Scott Craven presents the third installment in the Dead Jed series, the story of a junior high geek who, to use the politically correct term, is cardiovascularly challenged.
After a tumultuous first semester in seventh grade, Jed Rivers returns triumphant—or so he thinks. After embracing his undeadness to put his archenemy Robbie in his place, the thirteen-year-old zombie thought he’d have a much easier time surviving the second semester relatively intact. That was before he came across the antizombie propaganda published by the mysterious NZN Network, a group trying to push Hollywood stereotypes as the truth. Through fear-mongering and outright lies, the NZN Network will stop at nothing to get Jed expelled.
Jed’s attempts to blend in get even more difficult when news spreads that he’s created a zombie dog. And it’s no rumor. Jed shocks even himself when, after seeing a dog get hit by a car, he brings the dog back to life—or at least to undeadness—when some of his ooze slips into the dog’s wounds. The good news is that Jed always wanted a faithful canine companion. The bad news is that the creation of Tread (so called for the mark on his ribcage) unnerves Jed’s best friend Luke. Luke abandons Jed, who then learns Luke has been feeding the NZN Network inside information.
Determined to unmask those behind NZN, Jed gets his opportunity at the end of the school year during Pine Hollow’s annual Science Fair. When the NZN’s experiment goes horribly awry, Jed has a chance to show people that being undead isn’t always a bad thing.
Dead Jed is Shaun of the Dead meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Jed’s not your typical middle school geek. He is, to use the politically correct term, cardiovascularly challenged. And while his parents have attempted to shield him from the implications of being different for as long as they could (Jed was eight and at a friend’s sister’s birthday party when he blew his lips off onto the cake in front of everyone, finally prompting the “big talk” from his parents and an emergency superglue repair by his dad), seventh grade at Pine Hollow Middle School as a target of Robbie the supreme school bully and his pack of moronic toadies is rapidly becoming unbearable.
From being stuffed in a filled trash can as “dead meat” and into a trophy case as the bully’s “prize” to literally having his hand pulled off in the boys’ room (Jed’s always losing body parts—but with a good stapler and some duct tape, he’s back in the action), Jed’s had enough and is ready to plan his revenge. Besides, it’s awesome what you can do when you’re already dead.
