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A review by shh_reading85
Pale Highway by Nicholas Conley
4.0
I received this eBook from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Please visit me at my blog Shh, I Am Reading for more reviews like this!
This was an extremely complex story. It touches deeply on the horror of Alzheimer’s and the decline into one’s self once it has set in.
Gabriel Schist is 70ish years old and has had an accomplished life. Having cured AIDS and won a Nobel Peace Prize for it, everyone who is anyone has taken his cure. Except himself, of course.
When a mysterious illness being dubbed The Black Virus starts attacking residents at the nursing home and all over America, Gabriel must race against his own deteriorating mental state and try to find a cure for this virus before it kills all that he holds dear.
This story touches on that question of “what is reality?” a lot. Especially as Schist begins seeing and talking with slugs. I had a Never Ending Story 1 moment when Schist rode one of the slugs. I was waiting for someone to say “he’s a racing slug!” Haha.
The slugs and the Sky Amoeba added a really weird element to the story, however. I could understand him hallucinating Death; but the Sky Amoeba? Odd.
I suppose it has a religious backing, the Sky Amoeba being God and the Slugs being the angels or messengers.
The very sad and rapid deterioration of Gabriel Schist is very prominent in this novel as well. His moments with his daughter, where he’s remembering his ex-wife and his love for her as well as the moments where he wants to tell his daughter how much she means to him and is unable to. It was heart breaking. Especially at the end.
It was a slow to begin kind of read and took time to build up, but it was well worth the read and oh, all the feels! I was a bit disappointed when it ended, but it was quite the climax.
But the question remains, what if the Sky Amoeba is truly real? Hmm.
Please visit me at my blog Shh, I Am Reading for more reviews like this!
This was an extremely complex story. It touches deeply on the horror of Alzheimer’s and the decline into one’s self once it has set in.
Gabriel Schist is 70ish years old and has had an accomplished life. Having cured AIDS and won a Nobel Peace Prize for it, everyone who is anyone has taken his cure. Except himself, of course.
When a mysterious illness being dubbed The Black Virus starts attacking residents at the nursing home and all over America, Gabriel must race against his own deteriorating mental state and try to find a cure for this virus before it kills all that he holds dear.
This story touches on that question of “what is reality?” a lot. Especially as Schist begins seeing and talking with slugs. I had a Never Ending Story 1 moment when Schist rode one of the slugs. I was waiting for someone to say “he’s a racing slug!” Haha.
The slugs and the Sky Amoeba added a really weird element to the story, however. I could understand him hallucinating Death; but the Sky Amoeba? Odd.
I suppose it has a religious backing, the Sky Amoeba being God and the Slugs being the angels or messengers.
The very sad and rapid deterioration of Gabriel Schist is very prominent in this novel as well. His moments with his daughter, where he’s remembering his ex-wife and his love for her as well as the moments where he wants to tell his daughter how much she means to him and is unable to. It was heart breaking. Especially at the end.
It was a slow to begin kind of read and took time to build up, but it was well worth the read and oh, all the feels! I was a bit disappointed when it ended, but it was quite the climax.
But the question remains, what if the Sky Amoeba is truly real? Hmm.