Survivor Song: A Novel

"The entire book takes place over just a few hours; the main character is an angry, scared pregnant woman in the middle of a viral zombie outbreak. And even though we know – absolutely know – how Survivor Song must end from almost the very first page, Paul Tremblay uses our own bone-deep understanding of the zombie story format and our own trope-exhaustion against us by telling a story where the narrative beats feel almost foreordained, leaving the details of character, place and response to an immediate, ticking-clock disaster as the one true focus. There are entire histories hidden inside here, and whole, sprawling architectures of need and anger and redemption. But no one inside the book (and none of us reading it) get to escape the lunacy of panic or the unforgiving countdown Tremblay hangs over everything."