By Paul Tremblay
Horror
My Review
I was so looking forward to Survivor Song and had high hopes for a riveting, unforgettable read but to be perfectly frank, I was underwhelmed. A very promising start with pregnant Natalie and husband Paul fighting off a rabid home invader was let down by the remainder of the book. I wanted — no, needed — something more than just a mad dash to get rabies infected Natalie to hospital before the virus passed to her unborn child. Yes, there were struggles and confrontations along the way but it all fell a bit flat for me.
Underlying themes of friendship, courage and survival are intrinsically woven into the story and I was swept along by a tide of emotion but ultimately felt it lacked a sense of tension or thrills.
Reading at a time when 'pandemic', 'quarantine' and 'lockdown' have become all too familiar and real due to COVID-19, I couldn't help but compare the book to the world's current situation. Not that I'm for one minute suggesting we're all rampaging rabid humanoids!!!
Overall I enjoyed the story and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to read it, but I clearly needed it to be something it wasn't.
Book Source: Review copy from the publisher
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Titan Publ. Group Ltd.; Titan edition (7th July 2020)
The Blurb
New England is locked down, a strict curfew the only way to stem the wildfire spread of a rabies-like virus. The hospitals cannot cope with the infected, as the pathogen's ferociously quick incubation period overwhelms the state. The veneer of civilisation is breaking down as people live in fear of everyone around them. Staying inside is the only way to keep safe.
But paediatrician Ramola Sherman can t stay safe, when her friend Natalie calls her husband is dead, she's eight months pregnant, and she's been bitten. She is thrust into a desperate race to bring Natalie and her unborn child to a hospital, to try and save both their lives.
Their once familiar home has becoming a violent and strange place, twisted in to a barely recognisable landscape. What should have been a simple, joyous journey becomes a brutal trial.
The Author
Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy awards and is the author of Disappearance at Devil's Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Cabin at the End of the World.
He is currently a member of the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in Entertainment Weekly.com, and numerous year's-best anthologies.
He lives outside Boston with his family.
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