Deadhead
Glenn Wood
OneTree House
pub. 2020

April 07, 2021

Deadhead by Glenn Wood is about a boy named Spencer Langley, who is 13, and his not-so-pleasant holiday.

Spencer is really smart. He can make or fix anything, and I mean anything. He gets into some trouble with a high school Yukuza gang, who are planning to raid Spencer’s house in a couple of nights. Spencer and his best friend, Regan, need to do something about it. Out of the blue, they decide to build a bodyguard. Actually, it is more like rebuilding a bodyguard. The next minute, they are robbing the grave of Garret, a dead police-officer. They dig Garret out with a digger that they find nearby and load him into Spencer’s mum’s car. They borrow Spencer’s mum’s car without her knowing about it. Spencer works and works on the zombie/bodyguard. Using equipment and tools that they borrow (steal) from the local hospital; they are able to build the remote-controlled zombie in just one night.

The next day, the gang attacks Spencer’s house. Spencer and Regan are ready. They scare the life out of the gang. The gang retreats into the city. Spencer realises how good his creation is and decides to rob a bank with the zombie. It is a success until the zombie cuts a power cord, making him malfunction a lot. Spencer leads the zombie into a forest to get away from the police. He stops by an old tree stump in the middle of the woods. Then he loses all connection to the zombie and it starts moving independently. The rest of the story is for you to find out.

I chose this book because of the cover, which shows a zombie standing in front of three kids that look scared. The cover also has a ninja, a person with a gun, and a person with a samurai sword. I wanted to read the book because of all of these interesting things on the cover. I’m glad I picked it because it was a really good read, and not like any of the other books I have read before.

This book is very well written. I looked at Glenn Wood’s website and found he also wrote The Brain Sucker and The Bully Chip. I want to read those books now. Wood used to be a police officer, so that is probably why he was able to have a lot of information about the police.

I recommend this book to kids that are 13 to 17 years old. It’s good for kids that like an action-packed story as well as those who like zombie stories, adventures, and stories with kids that can make cool stuff.

This book is not for little kids, because some parts would be too scary or gross for them. This book is kind of long. It is 357 pages and twenty-eight chapters, so it might take a while to read.

You should read this book if you want to find out how Spencer makes a dead body into a zombie, what happened to Spencer’s dad and what happens to Spencer and the zombie.

• Charlie is 12 and lives in Hamilton.