I can tell you what the book is about, which is something that could've potentially been very positive. Tremblay's latest release is about a rabies virus that is spreading through the state of Massachusetts. This disease has a short incubation period and those who are infected lose their minds. It affect animals and humans alike. Needless to say, hospitals are overrun and people are advised to stay at home. We follow Dr. Ramola and her friend Natalie, who is eight months pregnant and who is looking for safety as her husband has been killed and she has been bitten.
We then follow these two characters on their quest from hospital to hospital to find someone to operate on Natalie to deliver her baby.
Sounds great, right? Especially now that we're living through the Corona pandemic. I don't like writing reviews for books that I give a book 1-star rating. When I give a book 2 stars, I can still show people what I didn't like, but what they might like about it. That's not the case here though. Ok, let's just start and see where it goes.
First of all, I didn't like Natalie and Ramola (or Nats and Rams as they annoyingly call each other). I thought they were crude, and completely out-of-touch with their surroundings. Natalie is the worst of both. Her chapters are short rants into her phone for her future baby, which are annoying complaints about the world and about herself.
Tremblay's writing doesn't do them any good either. There are points where he gives us a big back story about why Ramola knows Natalie is sarcastic. I mean, the sentences she speaks are clearly sarcastic almost all the time. It didn't take me ten years to figure out. The fact that it's highlighted further, makes me dislike the characters even more.
Secondly, the side characters all enter the stage swiftly and disappear just as rapidly. I didn't feel any attachment or anything really towards them. Why should I, when I don't even care about the main protagonists?
The language in this book was also too lengthy for some reason. The long descriptions and wordy paragraphs mess up the horror and overall pace of the story.
Thirdly, I didn't find the story itself to be special. A tale about zombies, or people infected with some kind of virus, is as old as time itself. Well, as old as George Romero has been around at least. The fact that it's caused by rabies doesn't add anything for me. I didn't find the animals particularly vicious either. There's nothing that distinguishes this novel from other horror novels in terms of storyline.
The fact that this is some kind of "road trip" novel, doesn't add anything either.
I'm still very thankful to Titan Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy! I will still check out Paul Tremblay's writing in the future. Horror is one of my favourite genres, and he's still and incredibly strong writer.
1 star
Statistics:
Date read: July 4, 2020
Date published: July 7, 2020
Publisher: Titan Books
Format: eBook
Pages: 300
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Horror
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 2
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