Review: The ending left me with goosebumps. I'm excited to see what's next.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
Four stories of the outbreak in different parts of the world, each told by individual first person narration, indicated by name in chapter subtitles. In Omaha, Nebraska, Sharon is startled awake when an explosion sounds. Gerry in Ontario, Canada recalls the events during the first two weeks as the severity of the new 'plague' is downplayed until it's too late. In Pittsburgh, PA, Lucia learned the horrible fate of her friends when she arrives at their home in hopes of tagging along on their boat. And Paul, in Dublin, Ireland fortifies his apartment building with neighbors to wait out the worst of things, but must leave safety in search of medications for a child.Each narrator supplies readers with their different version of the infection's origins they have heard on the media. From Global warning to rabies, no one knows for sure how it all began. This narration approach is largely successful, causing confusion only towards the end of the book, when the narrators come together. And it's not lost on me that the four contributing authors have lent their names to each narrator. I was excited to see how four collaborators on one novel would pan out, and am happy to say they did a wonderful job and the end result is excellent. In a Ginger Nuts of Horror interview with contributing author Paul Freeman, Paul states:"Season Of The Dead is such an unusual project, a novel written by four separate authors all writing about the same apocalypse from their own part of the world, four separate threads that ultimately merge."There are a few minuscule editing issues; a word misspelled here and there or the space after a period missing, but nothing major to pull a reader out of the story. Unless you're reading with the intent on finding errors, you probably won't even notice them.I like that it's a complete story; no important questions are left unanswered. However, at times it feels a bit long and each time I checked I was amazed to see a substantial amount left. Luckily, the story kept a good momentum and those brief moments were easily forgotten after a few pages.The best part of 'Season of the Dead' is the conclusion. And no, I don't mean that as in thank goodness it's over. Because, frankly, when it hit that point I wanted another 300 pages. There is an epic moment at the end that I never saw coming. Once the first clue was given, I thought 'oh, s***, that's really about to happen'. Then I kept reading and decided 'okay, maybe it won't'. And then it did! It caused goosebumps to spring up all over and I gasped out loud. Fantastic job building suspense!