Survivor Song

In Survivor Song we meet Dr Ramola Sherman - a British doctor living in Massachusetts. In the last few weeks a pandemic has broken out; a very fast acting strain of rabies is sweeping through the nation. It takes as little as an hour for the infected to become violent, frothing at the mouth and seemingly insane. They will do anything to spread the infection by biting anything (or any one) they come into contact with.

When Ramola receives a frantic call from one of her friends, heavily pregnant Natalie, who informs Ramola that her husband has been killed by an infected and in trying to protect him Natalie has ended up being bitten herself. With a rapid countdown to full infection, can Ramola get Natalie to a hospital for treatment before its too late?

This is the first book I have read by Tremblay but I knew that he was a pretty renowned horror author, so I was desperate to read this! I'm not sure if reading about a pandemic whilst living in an actual pandemic is for everyone, but hells teeth this is a bloomin good book! This is almost like a zombie apocalypse, but not quite as there is no returning from the dead.

Tremblay really knows how to build characters that you immediately connect with and care about. As the virus affects both animals and humans there is no end the possiblity of running into something deadly and with the clock ticking until Natalie becomes fully infected, this leads to an incredibly fast paced and tense read. I couldn't put it down.

How far would you go to save your friend? The exploration of Ramola's and Natalie's bond is incredible. There are some dark moments, I even felt bad for the demise of some of the 'zombies' which is rather an incredible fait accompli. At over 300 pages, it flies by as a quick absorbing read.

I don't want to go too much into the ending. But safe to say this isn't my last Tremblay book. I adored it.

A 5 star read for me.

I would like to thank Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The last Tremblay novel I read was The Cabin At The End Of The World, I took it with me whilst I holidayed, in a remote cabin.
(Five star read by the way, an absolutely terrifying home invasion with gay rep, I rec to any horror fan.)
So of course here I am in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic reading all about a pandemic! As if PT's writing isn't atmospheric enough, this adds a whole new layer of immersion. The timing of his book release is wild.

True to form the novel opens with a dirty great BANG. We're given only moments to greet Natalie before disaster strikes in violent glory.
Now I like to think I'm a fast reader but I seriously whizzed through this book, at times I'm not sure I remembered to breathe.

The speed of infection rates, the face masks and the discussion over PPE shortages in the first chapters is uncomfortably similar to life in 2020. Whilst I'm not hiding in my home per se, I am quarantined- so it's easy to imagine the characters claustrophobia and fear of the outside world.

When pregnant Natalie is bitten by the infected the countdown begins. With her best friend and doctor 'Rams' by her side the two race against time across a city in turmoil to deliver both Natalie and her unborn baby safely.

I really enjoyed the way Tremblay worked character development into Survivor Song. Using a phone app Natalie records messages to her unborn child, filling them with anecdotes, advice and random facts about herself, her husband and Rams.
It was an endearing touch and builds a brilliant connection between the reader and characters, heightening the investment and resulting tension.
Watch out for the strategically placed, intentionally blank pages too, my heart skipped a beat!

Survivor Song is both terrifying and beautiful. Highly recommend.

I love love love loved Survivor Song. I have read and enjoyed two other Paul Tremblay books and this one is hands down my favourite.

Natalie is heavily pregnant when her husband is killed and she is bitten by a man infected with super rabies. She calls her friend Ramola, a Doctor, to help her. Thus begins the journey through a place infected not only by the virus, but also fear and confusion, hoping to find Help for Natalie and her unborn child.

The friendship and honesty between Natalie and Ramola is the best part of the book, it makes you need to be a part of their journey. It is a brilliantly written story, all I can really say is read it! Read it now!

There have been major murmurings about Paul Tremblay’s latest novel Survivor Song in the horror community for many months now and I am delighted to reveal that this little beauty is worth the hype. This is a rare beast, as on most occasions the final product rarely matches the advance praise and I was riveted for all 336 pages in a book which was so engrossing it felt significantly shorter. This cracker deserves to find an audience beyond the horror community and could easily hijack fans of main-stream thriller audiences and those who simply enjoy a good page-turner. Survivor Song, in a very unassuming manner, blends all these elements in what is bound is one of the stand-out novels of 2020. Hot on the heels of Todd Kesling’s Devil’s Creek, horror fans are spoilt for choice with the sheer quality of titles on the market.

