Review: A roller coaster with no brakes
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 25, 2012
This is not a genre I usually read, so much so I'm not even sure what genre it's in.William Scott wakes up with a killer hangover.  Well done and believable, but I'm thinking so what?  Then things get strange.  Wolves in the hallway, birds that won't fly, dead neighbors.  It gets worse and worse faster and faster.It's a quick read that keeps your attention.  I read it in a little over an hour and couldn't have stopped if the house was afire.  I especially enjoyed Will's character, and how he makes bonehead decisions but still manages to pull through.There were a few glitches that popped me out of the story world, but I dove back in and was sucked right along.  For example: there are hungry wolves in the building, hungry enough to take on a living Will, but not hungry enough to scavenge the dead neighbor in the hallway.  For example: Will looks at himself in a mirror, a few scenes after he smashed said mirror with a baseball bat.  For example:  He rolled a Lamborghini.  That's virtually impossible with a car that low slung.  Spin out, yes; roll, no.And then we come to the ending, and alas I was disappointed.  He's escaped plague, wolves, another human in better shape with better arms, and even an exploding town.  He's stuck at a gas station and what saves the day?  Not Will: a phone call from some previously unmentioned group of people who were secretly cheering for him.And too many things are left hanging.  I don't need everything to be wrapped up with a bow, but honestly, in this story nothing is wrapped up.  We don't know where the plague came from.  We don't know why Will survived it.  We don't know who the secret group of people are or why they couldn't save Will sooner.  We don't know how or why they blew up the town or what they hoped to accomplish by doing so.Perhaps it's okay in this genre to leave everything unexplained, but I found it dissatisfying.  I also felt like we were running full throttle and the suddenly, bam! - the story's over.But except for the unsatisfying ending, I enjoyed this novella thoroughly.