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

Some Mini Reviews

I see a growing trend with mini reviews of late and I think they're pretty awesome for a few reasons.

What some of you might not know is that I review here as well as over at Stacy Alesi's Bookbitch.com. And I prepare separate reviews for both. That's right - two reviews for each book if I cover them for both places. And sometimes it's hard!

The other reason I like mini reviews is because sometimes I simply don't have a lot to say. Either the book has been SOOOOOO well covered elsewhere that I'm not sure I'm contributing much to the conversation or I just feel meh.

So here goes, my debut mini reviews!

First up, The Three by Sarah Lotz. Readers, I was quite dying to get my hands on a copy of this book but I didn't get around to it for a while. When I did, I really wasn't sure what to make of it.

Four different flights from around the world crash on the same day with seemingly no connection. The circumstances of each flight are different, the flights all departed from different countries and were bound for equally different destinations. They aren't the same kind of plane nor are any of them from the same airline. But in three of the crashes there is just one survivor - a child. And on one flight, a passenger managed to leave a strange message before passing away. A message that leads some to believe that these children aren't lucky survivors at all. As fear and paranoia increase, the children are targeted by groups who believe in everything from the second coming and the apocalypse to aliens themselves. 

The Three is not a straightforward narrative. Instead, the premise is that it is actually interviews and documents used by writer Elspeth Martins in writing her own book about the crashes.

The book begins ominously enough and there is a constant undertone of dread throughout, but it isn't until the conclusion that the book becomes really creepy.

I quite enjoyed this outing from Lotz. It's one of those books that's stuck with me since reading. I was pleased as punch to discover there was to be a sequel of sorts in Day Four as well.

Rating: 4.5/5

Next, A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin - one of the debut titles from Simon and Schuster's Simon451 imprint.

Child psychologist Caitlin O'Hara has a difficult task ahead of her. She's been brought in to examine and treat the daughter of India's UN ambassador. The ambassador himself narrowly survived an assassination attempt that his daughter, Maanik, was unfortunately witness to. The girl wasn't physically harmed in any way, but her mental state has rapidly declined leading another doctor to issue a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Caitlin is certain that isn't the case, more so when she discovers evidence of at least two other teens in other countries. Determined to help, Caitlin travels to Haiti to meet with one of the other afflicted and soon realizes that the kids are suffering from something that could defy all known explanation. 

While I wasn't blown away by Anderson's debut outing, I have to say I was pretty satisfied by the end of the book. A Vision of Fire is the first in a series and clearly so. There are a lot of questions left at the end of the book as well as a cliffhanger of an ending that has left me anxious for the second installment ever since reading.

Rating: 4/5

And finally Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson:

Cassie lives in fear that one day the people who came after her parents will come after her and her brother as well. But these people aren't people at all. Since 1914, Earth has lived under the influence of a presence most aren't aware of. They've altered the course of human history, some would argue for the better, but their ultimate goal is still unknown and anyone who's discovered their secret is eliminated quickly and quietly. 

This was an odd one. It was one I'd really looked forward to. I mean the premise just sounded super cool! I'd say about 75% of it did pretty much live up to my expectations. The other 25%, including the very abrupt and sort of meh ending, let me down a little. Even this long after finishing it I'm still on the fence, which is why I've actually held off on covering it for so long.

Rating: 3/5