Scan barcode
crloken's review against another edition
1.0
This is not a fairy tale. This is a song.
Good line. I approve, or I would approve if the book ever felt like a song. If Tremblay had not told me that it was a song then I never would have known, and every time he repeats the line (which is fairly often) I feel equally surprised as the last time since I had forgotten that this is supposed to be a song. I'm not sure what would make it a song, maybe a more lyrical prose, a ballad like structure, a poetically tragic trajectory; What I do know is that I never believed this was a song.
The tone and prose of the novel felt as though it went for clever over lyrical. The story is about Natalie, who is called Nats, and Ramola, who is called Rams. Nats' husband was murdered by a victim of a newly extreme version of the rabies virus. She was bitten. She is also extremely pregnant so she and Rams set out to get to a hospital that can give her a C-section before she starts to show symptoms. They drive through right wing militias, rabid animals and people, and general chaos from a mishandled virus. Rams and Nats are as cute and whimsical as their nicknames. Nats records videos for her unborn daughter and continually jokes and makes light of the situation. Rams is a little more tense but still jokes. They eventually pick up two teenagers who talk like a bad twitter feed ("This virus is the bad!" "I hate this timeline!"). I found all four characters insufferably irritating. I also found the right wing militia members irritating.
It doesn't help that we're living this. I can see first hand both how close and how far off his version of these things are. It's hard to find his version of the far right conspiracy theorists very threatening when I know what the real version looks like, and how dangerous they are. It was not frightening to hear that the mishandled virus (with an almost 100% fatality rate) kills 10,000's of people when we're currently watching a much less fatal virus kill 100,000's of people. None of that is Tremblay's fault. He didn't know this would happen.
The annoying characters are his fault. As is the constant criticism of zombie movies, and the trashing of Children of Men especially considering that this is Children of Men with zombies. I expect that was the point;. He was winking at the audience and saying that he knew, and I would have been fine with him suggesting those were flawed works if this one had much to offer over them. It just didn't.
I expect a lot of people will still like this. I expect what didn't work for me will really work for someone else. It definitely deserves more than 1 star. But I really didn't like it. I didn't like spending time with it, and I never cared about the characters or the world. Maybe I was too grumpy for it, but I didn't like anything about it.
I'm tempted to declare that I'm done with Paul Tremblay, but I think I should give [b:A Head Full of Ghosts|40941131|A Head Full of Ghosts|Paul Tremblay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532489737l/40941131._SY75_.jpg|42563937] a read first.
Good line. I approve, or I would approve if the book ever felt like a song. If Tremblay had not told me that it was a song then I never would have known, and every time he repeats the line (which is fairly often) I feel equally surprised as the last time since I had forgotten that this is supposed to be a song. I'm not sure what would make it a song, maybe a more lyrical prose, a ballad like structure, a poetically tragic trajectory; What I do know is that I never believed this was a song.
The tone and prose of the novel felt as though it went for clever over lyrical. The story is about Natalie, who is called Nats, and Ramola, who is called Rams. Nats' husband was murdered by a victim of a newly extreme version of the rabies virus. She was bitten. She is also extremely pregnant so she and Rams set out to get to a hospital that can give her a C-section before she starts to show symptoms. They drive through right wing militias, rabid animals and people, and general chaos from a mishandled virus. Rams and Nats are as cute and whimsical as their nicknames. Nats records videos for her unborn daughter and continually jokes and makes light of the situation. Rams is a little more tense but still jokes. They eventually pick up two teenagers who talk like a bad twitter feed ("This virus is the bad!" "I hate this timeline!"). I found all four characters insufferably irritating. I also found the right wing militia members irritating.
It doesn't help that we're living this. I can see first hand both how close and how far off his version of these things are. It's hard to find his version of the far right conspiracy theorists very threatening when I know what the real version looks like, and how dangerous they are. It was not frightening to hear that the mishandled virus (with an almost 100% fatality rate) kills 10,000's of people when we're currently watching a much less fatal virus kill 100,000's of people. None of that is Tremblay's fault. He didn't know this would happen.
