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lisabee12's review against another edition
4.0
Compelling... I didn’t know where he was taking us. I appreciated how the story felt like it took place over days when it was really just hours. The author really built up the tension. Probably not my favorite, but definitely a good one.
spiritismus's review
4.0
Ik heb dit boek echt verslonden en misschien is het daardoor ook wel 5⭐️ waard. Ik vond de ziekte een fascinerend concept, waarschijnlijk beïnvloed door covid maar dat is natuurlijk prima. De paralellen tussen deze twee ziektes vond ik juist vermakelijk en het zorgde ook voor inside grapjes (opmerkingen over de Amerikaanse regering en complottheorieën). Tegelijkertijd is het boek erg beklemmend en voel je wel de urgentie die de hoofdpersonages ook voelen. Het had voor mij nog wat meer horror elementen mogen hebben, nu kwamen die af en toe voorbij alsof het niks interessants was. Tegelijkertijd had dat juist iets tragisch; als je al continue word overspoeld door moord en doodslag om je heen raak je natuurlijk ook wat afgestompt. Op een gegeven moment zit die emmer van emoties gewoon vol. Ik heb echt genoten van dit boek, en het nét niet in één dag/ruk uitgelezen, al was het verloop en einde redelijk voorspelbaar.
nancyadelman's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a fairy tale. This is a song. It is a story about two people, Ramola or Rams, a pediatric doctor, and her best friend, Natalie. Natalie is eight and a half months pregnant and has been exposed to a Rabies-like virus and is trying to get medical care with the help of Rams. The virus has caused an apocalypse in the near future America and no one is safe even in their own home.
I wasn't sure whether to label this as a horror novel or a thriller, and kinda went back and forth, but then my dog decided for me. He jumped on my lap at a perilous moment in the book, causing me to jump about a foot in the air and family members to snicker. So I think this book is a horror novel. The really disqueting thing about this book is that it feels like it was written 5 minutes ago for the time period that we are living in right here and now. It is about a virus for which there is no know remedy that has been allowed to run wild. It contains a "Jackass tweeting President." It has conspiracy theories and national guardsmen and people lining up to get tested. It has protestors.
The book is right about 300 pages but the story in the book takes place over the space of just a few hours. The two main characters were very well developed and had realistic faults and problems. There was a pretty good level of suspense maintained throughout the book. The author cleverly used white space to indicate an unknown passage of time a couple of times. The book is told from alternating points-of-view of Ramola or Natalie. There is some violence throughout the book, and somewhat gory descriptions of people attacking people or animals attacking people or vice versa. I really liked this book. I like Mr. Tremblay's writing. I think my only complaint is that his writing is too short and leaves me wanting something longer.
I wasn't sure whether to label this as a horror novel or a thriller, and kinda went back and forth, but then my dog decided for me. He jumped on my lap at a perilous moment in the book, causing me to jump about a foot in the air and family members to snicker. So I think this book is a horror novel. The really disqueting thing about this book is that it feels like it was written 5 minutes ago for the time period that we are living in right here and now. It is about a virus for which there is no know remedy that has been allowed to run wild. It contains a "Jackass tweeting President." It has conspiracy theories and national guardsmen and people lining up to get tested. It has protestors.
The book is right about 300 pages but the story in the book takes place over the space of just a few hours. The two main characters were very well developed and had realistic faults and problems. There was a pretty good level of suspense maintained throughout the book. The author cleverly used white space to indicate an unknown passage of time a couple of times. The book is told from alternating points-of-view of Ramola or Natalie. There is some violence throughout the book, and somewhat gory descriptions of people attacking people or animals attacking people or vice versa. I really liked this book. I like Mr. Tremblay's writing. I think my only complaint is that his writing is too short and leaves me wanting something longer.
smooove_reads's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
hannahnaiomi's review against another edition
4.0
The only thing I didn't like was Natalie's personality. She was very unbearable. All and all this reminded me a lot of covid 19 except WAY WORSE. The ending was okay. Luis's fate still hurts the most tho.
pimpdaddyem's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
annamolpus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
mehsi's review
5.0
Welcome to a world where getting rabies means you are very screwed. Follow Ramola and Natalie as they try to find safety for Natalie and her unborn child.
I wasn’t sure if I was up for this book with all the pandemic and this one being about an outbreak of rabies only more extreme. AKA, if you got bit? Well you are screwed. Unless you got bit in your toe and got to a hospital fast enough. Otherwise bye bye. There is a reason why I have no zombie horror books on my lists as I just cannot stomach that at this time. My mental health is already messed up as it is no need to add some more plagues to it.
In this book we have Natalie (the pregnant mom who gets bit) and Ramola (her best friend and a doctor). We see them try to get Natalie to safety… and later try to at least get her baby to safety. But the way isn’t one of ease. The landscape is drastically changed and danger lurks everywhere.
I loved both characters though I have to say that Natalie was my favourite out of the two. She was just so sassy and despite all that happened she tried to stay herself. Ramola was also a good character and I loved how dedicated she was to her friend. I loved reading about both characters and get more information on how they met, how long they have been friends, and what they have been doing in life.
