Day Four by Sarah Lotz

With one day left in their cruise, The Beautiful Dreamer passengers are looking forward to celebrating New Year's Eve and returning to port. But this cruise is about to become a nightmare!

A fire in the engine room leaves the ship without engine power and slowly failing back ups. WiFi and communications are out completely and supplies are running low when the Norovirus begins to make its way around the ship. Tempers are running high amongst the passengers, a body has been found in one of the staterooms, and now crew members are claiming to have seen ghosts in the lower levels. Logic says they'll be rescued in no time, but as more time passes with no other ships in site that certainty begins to turn to fear.

This is the kind of book I crave! It's eerie and creepy and impossible to put down. It's also a companion to Lotz's The Three - not a prequel or true sequel, but definitely connected.

Day Four left me with a massive book hangover that couldn't even be combatted by my usual sure fire genre shift. Nope, this cruise ship weirdness left me wanting MORE!

Weirdness is really the only way to describe Lotz's work. If you've read The Three, then you know. Day Four has the same underlying tone of dread but is a much more mainstream narrative style. It's still not 100% typical horror, but I'm totally fine with atypical genre reads. I do think it makes it more appealing to folks who normally wouldn't read horror, too. Go gateway reads!

Human horror is kind of the bigger focus in both The Three and Day Four - how people react to the situation, the things they do to one another, the things they do to themselves. Lotz gives the reader varying perspectives in this one: Maddie, assistant to the famed psychic Celine de Ray; Althea, a steward in the upper decks; Gary, a killer; Helen, one of the passengers whose reason for being on the ship is unlike anyone else's; Jesse, the ship doctor with a past; Devi, one of the ship's security guards; and Xavier, a blogger whose goal is debunking Celine. As things grow worse on the ship, each of these characters is witness and participant.

As with The Three it's not until the end that things begin to become a bit more clear - more clear but not cleared up! -, which means I'm hoping Lotz has more to develop in this world for us. Until then, I've given up trying to combat my book hangover by tackling Lotz's coauthored Downside series (The Mall, The Ward, and The New Girl by SL Grey). If you're looking for some summer horror that's a little atypical of the genre, I highly, highly recommend Lotz's work!

Rating: 5/5