The annoying characters are his fault. As is the constant criticism of zombie movies, and the trashing of Children of Men especially considering that this is Children of Men with zombies. I expect that was the point;. He was winking at the audience and saying that he knew, and I would have been fine with him suggesting those were flawed works if this one had much to offer over them. It just didn't.
I expect a lot of people will still like this. I expect what didn't work for me will really work for someone else. It definitely deserves more than 1 star. But I really didn't like it. I didn't like spending time with it, and I never cared about the characters or the world. Maybe I was too grumpy for it, but I didn't like anything about it.
I'm tempted to declare that I'm done with Paul Tremblay, but I think I should give [b:A Head Full of Ghosts|40941131|A Head Full of Ghosts|Paul Tremblay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532489737l/40941131._SY75_.jpg|42563937] a read first.
djwinn1364's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bluebronzeandbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
riley1009's review against another edition
4.0
The beginning and ending were both absolutely fantastic, but the pacing of the first half was a bit slow. After the great beginning sequence, not much happens until about halfway through the book, and even then it's still pretty uneventful. Tremblay's writing style is great though, as always, so 4 stars because it was still fun to read.
theresa_mysteries_and_mayhem's review against another edition
5.0
It doesn't quite feel right to say that I really enjoyed this book. It starts during a "super rabies" outbreak and the stressors intensify and spiral downward for the main characters, and it doesn't let up. The characters felt very real and easy for me to get attached to, which made the book even more difficult to read as things continue to go terribly wrong. It was such a well-written book. I'm glad I had the chance to read it. Five stars.
scoutingforbooty's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very neat and flowery book. It reminds me of The Girl with All the Gifts in writing style. I connected with Ramola, trying her best to keep a positive outlook in a horrible situation and keeping it up to the bitter end. My only complaint is how long this book goes on for and not a whole lot really happens. We get a couple of action scenes but most of the book is just inner thoughts and detailed descriptions. Not that that is bad, I just wish we had more of the actual story. Absolutely tragic ending, I like Ramola was hoping for a way better outcome even though I knew in my heart how it was going to end. I loved all the subtle clues we got that something WAS wrong with Natalie since the very beginning and we were eased into the feeling that this wasn’t going to end well. Overall very much enjoyed it!
hb_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
finally finished this! funny that I struggled to read the epidemic book during the real life pandemic. excellent as always from Paul Tremblay and eerily timely. there were parts that were a little discombobulated, but I don't know if that's due to this being an arc? I wish we got to see more beyond our protagonists in the greyed-out pages, but it works nicely as is. can't wait to listen to the audio when this officially comes out - I really love Rams.
maziarzl_5736's review against another edition
tense
medium-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
4.0
allthings's review against another edition
2.0
I was so disappointed with this book. I've been trying to get aboard the Paul Tremblay train, since he seems to be the hottest voice in horror right now, but something's just not working for me.
Like with The Cabin At The End of The World, this is a character-driven story, taking place over an even shorter time period than the aforementioned book. We follow Nats and Rams, two old friends, who are on a journey to the hospital, and then another hospital, that takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R. They're in the midst of an outbreak of super rabies, and Nats has been bitten. Not only that, but she's also pregnant, and they're in a race against time to try and get her treated. We're with them over the course of just a few hours as they desperately try to navigate though the chaos the pandemic has brought with it (How very timely...). All this sounds wonderfully exciting in theory, but in practice... it was boring.
Now I'm actually a big fan of introspective, character-driven horror, and I really dig the idea of the horror coming not from the situation the disease has created, but from watching your best friend succumbing to it, yet I found the pacing so awfully slow and the characters themselves so insufferable that I was wishing for Nats to just hurry up and kick the bucket already. After the initial burst of action where Nats is attacked, the only other part of interest was when they met up with two teenage boys who I would much rather have followed, but were quickly discarded by our self-centered protagonists.
