terms of how this "works", I think I'd say that the characters are pretty solid, and there are a lot of comedic lines in how Dez narrates everything. However, when it comes to the zombies themselves, apparently there's this chemical-science thing behind it all that school-age kids definitely won't get, and besides which there's the whole half-dead, rotting, creepiness factor of the zombies themselves. There's also mentions of the morality of "killing" these zombies that were once people, just in case there's a cure, and...yeah, that's also too mature for kids.

Basically, in a nutshell, this isn't my kind of book, but I'm also rating it down because it isn't appropriate as advertised, either. I'm not saying that it's as gory and scary as something like The Walking Dead, say, but it still isn't something that I'd let my kids read until they were almost adults.

Maybe the cover will be enough of a deterrent though.

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Desmond Kingsley loves football and HATES school – especially science.

So when he’s trapped in detention with outcasts Dee, Craven, Todd and complete lunatic Blob, while someone unleashes chemicals at the school, turning almost everyone into mindless shambling corpses…or worse, he’ll have more than his grades to worry about!

What is the Horrificata? Who is the masked man with the axe? Is this going to be on the test – and most importantly, is he going to miss the football?

With the right mix of talents in the ragtag group of survivors...they might get through the school day.

Horrificata: School’s Dead Boring

Surviving school now has a whole new meaning.

This was a fun and easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. Russell created likable protagonists (a zany band of unlikely reprobates who found themselves stuck in detention) and eccentric and strange antagonists (mad science teacher and strict principal) that really kept the plot afloat.

In a generation where the zombie genre is overdone I thought this was an interesting and fresh homage and gave me total ‘Goosebumps’ feels! I will def be recommending this series to my students and I will also be checking out Book 2 - I hope Russell keeps the same cast as I feel invested now.

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"Desmond Kingsley loves football and HATES school – especially science.

So when he’s trapped in detention with outcasts Dee, Craven, Todd and complete lunatic Blob, while someone unleashes chemicals at the school, turning almost everyone into mindless shambling corpses…or worse, he’ll have more than his grades to worry about!"

I love horror stories so when I had the chance to read one with my teenager, I was excited to see if he would love it as much as I did - and I wasn't disappointed! He loved it! He's not a huge reader, so the fact that he read the entire book quickly told me everything I needed to know about it. Of course, I read it myself so we could discuss it (gotta throw some educational conversation in there!), and we actually liked all the same parts. I thought the characters were great and the story was a lot of fun. There was just enough "gross" in there to keep it interesting, and there were some great twists regarding how the zombies came to be and who was behind it.

This book is recommended for the 12 to 18 age group and I agree with that recommendation. It has enough humor thrown in with the gore to keep that age group interested. Anything that gets kids reading is a good thing, and I think this book fits that bill.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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This is a creepy and squicky book!

So, this is listed for ages 12-18. I'd say that it trends middle school and is perfect for a kid who likes the scares and just the right amount of gross, but still appreciates a little bit of silliness.

The characters are wonderful - you've definitely got some school dynamics here - and the reader can definitely relate to them.

The book has its silly moments mixed in with the scares, and is honestly just an entertaining romp.

It's book one in the series, but definitely has the potential for many more books!

Happy I read this one.

*ARC via Publisher

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Horrificata Book 1 by D. I. Russell.
School's Dead Boring book 1.
Desmond Kingsley loves football and HATES school – especially science.
So when he’s trapped in detention with outcasts Dee, Craven, Todd and complete lunatic Blob, while someone unleashes chemicals at the school, turning almost everyone into mindless shambling corpses…or worse, he’ll have more than his grades to worry about!
What is the Horrificata? Who is the masked man with the axe? Is this going to be on the test – and most importantly, is he going to miss the football?
With the right mix of talents in the ragtag group of survivors...they might get through the school day.
An ok read. Slow but readable. I did like the cover. 3*.

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