The state of New England is in lockdown, a virulent new strain of plague having swept the land. Hospitals can’t cope and society is teetering on collapse. Amidst all this carnage, a pregnant woman, Natalie, is bitten and her husband killed. Natalie flees her house and calls her closest friend, English-born paediatrician Ramola Sherman. So begins a road trip across the pandemic inflicted landscape.
Survivor song is billed as both a pandemic novel and the author’s take on the zombie genre. The rabies virus in this book is virulent, affecting people within hours. Then becoming delusional and aggressive, the victims act like zombies from the movies.
From my experience readers are torn at the moment when it comes to reading pandemic-set fiction. Some are shunning it, wanting escapism from the Covid-19 lockdowns of reality. Others are embracing it. There’s clearly still a market, with Contagion being one of the most-watched films on Netflix and a number of such titles flying from the bookshelves. Personally, I have to admit to being in the former camp and so was a little wary of reading this. But Paul Tremblay is an author who I’ve heard much about and I’ve been reading quite a bit of horror recently, so I dived in.
I have to say that I’m glad I did, because this is a brilliant book, possibly my book of the year so far. In part it’s because it’s not a pandemic novel as such and it’s not really a book about zombies. Both these elements are there of course, but really this is a book about friendship. Two women, who are close friends, who have to navigate the aftermath of a disastrous event.
There are touches of social commentary: a President ill-suited to confronting the crisis and unwilling to take control; the peddlers of conspiracy theory and the racism, xenophobia and militias they stoke; two young teenagers who view everything through the prism of video games and Hollywood movies. It all works well, but at heart, this is a simple tale of two friends' reliance on each other and their attempts to get through in one piece. It’s in its telling of this simple truth which makes this book excel.
Horror fiction is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment and Paul Tremblay is one of the new breed of authors leading the charge. Survivor Song is the first novel by him that I’ve read, but on the basis of this, I’ve already bought one of his earlier titles, The Cabin at the End of the Woods. His publisher, Titan Books, is on a run too. Not only do they publish Tremblay, but they also publish Tim Lebbon, who’s novel Eden was excellent, and I’m looking forward to The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones.
Survivor Song is truly an excellent novel and a great addition to the Titan Books canon. I can't recommend this book enough.
5 out of 5 stars
I'm going to publish my first book. But can't understand how should I start! Because I want to keep the rights and royalties of my book. Can you suggest me which publishing method should I choose?
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