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nishidake's review
4.0
**This review reveals the premise of the story, but no plot points or details. Save it until after if you want to discover the premise on your own.**
What's scarier than zombies? Maybe demonic, hive-mind, thinking, speaking, fast zombies...or maybe something even worse than that...?
This story focuses on what seems like a zombie(?) outbreak at what I believe the best part of a zombie story is: the beginning. When our protagonists have just started to notice that something is off...when all the possibilities and all the questions about the nature of the unfolding terror are still on the table.
We take a whirlwind journey with the protagonist as he and those he meets along the way try to make sense of what's happening and how to escape and survive. The Changed or Infected run rampant, making the most of their murderous new reign. Meanwhile, the survivors attempt to stick to the familiarity of the circuitous, pre-determined paths of their normal lives, their minds floundering in the gap between routine and reality, sometimes with deadly consequences. All aboard! Stand clear of closing doors!
In a modern world where we have stopped asking the right questions about even the most bizarre, insane goings-on, while clinging blindly to familiar the ruts we've worn in our own lives, survival is a matter of breaking free and waking up. Maybe there is no zombie outbreak, after all. Maybe we were already the zombies...
A fun, short story that's creepy, horrifying, and very unsettling. A treat for fans of the zombie genre and a thought-provoking look at the undeadness of the rat race, the fragility of civilization, and what we take for granted.
I have two criticisms:
There a quite a few formatting errors in this book. It is self-published, and would benefit from tighter editing. I'd love to see the Kindle version updated with corrections.
I don't think it quite stuck the landing. It came abruptly to a perfunctory-seeming conclusion, and the action of the last few scenes felt jumbled. I think a more uncertain ending would actually have been more satisfying, maybe one in which we leave our protagonist standing on the edge between two choices. Or perhaps one where we get just a snippet of the immediate aftermath of his choice, but his fate is still unknown. I don't think the story needed a certain end. I would even have enjoyed it if it ended a few scenes before the conclusion.
If this short story were expanded into a novel, I would read it. Thanks to the author for this spooky addition to my Halloween season reading!
What's scarier than zombies? Maybe demonic, hive-mind, thinking, speaking, fast zombies...or maybe something even worse than that...?
This story focuses on what seems like a zombie(?) outbreak at what I believe the best part of a zombie story is: the beginning. When our protagonists have just started to notice that something is off...when all the possibilities and all the questions about the nature of the unfolding terror are still on the table.
We take a whirlwind journey with the protagonist as he and those he meets along the way try to make sense of what's happening and how to escape and survive. The Changed or Infected run rampant, making the most of their murderous new reign. Meanwhile, the survivors attempt to stick to the familiarity of the circuitous, pre-determined paths of their normal lives, their minds floundering in the gap between routine and reality, sometimes with deadly consequences. All aboard! Stand clear of closing doors!
In a modern world where we have stopped asking the right questions about even the most bizarre, insane goings-on, while clinging blindly to familiar the ruts we've worn in our own lives, survival is a matter of breaking free and waking up. Maybe there is no zombie outbreak, after all. Maybe we were already the zombies...
A fun, short story that's creepy, horrifying, and very unsettling. A treat for fans of the zombie genre and a thought-provoking look at the undeadness of the rat race, the fragility of civilization, and what we take for granted.
I have two criticisms:
There a quite a few formatting errors in this book. It is self-published, and would benefit from tighter editing. I'd love to see the Kindle version updated with corrections.
I don't think it quite stuck the landing. It came abruptly to a perfunctory-seeming conclusion, and the action of the last few scenes felt jumbled. I think a more uncertain ending would actually have been more satisfying, maybe one in which we leave our protagonist standing on the edge between two choices. Or perhaps one where we get just a snippet of the immediate aftermath of his choice, but his fate is still unknown. I don't think the story needed a certain end. I would even have enjoyed it if it ended a few scenes before the conclusion.
If this short story were expanded into a novel, I would read it. Thanks to the author for this spooky addition to my Halloween season reading!
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