Gore – The food and book life

Statistics

Format: eBook (Kindle)

Length: 161 pages

Genre: Dystopian, Sci-fi, Gore

Publisher: Olympia Publishers

Rating: 4/5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I have had a very pleasant experience reviewing books for Olympia Publishers. I have already reviewed Great Grandma Joins the Circus, Police Officer Penny and Living on the Edge for them so when I was offered more choices, I picked Between the Grooves, Bill the Jungle Octopus and Operation Pied Piper from the list. I was sent the physical copies of the latter two books and the ebook for Between the Grooves.

The Author

A twist of fate landed Steve Dickinson in a retraining college. When the course was complete, among the certificates came the ability to touchitype. Not known for many skills, he was determined to keep this one. Soon bored of copying the written word, he closed his eyes and let his imagination roam.

Seventeen years later, he is an addicted writer.

The Blurb

“Seemingly, Michael Lincoln is the last sane man in a world that’s gone mad overnight.
On his quest for survival against a population of crazies, Michael Lincoln is tormented by a recurring dream that insists he travels in a southerly direction. Sanity, in the form of an alcoholic, a super model, and an exhibitionist, join Michael along the hazardous journey.”

The Book

The book begins with Michael finding that the world is nearly deserted and those who remain seem to have been rendered insane. They commit horrifying acts of violence and seem to crave sexual gratification in the most bizarre ways. I was warned by the publishing house that the book contains graphic content and boy, was the content graphic! I was horrified and wanted to skip certain scenes but like Michael, I could not tear myself away from it.

The story moves on with Michael meeting other sane people and they team up to survive in a world of ‘crazies’. The foul mouthed tomboy Abbey, the helpful drunk Harry, the beautiful model Natasha and the exhibitionist Ava are helped in their quest to find a safe haven by Michael’s recurring dreams telling them to travel due South and then West. They are constantly under threat from the mysterious crossbow wielding ape-men.

The book is written from the points of view of each character. We are left wondering what caused the craziness to appear and how it progressed until the very end. We are also not given the exact dates of the events until the end. The last 20% of the book is where all the secrets are revealed. I felt that the story moved a bit too fast here and I had to re-read a couple of pages to understand what was going on. Even after all the effort I was still left with a couple of questions but isn’t that what all of sci-fi stories do? They make your imagination soar and leave you feeling like there is more to the story than what you just read. It was fast paced and kept my interest till the very last page and would certainly benefit from a sequel.