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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
This was a really good book and an interesting take on the zombie genre. This book is a zombie infection story but set on a boat and the day keeps resetting itself. It’s really good highly recommend
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Groundhog day meets zombie apocalypse..... just wish it was longer
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Domestic abuse, Pregnancy
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a cracking B-movie Iain Rob Wright’s horror novel Sea Sick would make. The story starts with Jack, an angry Brummie copper, taking a lonesome trip on a Mediterranean cruise, where he nurses past actions and just wants to read a little Andy McNabb. Unfortunately, his McNabbathon is rudely interrupted by the ship’s passengers going virus-induced crazy and killing the uninfected. In the early pages our protagonist gets killed, only to wake up the next day to see everything happen all over again, and again and again over the following weeks and months.
You could pigeonhole the novel as Groundhog Day with zombies – and I’m sure other reviewers have – but that’s not a bad thing. Jack is the only person who knows how the ‘reset’ day will pan out, which first deepens his depression, but builds into hope as he confronts his past and finds others like him. It ‘ends’ with a thrilling climax as he discovers how the virus affecting the ship came about, having one last day to save the world.
I really enjoyed it. Sprinting ‘zombies’ are something we’ve got used to since Danny Boyle’s 24 Hours Later, but IRW ups the ante a lot with the part involving frantic children trapped on a sports deck – an image not easily erased. Jack thinks he’s stuck in hell, but there’s a way out. And though this way out involves the supernatural (fine because the premise of a day repeating itself is supernatural) it is nicely done.
Top marks, then, for a book that has you racing to the end. There are problems, however. Wright can write something as excellent as this: “It was the smell of a corpse settling into the fabric of its surroundings,” then not long after, write: “… nothing good ever came from giving people guns. If these weapons were to reach Tunisia then they would most certainly result in people’s deaths.” Well, of course. It also really didn’t need the two chapters making the novel’s epilogue. The reader should finish pondering a quite powerful ending instead of changing abruptly from Jack’s perspective. It draws the ending’s sting.
A lot of fun, then, with some real terror. But skip the epilogue.
You could pigeonhole the novel as Groundhog Day with zombies – and I’m sure other reviewers have – but that’s not a bad thing. Jack is the only person who knows how the ‘reset’ day will pan out, which first deepens his depression, but builds into hope as he confronts his past and finds others like him. It ‘ends’ with a thrilling climax as he discovers how the virus affecting the ship came about, having one last day to save the world.
I really enjoyed it. Sprinting ‘zombies’ are something we’ve got used to since Danny Boyle’s 24 Hours Later, but IRW ups the ante a lot with the part involving frantic children trapped on a sports deck – an image not easily erased. Jack thinks he’s stuck in hell, but there’s a way out. And though this way out involves the supernatural (fine because the premise of a day repeating itself is supernatural) it is nicely done.
Top marks, then, for a book that has you racing to the end. There are problems, however. Wright can write something as excellent as this: “It was the smell of a corpse settling into the fabric of its surroundings,” then not long after, write: “… nothing good ever came from giving people guns. If these weapons were to reach Tunisia then they would most certainly result in people’s deaths.” Well, of course. It also really didn’t need the two chapters making the novel’s epilogue. The reader should finish pondering a quite powerful ending instead of changing abruptly from Jack’s perspective. It draws the ending’s sting.
A lot of fun, then, with some real terror. But skip the epilogue.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4 stars. Groundhog Day meets 28 Days Later meets Titanic . What an ending.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a crazy twist. This was a quick read. Super entertaining. The typos were really distarcting in the last three chapters or so. I didn't notice any before that.