ARC - Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan

Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time Taken To Read - 2.5 days

Blurb From Goodreads

'Apocalypse Cow made me snort with laughter' - Terry Pratchett.

Forget the cud. They want blood. An outrageous an anarchic comic take on the zombie apocalypse - and joint winner of the first Terry Pratchett ‘Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now’ prize.

It began with a cow that just wouldn’t die. It would become an epidemic that transformed Britain’s livestock into sneezing, slavering, flesh-craving four-legged zombies.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the fate of the nation seems to rest on the shoulders of three unlikely heroes: an abattoir worker whose love life is non-existent thanks to the stench of death that clings to him, a teenage vegan with eczema and a weird crush on his maths teacher, and an inept journalist who wouldn’t recognise a scoop if she tripped over one.

As the nation descends into chaos, can they pool their resources, unlock a cure, and save the world?

Three losers. Overwhelming odds. One outcome . . .

Yup, we’re screwed.

My Review

I love zombies books (as you may have noticed), so when I heard about this one I thought I just had to give it a read. Geldof is a 15 year old Vegan boy, embarrassed by his hippy parents. If they aren't screaming at the neighbors for their murder and consumption of flesh(animals of course), forcing him to be a Vegan and wearing God awful natural fiber clothes his mum is bartering for food in the shop with vegetables. What follows is an unlikely team against the zombie animals. Something goes wrong at the abattoir, a weird plague amongst the cows gets out and spreads among domestic animals and soon everyone in Glasgow (and Britain) is at risk of being humped, mauled and or eaten.

This book is hilarious, disgusting and so UN PC - it has everything rolled into one story. The nerdy boy with the crush on the teacher, the hippy parents, the teenage bullies that need to be addressed or obeyed and of course the threat of being killed by rabid flesh eating animals from cows to rats.

Some of the brutality to the animals is a bit uncomfortable reading (in any kind of context) but taking the book as it is with silliness you can get through it, after all it the small matter of survival. This is my first encounter with this author and I would read him again, I also secretly (not so secret now) hope there is a follow up to this book. Will Geldof survive? Does he get the woman of his dreams and be the hero at the end? Well you have to read it and find out for yourselves folks. Thanks to Transworld publishers for giving me the chance to review this and introducing me to a new author, 4/5 for me this time. *Available to buy from Amazon.co.uk & other good retailers in May 2012.

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