Backcover Description: When a fast-spreading disease epidemic is unleashed upon Colorado, Joslin, Grant and their two young children find themselves barricaded within their home. When the city is quarantined, the fight for survival begins; a rampant airborne disease runs wild, turning its victims into sickened morphs. Battling against the loss of electricity and running water, starvation, frigid Colorado winter temperatures and worst of all, the morphs – the family embarks on a journey that tests their strength, sanity and conviction to live.
As each strand of hope for rescue begins to fray away, the risks the family must take in order to survive grow larger. Just when Joslin thinks that things can’t get any worse, on day 94 she looks out the peep hole of her barricaded front door to see a harrowing sight; a morphed family member standing deliriously on her front step, demanding to be let in.
Book Review/s to share: This little horror novella (a mere 22thousand words) packs quite a punch. I started reading after a long day at work, trying to catch up with my book pile, and I have about an hour of commute. Normally, I drop the book at the door when I get home. I need to check emails, after all. There are very few books that "make it past the door", but in this case, I needed to know what happened next. So I made myself a coffee (while reading), toasted a bun (still reading) and ate it (while reading).
The test of any good horror/suspense story is – can I put it down? In this case, “Day 94” passed with flying colours. I couldn't. It's tightly written and plotted, with twists that keep you on the edge of your seat, like it or not. I finished this in one go, and I had a great time throughout.
The premise is horrifying all by itself. A family gets trapped in their house, while civilization crumbles around them. A mysterious plague transforms people into 'morphs', this author's take on zombies. Under siege, hungry, cold, terrified, the mother, Joslin, writes a diary. Re-reading it, she thinks about the entries and comments on them, while facing the challenges that are ahead: finding food, keeping her children alive, and facing the greatest fear of them all an ally who has turned into 'the enemy'.
Backcover Description: When Anthony and Jazmine embark on their honeymoon to southern Mexico, they have no idea of the terror that'll unfold before them. The couple shows up for an ATV tour and snorkel trip, and two days later Anthony stumbles out of the Mexican jungle bloodied, half dead and suffering from amnesia; he becomes the prime suspect in Jazmine's mysterious disappearance.
As bits and pieces of his memory start to return, he leads F.B.I. Special Agent Monroe on a trail of clues that implicates the couple's ATV tour guides. Further investigation reveals that Jazmine was sold to a drug-lord in Panama, and nothing will stop Anthony from trying to rescue her, but as he enters the foreign country, the distraught husband only causes greater chaos.
Book Review/s to share: Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Anthony and Jazmine spend their honeymoon in Mexico. They expect to have a wonderful time, but the ATV tour and snorkel trip they sign up for turns into a nightmare. Anthony appears from the dense jungle, covered with blood and having no recollection of the past two days. His wife is missing, and no one knows where she is. Is she alive or dead?
Of course, the husband is always the perfect suspect, so as Anthony suffers through painful interrogations while struggling to regain any memory of what happened, clues begin to support his story. A massive search begins for the missing bride. What could the perpetrators hope to gain by nearly killing the groom and abducting his new wife? Be prepared to be surprised.
D.M. Slate has a penchant for writing stories that brings out the sleuth in the reader. Isolated draws you deep into the jungle, sends you snorkeling among a myriad of colorful fish, and surrounds you with air so humid you can barely breathe. The suspense as the hunt for Jazmine unfolds will grip you like a vice and convince you that things like this really happen in life. D.M. Slate is making a name for herself.
Email to share: dmslate94@gmail.com
This site owned by Anastasia Cassella-Young. All copyright laws applicable. Site conception March 12, 2009 to present.
