Review: ENTER THE ZOMBIE by David Lubar (Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series)

December 9, 2010

Enter the Zombie
Author: David Lubar
Publisher: Starscape (Tor)
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9780765323446
Publication date: 4 January 2011
Review book source: I requested an ARC from the publisher

Summary
From the publisher: When Mr. Murphy finds out that evil organization RABID is using a student academic and athletic competition to recruit agents, he asks Nathan, Abigail, and Mookie to form a team and enter the contest. Things go terribly wrong when Nathan’s nemesis, Rodney the bully, forms his own team to go up against Nathan. Soon Rodney and his pals start to notice some very odd things about Nathan. Will they discover Nathan’s secret and expose his zombie identity to the entire world?

My thoughts
The vivid, so-gross-it’s-great puke-and-farts scenes that gave the first four books their character make fewer appearances here as Nathan is confronted with the escalating peril of his life as a zombie. The stakes have never been higher as he himself becomes a part of the mission to destroy RABID, but he’s also realizing that BUM’s interest in him is as a tool and not a person. In fact, about two thirds of the way through the book, Nathan recognizes that while they helped harden his bones, BUM–and Mr Murphy–have no intention of helping him un-zombify himself. Nathan muses to Abigail, “I don’t think it will ever be enough. [...] There’ll always be more to do. I’ll be carrying out missions for them until I rot apart.” Nathan must decide if he’s willing to sacrifice himself and his life for the greater good–or if he has the right to live life as just a normal kid.

And while the gross-out bits are reduced mostly to a few choice emissions from Mookie, the real heart of the series–Nathan, Abigail, and Mookie working together to solve problems in their world and in their lives–beats strongly in this final installment. Abigail especially is in high form, tracking down a cure for Nathan, but it takes unique contributions from all three of the friends to advance in the Mind and Body competition. Abigail must draw on every ounce of her intelligence, Nathan’s got to push himself as hard as possible to do well in physical challenges without tipping anyone off to the source of his strength and endurance, and Mookie has to provide comic relief and encouragement at key points. More than in the first four books, teamwork and propping each other up in dire situations are what save our heroes.

And look! There’s an entire page wherein Abigail explains to Mookie that research without the Internet is totally possible:

“I haven’t found a single thing about the anima flower on the Internet,” Abigail said.

“That’s not good. So it isn’t real?” I was glad I hadn’t gotten my hopes up about a cure.

“I didn’t say that. Not everything is on the Internet. There are some books I can check. There are all sorts of old newspapers and magazines that aren’t on the Internet.”

“Then how can you search them?” I asked.

“They have indexes,” Abigail said.

“On the Internet?” Mookie asked.

“No, in other books,” Abigail said. “People did research before there was an Internet. And even before there were any computers at all. They looked things up. They found information. It will be fun. I’ll go to the county library after school tomorrow.”

It may be pandering (and Lubar’s mom was a school librarian), but c’mon, how can you not support a book that sneaks in some indoctrination into the “libraries are awesome” cult?

In Enter the Zombie, Lubar deftly wraps up the loose threads, persistent concerns, and primary conflicts he established through the first four books. While he faces off against RABID for a final time, Nathan’s also grappling with the responsibilities his unique abilities and involvement with BUM confer and whether or not he can find a balance between those responsibilities and his own life. After all, as much as Nathan wants to go back to a life of eating, sleeping, and not rotting apart, to abandon an exciting life of spying and destroying evil entirely would be such a disappointment.

Ending on a strong note, the Nathan Abercrombie series is a perfect mix of gross-out moments and slapstick humor, great spy work with a twist, and a good heart beneath it all. Highly recommended.

More reviews
No other reviews seem to be available at the time of this writing. Keep your eye on Goodreads for reviews to come after the book is published.

Bonus
Check out my interview with David about the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series.

Previously
My reviews of the first four books in the series, My Rotten Life, Dead Guy Spy, and Goop Soup and The Big Stink.

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Tags: children's books, david lubar, reviews, ya lit