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brackenmacleod's review against another edition
5.0
Last spring I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an ARC of Paul Tremblay's "Survivor Song." I made it about 40 pages in before I had to tap out because everything seemed too present, too prescient. I decided yesterday to give it another go, hoping the presence of a vaccine and hope about the future would alter the way I related to the material. I reread those same forty pages yesterday. Today, I finished the entire book. It's amazing. Absolutely astounding and perfectly drawn. As usual, I am jealous of Paul's literary style overall, his ability to craft a gorgeous sentence, and his way around the inner workings of people. So good!
mattp_guatshakes's review against another edition
4.0
Part Cujo, part Night of the Living Dead, part Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
kimabill's review against another edition
3.0
This is the apocalyptic story of a strain of highly infectious rabies that spreads from animals to humans and turns humans into deadly zombies. In the book, a pregnant woman who has been bitten by a zombie is racing to a hospital with her best friend who is a doctor, hoping that 10 the vaccine she has been given will work, and 20 that they can c-section the baby out of her before it either becomes infected itself of the mom dies. It's pretty intense, and not ideal reading during pandemic-times. Chapter 2 was literally a depiction of a discussion among hospital staffers about how they didn't have enough PPE to protect themselves during the outbreak. A little too real. One further thought is that I wish this had been written by a woman because the voices of the two female narrators did not feel authentic to me.
douglasweaver's review against another edition
5.0
A damn fine story. If you are a fan of BIRDBOX, MALORIE, or WONDERLAND, you need to read this book. Strong female protagonist. Epic plague. Fast paced but with characters who have depth.
crickyn's review against another edition
3.0
Paul Tremblay is in my top 5 favorite writers. He has written excellent horror/weird fiction, 5 star fiction, much of which I have reread.
I was disappointed in this book. If you are reading him for the first time, please read Cabin at the End of the World, his excellent short story collection Growing Things, and my favorite, A Head Full of Ghosts. Survivor Song is simply not near his best, but any of his new work will still be a Must Read for me in the future.
I was disappointed in this book. If you are reading him for the first time, please read Cabin at the End of the World, his excellent short story collection Growing Things, and my favorite, A Head Full of Ghosts. Survivor Song is simply not near his best, but any of his new work will still be a Must Read for me in the future.
amdoyle89's review against another edition
2.0
The beginning was amazing. Once the ambulance scene started that’s where it went downhill for me. Nothing really happened I was SO BORED. I skipped to the wildly predictable ending and was happy I chose a huge chunk to skip because :yawn:
Edited to add how much I hated the “Nats” “Rams” “Dunks”
Edited to add how much I hated the “Nats” “Rams” “Dunks”
meadforddude's review against another edition
3.0
Depending on one's perspective, this either benefits or suffers from the coincidental timeliness of its premise. For me, I'm already weary of post-apocalypse or end-of-the-world narratives in general (not to mention zombie films of any backdrop), so this wasn't something I was especially in the mood for, and one should judge my rating accordingly.
Overall, probably my least-favorite thing I've read of Tremblay's, but - to be fair - he's established such a rock solid body of work up to this point that my expectations going in were pretty high. The narrow focus of the narrative places emphasis on the central characters that - in my opinion - they're both a little too thinly sketched to support. The stakes were stacked so overwhelmingly against all of them from the jump, and the occasional fatalistic interludes (from which the title is somewhat derived) basically sapped any suspense from where things were headed. The whole thing just became a slow, grim slog to a bittersweet ending that's all but chiseled in stone early on.
Overall, probably my least-favorite thing I've read of Tremblay's, but - to be fair - he's established such a rock solid body of work up to this point that my expectations going in were pretty high. The narrow focus of the narrative places emphasis on the central characters that - in my opinion - they're both a little too thinly sketched to support. The stakes were stacked so overwhelmingly against all of them from the jump, and the occasional fatalistic interludes (from which the title is somewhat derived) basically sapped any suspense from where things were headed. The whole thing just became a slow, grim slog to a bittersweet ending that's all but chiseled in stone early on.
bagismguru's review against another edition
5.0
Tremblay is especially adept at using the unknown as an element in his plots and he is again effective in doing so here. I also loved the way the added spacing in the text translated in the scenes in which it was used.
brownh's review against another edition
5.0
The last line is haunting.
Reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic makes lines in the book sound oh so familiar. Fast paced, couldn’t put it down.
Reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic makes lines in the book sound oh so familiar. Fast paced, couldn’t put it down.