Early Review of Haru, Zombie Dog Hero

 

I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Eleven-year-old Luke and his dog, Haru, are the best of friends. Totally inseparable. But when their nasty landlord falsely accuses Haru of biting her, Haru is kidnapped! As Luke and his friends go on a serious mission to find and bring Haru home again, they discover mysterious experiments happening at the old laboratory at Painted Lake, owned by an evil multibillionaire named Mr. Thomas Sinclair. And Luke and his friends soon fear that Sinclair’s scientists could be doing illegal testing that may endanger Haru and their whole town. As more strange clues emerge, the boys realize their world is changing fast, and soon Painted Lake is plagued by zombie attacks. But the love between Luke and Haru endures, ultimately helping to save them all.

I really liked this authors Spirit Hunter series so I was excited to see that she had a new book out. I did like it but there was some things that I wasn't a huge fan of as well. 

This has the third person POV from Luke the boy, Haru the dog, and Penelope the cat. It was fairly easy to follow the different POVs. Haru remembers the first time his humans brought him home and how him and Luke done everything together. They are the best of friends. He is a hero to his family and Luke's two best friends as he protected them from a scary raccoon. He is just the best dog. He also doesn't like it when someone is mean to his best buddy Luke. 

Penelope is a stray cat that Luke and his family have sort of adopted even though the mother is allergic. They make sure she has food. One day she went missing and they worried about her then she came back but was covered in some really nasty gunk and it's a good think Luke and his family are super nice people and cleaned her up. It's because of this that she made friends with Haru and Luke. 

In the town of Painted Lake there is a nasty factory that does really bad things that  and has ruined their beautiful lake. The guy that owns it is an old man called Sinclair and he is looking for a fountian of youth type of serum and has scientist working on it. They do experiments on animals but nobody in town really knows what goes on there. Lukes friends, Ben and Max, mother works as a reporter and has been trying to find a good angle on the factory and to find out what is going on but her editor always shuts her down. 

The lady who rents the building that Luke's parents have their store in is a horrible person and a bit on the racist side and hates Haru, so when he tries protecting Luke from her and lunges at her she falls and hurts herself and use that to call the animal shelter, only thing is the guys are not taking him to a shelter but to the factory!! 

So I really liked Luke and his friends, his parents and even his friends parents, of course I loved Haru and Penelope as well. All were great characters. I was even okay with the big environmental/testing on animals issue we got within the story. My problem was that I thought it was a little to detailed on what happened to the poor dogs that turned into zombies. I mean, I know adults including myself that don't like that kind of detail in adult books when it comes to harming animals. (Their bodies steamed as if they were being baked, and large lumps began to form on their faces and torsos.) I mean gross, is it just me or is that to gross for a kids books? Could be just me. I feel like the author could have gotten the point across without the reader having to know exactly what happened to the dogs. :(

Don't get me wrong it was a fun story about a boy and his dog and the bond between them, but trigger warnings for animal abuse/experimentation big time! I know a lot of adults who will not be reading this because of that. I docked it a star for that, so maybe I am being petty, but it's my opinion and I don't like books that hurt dogs. I could handled it if he went into the lab and we are told something bad happened and he came out a zombie, I just don't need details! 

Would I read another book about the zombie dog if it is a series? Sure because I feel like the worst part is over now he can just be a zombie dog hero. :) It left the ending very open ended which is why I don't know if it's a series or not. 

Oh and also we don't get anything zombie until around 89% of the book which for a book called Zombie Dog Hero, I sort of thought there would be much more zombie hero action going on. 

Would I recommend it? It was a decent middle grade book so if you don't mind the animal stuff and you think your kid can handle it, sure. Like I said it would have been 4 stars but I dock stars on adult books with harming of dogs in them, so middle grade is no different. :)

3 stars