From the title and the cover, I was expecting a fun ride from Attack of the Zombiesaurus Rex, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story follows the first-person perspective of a kid named David as he and his friends explore an abandoned government building where they accidentally unleash a “Zombiesaurus Rex.” They then have to figure out how to get it back to its own dimension before it destroys their whole town.

We never find out the age of our protagonists, but judging from their maturity and the way the adults treat them, I would guess they’re 10-13. Young enough to still worry about being grounded and think lying is a really bad thing, but old enough to plausibly come up with a plan to defeat an undead Tyrannosaurus. Writer Matt Schorr does a good job of keeping the story believable by having the characters deal with the limitations and consequences of their age, which I especially appreciated, since I hate when stories involving teens and pre-teens overextend my suspension of belief by making me imagine they live in a world without adults or curfews. I also appreciated the way the girl of the group wasn’t the “girl” of the group. Carla is intelligent and has interests and personality the same as her male counterparts. You know, like girls in real life.

My only gripe was being reminded just one too many times that something bad was about to happen in the beginning. *cough* last line of chapter four *cough* I understand this was written for a young audience, but they’re smarter than you think. They’ve figured out from the title that there’s going to be a dinosaur and some crazy shenanigans ahead. It’s probably why they picked up the book in the first place. You’re insulting them by force feeding the suspense.

Overall, I found this to be a fun story, and I’m looking forward to reading its sequel, Scourge of the Vampire Velociraptors.

Both Attack of the Zombiesaurus Rex and Scourge of the Vampire Velociraptors are currently available on the Kindle and good, old fashioned paper and ink.