The blurb says this book is LORD OF THE FLIES meets THE RUINS, but there is little in common with either story. Yes, there are boys on an island, but they don't crash there, form alliances and fight each other over control of the island as in William Golding's famous tale. Nor is this book about a group of people visiting some ancient, creepy ruins. Instead, we get a story about a troop of five boy scouts and their scoutmaster/doctor Tim enjoying a weekend trip to an island when a disgustingly thin hungry man stumbles upon them. The group doesn't realize fast enough that the ravenous man is a walking virus, teeming with vile, nasty horrors.

The narrative delivers powerful, graphic descriptions in this body horror contagion tale. The visceral imagery is reminiscent of both Tim Curran's quality and quantity. Yes, the author is good at painting disturbing scenes. This caters to those who love graphic body horror, scene after scene after scene. If the story had gone on much longer, it would have become repetitive, but I felt there was enough variation and creativity to separate the scenes. One could criticize there isn't much rising intensity with the horrors described. Do they really get any worse as the story goes on? Not too much. But the revulsion factor is up there, and it makes the reader uncomfortable.

The reader is often given breaks after dramatic, gory scenes with dictated interviews, newspaper clippings, etc. This fragmentary approach reminded me of WORLD WAR Z and while I think this can work in some stories, it can seem gimmicky (and it's being overused in too many horror stories these days). I would rather have read the story of the boy's parents fighting to rescue them and learning important back story through more creative scenes like that versus so many obvious information dumps. To make matters worse, at around two-thirds into the story, one of these dumps tells exactly how many survivors will be left on the island. Why? I stopped reading for a bit and shook my head.

It's pretty good, definitely an above average horror read and with some more work (if it's not too late for that stage), it could be--or have been, if the editing is finished--a solid 4+ star read. Its current incarnation is 3.75 stars, rounded. It's plenty good enough to interest me in reading another horror tale by pen name Nick Cutter. Thank you to the publisher and author for letting me read and review.

FTC notice: I received an uncorrected proof advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is scheduled to be published February 25, 2014.

One more thing that has little to do with the story (and again isn't reflected in my overall rating score): I'm a little confused at Amazon that there is a Stephen King quote and yet in the author's notes at the end, it says something to the effect of Stephen King hasn't read and "likely won't read" this story (huh?). So, which is the case? Stephen King read and blurbed it ("The Troop scared the hell out of me..." - Stephen King) or he didn't read it at all and this is some kind of wishful thinking publisher promotion? The author is clearly a fan of Mr. King, and claims to have used the "chassis" of Carrie to pen this tale. The author's admiration shines through in some parts. It's puzzling how if Mr. King hasn't read this, he will be in any way encouraged to do so by this odd activity.

4,053 Kindle locations. Approximately 368 pages.

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Created Sep 01, 2013 at 4:39am • Submit your own review...