There are many scary moments in this book, from how Natalie’s husband got bitten to the parts in the hospital to later parts. The people with rabies were just freaking scary. They not only were totally gone and rabid, but at times they were reciting random things, like in this part:” A woman shouts from above, “She had great power and was dreaded by all the world.” The door slams shut and then swings open without pause. “Surrounded by a high wall,” she says singsong, lilting at “high” and separating “wall” into two syllables. Her voice is the same tone and pitch as the alarm and it sounds like there are two of her. The woman continues shouting between the pistonlike opening and closing of the door. Let it cost what it will cost.”
Yep, these peeps with rabies are just a bit fat NOPE and need to be avoided at all times. They will eat and rip and tear.
I am glad that it didn’t went the way with zombies, here if you died you just died. Done.
My heart just broke when Natalie started making voice records for her unborn child. Seeing her talk to her baby so that at least it would have her voice to listen was just so sad. I felt for her. She knew she probably never would meet her baby. The things she told her unborn child were honest, hilarious, and sweet. I loved that she gave the child all sorts of tidbits about her and Paul so that the kid would at least know a bit about mom and dad.
As the story continues we see Natalie be less and less herself, and it was just frightening me. I felt for Natalie, but also Ramola, who both tried to stay happy, to stay positive, despite all the signs clearly pointing to something else. The author did a great job on showing how things progressed with Natalie. It was so well written!
I have to say I was pretty pissed at how the people on the bus treated her. Yes, she is changing, yes she may become dangerous, but she still carries an unborn HEALTHY child in her belly. Be a bit more kinder.
I loved the ending and I loved that we got to see how it went with the world or I should say the US as the rabies stuff was only there, someone special, and two other characters. My heart broke though for what Ramola had to choose and what she had to do. I can only imagine how hard that was for her. How it completely broke her, I wonder if she can ever come over what happened.
The writing style is just absolutely lovely. Lyrical and fun and scary, with plenty of memorable quotes. Sometimes when the writing style is the way it is it feels pretentious, but in this one it just fit perfectly and made it all the more scary and exciting. You could feel all the hopelessness, but at times also the hope that maybe things would still be all right.
Plus, I learned some new words! Yay!
I could probably talk for hours about this book, but I will keep at what I said here so it doesn’t get too long. This book just grab me, this book was amazing. I would highly recommend this haunting tale.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I wasn’t sure if I was up for this book with all the pandemic and this one being about an outbreak of rabies only more extreme. AKA, if you got bit? Well you are screwed. Unless you got bit in your toe and got to a hospital fast enough. Otherwise bye bye. There is a reason why I have no zombie horror books on my lists as I just cannot stomach that at this time. My mental health is already messed up as it is no need to add some more plagues to it.
In this book we have Natalie (the pregnant mom who gets bit) and Ramola (her best friend and a doctor). We see them try to get Natalie to safety… and later try to at least get her baby to safety. But the way isn’t one of ease. The landscape is drastically changed and danger lurks everywhere.
I loved both characters though I have to say that Natalie was my favourite out of the two. She was just so sassy and despite all that happened she tried to stay herself. Ramola was also a good character and I loved how dedicated she was to her friend. I loved reading about both characters and get more information on how they met, how long they have been friends, and what they have been doing in life.
There are many scary moments in this book, from how Natalie’s husband got bitten to the parts in the hospital to later parts. The people with rabies were just freaking scary. They not only were totally gone and rabid, but at times they were reciting random things, like in this part:” A woman shouts from above, “She had great power and was dreaded by all the world.” The door slams shut and then swings open without pause. “Surrounded by a high wall,” she says singsong, lilting at “high” and separating “wall” into two syllables. Her voice is the same tone and pitch as the alarm and it sounds like there are two of her. The woman continues shouting between the pistonlike opening and closing of the door. Let it cost what it will cost.”
Yep, these peeps with rabies are just a bit fat NOPE and need to be avoided at all times. They will eat and rip and tear.
I am glad that it didn’t went the way with zombies, here if you died you just died. Done.
My heart just broke when Natalie started making voice records for her unborn child. Seeing her talk to her baby so that at least it would have her voice to listen was just so sad. I felt for her. She knew she probably never would meet her baby. The things she told her unborn child were honest, hilarious, and sweet. I loved that she gave the child all sorts of tidbits about her and Paul so that the kid would at least know a bit about mom and dad.
As the story continues we see Natalie be less and less herself, and it was just frightening me. I felt for Natalie, but also Ramola, who both tried to stay happy, to stay positive, despite all the signs clearly pointing to something else. The author did a great job on showing how things progressed with Natalie. It was so well written!
I have to say I was pretty pissed at how the people on the bus treated her. Yes, she is changing, yes she may become dangerous, but she still carries an unborn HEALTHY child in her belly. Be a bit more kinder.
I loved the ending and I loved that we got to see how it went with the world or I should say the US as the rabies stuff was only there, someone special, and two other characters. My heart broke though for what Ramola had to choose and what she had to do. I can only imagine how hard that was for her. How it completely broke her, I wonder if she can ever come over what happened.
The writing style is just absolutely lovely. Lyrical and fun and scary, with plenty of memorable quotes. Sometimes when the writing style is the way it is it feels pretentious, but in this one it just fit perfectly and made it all the more scary and exciting. You could feel all the hopelessness, but at times also the hope that maybe things would still be all right.
Plus, I learned some new words! Yay!
I could probably talk for hours about this book, but I will keep at what I said here so it doesn’t get too long. This book just grab me, this book was amazing. I would highly recommend this haunting tale.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
mcpingeton's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0