Zo's Book Reviews: Survivor Song

 

Holy frikkin shit...

Survivor Song is the latest novel by American author of science fiction, horror, and dark fantasy Paul Tremblay, and follows doctor Ramola Sherman and her best friend Natalie, as Rams helps her friend get to a hospital in time to give birth to her child. But here's the catch...this is all happening during a lock-down of New England, as a rabies-like virus has a strong grip on the entire area, infecting people and animals alike.

What we're treated to with this story by Tremblay is something eerily similar to what's going on in America today with the current pandemic. We're seeing lock-downs, we're seeing people panicked and scared, we're seeing people getting sick. The amazing thing of it all is that this isn't straight up horror or just about the outbreak. It's scary, definitely, especially in the times we're living in, but that's all surface. The ways the infected animals and people act is somewhat standard 'zombie' affair...but that's not what I got out of it. Sure, someone being attacked and ripped apart by a mindless infected person is indeed scary, and there are some very effective tension filled moments throughout, but again that's not all this is about.

The story itself is a tragic one. I said that it was scary, but the tragic tale of these two friends traversing this landscape was really the thing that got my emotions going. I openly wept at the ending, which caught me completely off-guard. This, to me, proves how much of an excellent writer Paul Tremblay is. He makes you care about every single character in this story, no matter how insignificant they may seem to the story as a whole. The teens that help Rams and Nats along the way are colorful characters that put their own safety at risk to help our heroines get to where they need to go, and their finale is also one that had my heart shatter.

You think you know how this kind of a story should go, but Tremblay throws you off-course so much that you end up reading not a horror story, not a science fiction story, but a story about friendship, about people trying to keep some semblance of normalcy in a world that is going to shit. You see these very real connections that make you care and think about your own life in a whole new way.

Is this Paul Tremblay's story about a virus that grips and destroys Americans?

No.

This is Paul Tremblay's story about people. It's about survival. And it is indeed beautiful.

Check it out, it's on sale now. Sassafras and lullabies.

FINAL SCORE: A