Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Publication Date: 2nd June 2015
Pages: 301
MY REVIEW:
A copy of Spore
was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Tamara Jones in exchange
for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by Samhain
Publishing.
I seem to be
saying this a lot lately, but, I have seen the name Tamara Jones floating
around but I never read her stuff before. I can only ask myself why the hell
not. I will be rectifying that mistake by adding more of Mrs Jones to my ever
growing “To Be Read” pile.
Sean Casey is an
artist. He draws the pictures for a comic called Ghoulbane. On a normal day he
takes a break from his sketching and goes to his back yard for a breather. One
after another, ten random people appear out of nowhere and walk onto his
property. They are all naked and confused.
It transpires
these people are all dead and have been for varying amounts of time. Something
has happened to the water by the local cemetery and they have all “Spored”.
Brought back from the dead in perfect condition, better, in fact, than they
were when they died.
Sean has to try
and deal with this phenomenon the best way he can. He finds fame from
television interviews he gave. He finds scorn when he allows Mindy, one of the
Spore’s to move into his house until she can get settled and rebuild her
“life”. He finds violence when Mindy’s ex tries to put her back underground. He
finds constant torture from his nightmares about his troubled childhood. Old
evils come to life again. Quite literally. Who will survive? The living or the
dead?
Think zombie
story. Now scrap that and think of a zombie story with a difference. Living,
breathing zombies that are trying to earn their place back in society. Do they
deserve it? Should they be scorned? This story raises a lot of questions about
our society in general. What we believe in. What we have faith in. What, some
you may consider to be insane, believe in. Interesting? It is when it’s told as
masterfully as this.
Tamara Jones has
created a story that turns most zombie / horror stories on their heads. It is a
fascinating idea. It’s been done before where alien species have come to earth
and tried to integrate into “our” society. What is it like though for someone
to literally come back from the dead trying to catch up with technology? Trying
to deal with friends and family who have died while they were dead? Trying to
deal with living relatives that want nothing to do with them, believing it’s
all just one big con? Mix this in with murder, growing disease, years old
secrets and vicious, evil people and you have a story that is gripping from the
first page right to the last.
Characters wise
in this book? Brilliant. All of them. Our main character, Sean is just a normal
guy trying to make a living to keep his head above water and keep his
girlfriend Mare. They fit together so well. Sean’s mother? I just wanted to
slap her at the beginning. By about three quarters of the way through I wanted
to punch and kick her. The spore Mindy? I just wanted to cuddle her and tell
her everything would be ok. Other smaller characters all have their own gifts
to bring to the story. The policeman Todd who grows as the story grows into a
man you would trust with your life and cheer to the end. Sean’s uncle Paul,
also a spore is quite possibly one of the most hateful characters I have ever
read but again, his role fits perfectly into the story.
I really do not
want to tell you much more about the plot itself. I must admit I wondered what
you could possibly do with this sort of scenario but, believe me, Tamara Jones
does it perfectly. This book has thrills and spills. It has murder. It has
zombies. It has intrigue. It has disgustingly harrowing scenes that at times
made me feel sick to my stomach but they just added to the story and the level
of hatred you will end up feeling for one of the characters.
Is it horror?
This is my only negative. I didn’t find it that scary. But, and this is a big
but, I mean scary in the jump out of your seat or hide behind a cushion type of
scary. It is scary in so many other ways though. When you sit back and think
about what is actually happening as the story progresses, your mind works
overtime in trying to figure out how you would deal with things. Above all for
me this is a very thrilling read.
To summarise:
honestly? Just buy it when it comes out. You will love it. When I do my end of
year list of favourite books, this will definitely be in it.
General rating:
★★★★★ Perfect story.
Horror rating:
★★★ Could have been a lot scarier for me.
You can buy Spore here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Synopsis:
The dead are coming back.
Ten naked people walk from a cemetery into artist Sean Casey’s backyard: ten Spore People who used to be dead. One, Mindy, stays with Sean while trying to reclaim her life, but her ex would rather she return to her grave. Sean struggles to protect Mindy and other Spores while battling his recurring—and worsening—nightmares. Meanwhile, the media feeds a panicked frenzy that leads both the hopeful and hateful to Sean’s front door.
As the Spore fungus spreads, so does the fear. When mutilated children match Sean’s nightmares, he realizes his own worst terror may be closer than he thinks.
Tamara is represented by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.
You can see more of Tamara at her website.
No comments:
Post a Comment