Look Out For… Zombie Apocalypse! Horror Hospital by Mark Morris
London is in turmoil following riots and the Trafalgar Square Massacre. A doctor in a big East End hospital, already hard hit by government cutbacks and increasing social unrest, starts to get reports of something having happened at All Hallows church…
Then, the first of the injured, including policemen and soldiers, start to be brought in, but the nurses and doctors on the day shift still can’t make sense of what the victims are talking about. Soon their resources begin to be overwhelmed.
Some of the injured begin to ‘change’ and soon the hospital, like so many other buildings throughout the city, is on lockdown. But as things grow increasingly chaotic outside, for those trapped within the old hospital building, both staff and patients, things quickly become infinitely worse as the dead return to life and stalk the corridors in search of flesh.
Why we’re excited about this book: We know, we know – another zombie book. And yet another column about a zombie book that starts with a self-referential moan about the hoards of zombie books being released, before going on to claim that this one is different.
Um. But Zombie Apocalypse! Horror Hospital is, uh, different. The Zombie Apocalypse series (which admittedly couldn’t have a more generic title if it tried) is the brainchild of Stephen Jones and the previous books have been told in an innovative, ‘mosaic format’, with elements of the overall story written by a number of different authors (including Sarah Pinborough, Michael Marshall Smith and Pat Cadigan), with each separate element integrated together by Jones. This new volume is the first from a single author, but as it’s Mark Morris we should be in capable hands. The series has also taken an interesting approach to zombie lore, creating an original historical reason for the plague of zombies and it will be interesting to see if this strand is furthered in this book.
Regardless, in an overcrowded field, Zombie Apocalypse! Horror Hospital really does look like that rarest of finds: a zombie novel that’s different.
Oh bugger, we’ve said it again haven’t we?
This book will appeal to: people who aren’t yet sick of zombies.
Zombie Apocalypse! Horror Hospital is out 19 June 2014 from Mammoth.
Look Out For… The Fever by Megan Abbott
The Fever is Megan Abbott’s dark and thrilling novel about a mysterious illness that is taking hold of a high school.
The Nashes are a close-knit family. Tom, a popular teacher, is father to the roguish Eli and his younger sister Deenie, serious and sweet. But their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when two of Deenie’s friends become violently ill, and rumours of a dangerous outbreak sweep through the whole community.
As hysteria swells and as more girls succumb, tightly held secrets emerge that threaten to unravel the world Tom has built for his kids, and destroy friendships, families, and the town’s fragile idea of security.
The Fever is a chilling story about guilt, family secrets and the lethal power of desire.
Why we’re excited about this book: The Fever isn’t being marketed as a horror book, but as it sounds like a thrilling and intelligent novel about a mysterious illness we sure as hell aren’t going to let that stop us featuring it. Sounding like a modern day version of The Plague – also not horror according to the marketing people, despite being scary and, well horrific – The Fever is loosely inspired by a real life breakout of a mysterious illness in a New York high school, in which a number of school girls collapsed; the doctors in that case diagnosed it as an unknown ‘mass psychogenic illness’. Megan Abbot’s previous novels have focused on the hidden and dark secrets of teenage life, and The Fever sounds like it will be no different. So whilst not being a ‘horror’ novel this one sounds pretty damn tasty to us. And who wants to be tied down to genre labels, anyway?
This book will appeal to: people who like outbreaks of mysterious illness that aren’t zombie related.
The Fever is out on 19 June 2014 from Picador.
JAMES EVERINGTON