Sometimes prequels or spin-offs are unneeded and in my opinion it is the case of all post-apocalyptic stories where mystery played a huge part in the appeal of the work. Once you strip down that intrigue, all that's left is action which feels bland, and that is the case of this manhwa.
Sweet Home is, like a lot of Carnby's work, a very enjoyable thriller with a lot of suspense and definitively a solid zombie story. It has interesting and well developed characters, interesting zombies and managed to maintain a consistent plot. However, did we need to know any more than what's told in the story? Is there a need to know exactly where the zombies are coming from and what they are or will it ruin the mystery surrounding the plot? I believe in the latter, and that is exactly what Shotgun Boy manages to do.
Shotgun boy is almost entirely 70 chapters of people running away with action sequences that are absolutely uninteresting and no development whatsoever. The monsters are also pretty boring and uninteresting, they have the characteristic of talking and remind me quite a bit of Parasyte but that's where I draw the law, they are only developed in a very superficial way. The characters, likewise, fall flat. Where Sweet Home had the theme of bullying and overcoming traumas, Shotgun Boy tries to tackle the same theme but in a much less realistic fashion, and there's no proper conclusion to any of it. The main character just grows balls magically and decides that he should face his problems instead of running away... Well that was not convincing because we didn't see how he overcame his fears and all the hardship he went through, he just magically became someone else.
This is the case for pretty much all of the characters. The bully is also shown as pure evil without any redeeming trait, he's plain unlikeable and serves honestly no purpose. The main antagonist has very little motivation at all and is also merely villain. While there is a background for the bad guys, I thought it was pretty uninteresting. Honestly, I prefer pretending this story doesn't exist rather than acknowledge it as the origin of Sweet Home's story.
What I hate the most is that the story ties into Sweet Home and the last chapter, the epilogue, implies that there might be a sequel connecting the two stories. I'm sorry but I just don't want that. First of all, Sweet Home already expanded all of its material and couldn't continue any longer while remaining good, and second, Shotgun Boy is very disappointing. A sequel is pointless and I hope Carnby goes back to being an innovative thriller writer, than suddenly sticking to a successful formula.
I love Carnby's works. While all of them aren't amazing, he has proven to be very creative at time, Melo Holic being my favourite of his works just because of how refreshing I thought it was. I hope he will continue to make great things and not become a zombie author.
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