The plot is deceptively simple and can be summed up in a brief paragraph. There is a very powerful and contagious strain of the rabies virus that can be transferred from animals, who get very aggressive, to humans. If not treated immediately it quickly leads to death. Survivor Song kicks off when very little is known about the virus and it specifically covers a town in New England and a brief period of twelve hours. It is an incredibly powerful snapshot of distress, confusion and this location quickly disintegrating before our eyes. Because it is so incredibly realistic, so very ‘now’, this only makes it even more riveting.

One of the great strengths of Survivor Song is the almost documentary feel it radiates, especially in the sequences connected to the hospital where much of the story is set. The reader is a fly on the wall, observing the horrific crash of the bureaucracy which keep hospitals ticking over collapse in a few hours with the spread of the virus. And when the harried and scared medical staff start discussing the lack of PPE you will immediately think of COVID-19!

I’m sure the latter part of 2020 will include a rash of virus ‘inspired’ thrillers and I hope Survivor Song is not lumped in with potential cash-ins, this book was written long before COVID-19 and is all the more scarier because it is so similar to world events. In the background we hear of various statements from an unnamed American President and his failure to act in time and the conspiracy theories which he endorsed. This is an uncanny reflection of the last few months we have all lived.

The plot is built around the powerful and long-standing friendship between paediatrician Ramola Sherman and Natalie who is over eight months pregnant. In the opening stages Natalie’s husband is killed and she is bitten in the attack, Ramola comes to the rescue and the story revolves around the battle to locate the vaccine whilst there is chaos everywhere and all support systems begin to collapse. As Natalie is a doctor, the reader is party to her medical fears and opinions, as the clock ticks and they must decide whether they can save the baby. But at what cost? Scarily, a symptom of the virus is the afflicted speaking disjointedly and eventually gibberish, so be careful what you hear!

This powerful and very human story was loaded with beautiful touches. Although the word ‘zombie’ is used on numerous occasions, this is not a zombie novel, far from it. If you are after a trashy and violent gore fest then this might not be the book for you. Like the best books of its type, for example Alden Bell’s Reapers are the Angels, ultimately it is a tale of people trying to survive and their relationships, not zombies. I loved the many reference’s to Natalie’s overnight bag for her birth, in actual fact I found these references heart-breaking, and the clear symbolism that that everything was far from normal, but that Natalie would still try to hold onto her bag as if it was her last connection with the old world.

Survivor Song is not a violent novel, nor does it need to be when very normal characters are violently ripped from their normal, everyday, lives. Society has lots of unwritten rules that 99% of the population subconsciously follow, one of these is cutting slack for pregnant women. There is a particularly powerful scene in the novel when this norm is thrown out the window and the two women find themselves abandoned and dumped. But do not fret, at least Natalie’s bag is returned to her and ceremoniously ejected from the bus also.

The story is told in the third person from both Natalie’s and Ramola’s point of view, with a few other interludes where the former talks to her unborn child in rambling but moving narratives. Although there are very few other characters, I really loved the teenage boys the two women met along the way. Put yourself into the shoes of a teenage boy if such apocalypse occurs: it is exciting, they want to experience it and believe they will survive if they follow the blueprint shown in The Walking Dead or countless zombie themed computer games. But these boys have heart and their story ends in a strangely moving manner. There are also riveting scenes with ‘zombie foxes’ and other contagious animals, with talk of these animals you might be forgiven for thinking you were reading a Hunter Shea romp! But these scenes are painfully realistic in showing how powerful the virus is.

Like the previous three novels by Paul Tremblay this latest is top heavy with a slightly different style of ambiguity which worked exceptionally well in both A Headful of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock but misfired in The Cabin at the End of the World. He cleverly refuses to give us a ‘big’ picture and we are not permitted a panoramic view of what is going on in England, Australia or the rest of the world. Nor do we need it, the frightening goings on in New England is more than enough.

Survivor Song is an outstanding blend of horror and thriller built around a virus which will have the hair on the back of your neck standing up. From start to finish it is painfully realistic with a level of downbeat inevitability which might bring a tear to the eye.