Nats and Rams were both incredibly annoying people. Nats was snarky, Rams was bland, both were selfish. I don't even mind books about awful people, or books about good people who act selfishly because don't we all sometimes, but I felt as though the author wanted to write these two women as likable and failed miserably. In the same vein, when we encountered characters espousing conspiracy theories about the pandemic, I felt as though the author wanted us to see them as stupid or crazy, but at the same time... our main characters' actions actually made what these people were doing seem totally justified! A lot of the time I was frustrated, feeling like there was an interesting story to be told, but that it was stuck behind plodding, over-descriptive text and unsympathetic characters, unable to shine.
In conclusion, I feel like either I was being masterfully manipulated by the author, and this was truly supposed to be a novel about two selfish women that shows how gun-toting conspiracy theorists may actually have the right approach... or the protagonists were supposed to be sympathetic people, and the author failed spectacularly. In reality, I think it's probably neither, and just a case of me not meshing with his particular writing style!
Like with The Cabin At The End of The World, this is a character-driven story, taking place over an even shorter time period than the aforementioned book. We follow Nats and Rams, two old friends, who are on a journey to the hospital, and then another hospital, that takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R. They're in the midst of an outbreak of super rabies, and Nats has been bitten. Not only that, but she's also pregnant, and they're in a race against time to try and get her treated. We're with them over the course of just a few hours as they desperately try to navigate though the chaos the pandemic has brought with it (How very timely...). All this sounds wonderfully exciting in theory, but in practice... it was boring.
Now I'm actually a big fan of introspective, character-driven horror, and I really dig the idea of the horror coming not from the situation the disease has created, but from watching your best friend succumbing to it, yet I found the pacing so awfully slow and the characters themselves so insufferable that I was wishing for Nats to just hurry up and kick the bucket already. After the initial burst of action where Nats is attacked, the only other part of interest was when they met up with two teenage boys who I would much rather have followed, but were quickly discarded by our self-centered protagonists.
Nats and Rams were both incredibly annoying people. Nats was snarky, Rams was bland, both were selfish. I don't even mind books about awful people, or books about good people who act selfishly because don't we all sometimes, but I felt as though the author wanted to write these two women as likable and failed miserably. In the same vein, when we encountered characters espousing conspiracy theories about the pandemic, I felt as though the author wanted us to see them as stupid or crazy, but at the same time... our main characters' actions actually made what these people were doing seem totally justified! A lot of the time I was frustrated, feeling like there was an interesting story to be told, but that it was stuck behind plodding, over-descriptive text and unsympathetic characters, unable to shine.
In conclusion, I feel like either I was being masterfully manipulated by the author, and this was truly supposed to be a novel about two selfish women that shows how gun-toting conspiracy theorists may actually have the right approach... or the protagonists were supposed to be sympathetic people, and the author failed spectacularly. In reality, I think it's probably neither, and just a case of me not meshing with his particular writing style!
andrew298's review against another edition
Should have known at the start that this would end up on the DNF shelf, when in the space of two pages, the author tells us that the front door slams shut, but somehow without it being opened again, they then state that a character should walk through the 'still open' door.
I persevered as long as I could, as I was hoping it was going to hit its potential, but at about 40%, I realized that I already knew exactly what was going to happen, that it wasn't going to go anywhere and therefore I wasn't invested enough to continue. The main protagonists were worthless as characters and since the whole book was basically character driven, as they had barely gone anywhere by the time I gave up, it seemed like I knew that these rest of the book would be more of the same and abandoned ship.
I persevered as long as I could, as I was hoping it was going to hit its potential, but at about 40%, I realized that I already knew exactly what was going to happen, that it wasn't going to go anywhere and therefore I wasn't invested enough to continue. The main protagonists were worthless as characters and since the whole book was basically character driven, as they had barely gone anywhere by the time I gave up, it seemed like I knew that these rest of the book would be more of the same and abandoned ship.