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Turned at Dark (Shadow Falls, #0.5)
10
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
As you may know from reading <i>Born at Midnight</i>, the first book of the <i>Shadow Falls</i> series, Della Tsang is Kylie Galen's Vampire friend. Here, we learn how Della was turned into a vampire and how she came about Shadow Falls. We also go into a bit more depth of Della's life before <i>Shadow Falls</i> and a brief history about Supernaturals. Warning though: like <i>Forgotten Lyrics</i> by Amanda Hocking (which I'm currently reading), it's a quick read. Actually, even more quick since it's only 32 pages long.

To be frank, I don't think I was expecting Vampirism to be a virus. I was expecting Della to get bitten by an actual vampire when I first met her in <i>Born at Midnight</i>. And was I so very very wrong at that assumption. The fact that Della had a Vampire virus in her blood was an unexpected twist in the series.

If I were Della's shoes, I probably would've reacted the same way as she did if I found out that *insert spoiler* wasn't actually dead and I was carrying a virus that could turn me into a vampire (It might even be cool). And that the fact blood will taste yummy. o_o

As for Della's issues in real life, I can totally compare my own life to her life. High expectations? yep. Sometimes too high? yep! Super harsh? Harsh, yes, but not like Della's parents in a way. Therefore, Della is now one of my favorite characters from Shadow Falls. Don't worry, there's plenty of room for the rest of them as well. Della just has that "twin-like" quality. :)

Overall, I love the humor that Hunter has woven into this story and find that Turned at Dark is a great prequel to Born at Midnight. It's not necessary to read Born at Midnight first, but if you want to, feel free to do so. I actually enjoyed the series and the shortstory. :)

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-turned-at-dark-by-c-c-hunter/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
    Antivirus Adventure

    Antivirus Adventure

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Simple and fun with a little learning! NEW from Muso Labs. Ever wanted to shrink a friend and pop...

The Wolves of Winter
The Wolves of Winter
Tyrell Johnson | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I keep doing this. Reading books about pandemics during a pandemic, and then scaring the living daylights out of myself. Thank goodness I’d read Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy pre-Covid, because that would really have had me battening down the hatches!

This is about a different flu-like virus, but the mortality rate is far higher than Covid. And then nuclear bombs are also involved, so it’s a pretty full-on start to this remarkable book.

The sensible people move north. In this case, they move to the Yukon, where the virus is less virulent and people can hunt and trap their food. Lynn McBride lives here with what’s left of her family. They’ve carved out a life for themselves and live in relative safety in the barren, white landscape. But they can’t keep everyone away, and soothe outside world starts to encroach in the form of a loner called Jax, and a frankly scary group of people who are intent on seeing the end of the virus, no matter the human cost.

I loved the descriptions of the landscape - I do tend to love a book set in frozen landscapes (Arctic, Antarctic, just somewhere plain cold!), which is odd really, because I can’t think of a worse place to live. It’s a morbid fascination, I suppose. And the descriptions in this book of the cold, the landscape and the difficulties of living there are so evocative. People surviving against the odds always a winning theme.

It wasn’t until I sat down to write this, that I found out that the book was YA. Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Ok, there’s no sex, but in my opinion it just seemed too cold anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️. The main protagonist is in her late teens, and there is a sexual assault and some shooting/ bloodshed. There’s a very cute dog though (also a winning formula for me).

So if you’re feeling brave and like a post-apocalyptic story, you may well fancy reading this. I do wonder if there will be a follow up, because I’d love to know what happens after the final page (it does seem open to that). I’d definitely read it!
  
Survivor Song
Survivor Song
Paul Tremblay | 2020 | Horror, Paranormal
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A timely & terrifying read


A viral strain of rabies is spreading across Massachusetts. It moves quickly among animals and people, with those being bitten rapidly (think hours) losing their minds and then biting others to spread the disease. Hospitals are overwhelmed. People are under quarantine, with packets of vaccine being dropped from the sky to try to control the animal population. Chaos reigns. Dr. Ramola "Rams" Sherman is a pediatrician, about to be called in to help at an overflowing hospital. Before she can, she receives a terrified phone call from her best friend from college, Natalie. Eight months pregnant, Natalie watched an infected man brutally kill her husband--and received a bite while trying to save him. She must get to a hospital--and fast--to try to save herself and her unborn child. She and Rams begin a horrifying odyssey to get Natalie help, traversing a world filled with untold dangers.


"The presentation of symptoms with this new virus is astronomically fast compared to a normal rabies virus."


Okay, first of all, I rarely read horror books like this, but this novel was offered by my Scene of the Crime group, and I had heard such great things about Paul Tremblay. Second, I am trying to avoid pandemic-type reads and, yet, I found myself reading an incredibly pandemic, virus themed book!

However, I have to say, this was a good book! I can't say I enjoyed it, because it was so incredibly stressful that I think my heart-rate and blood pressure were through the roof while reading this thing. BUT, I could not put it down. Tremblay has created an utterly spellbinding book that also happens to be incredibly timely.

The tension in this book completely crackles. There's a virus spreading across the entire Northeast, but Tremblay focuses his action mainly on just Rams and Natalie. Somehow narrowing the story down on the survival of these two (and Natalie's baby) makes the story all the more terrifying and stressful. Their journey to get to a hospital is fraught with danger and blockages at every turn, and you can totally see this as unfolding a movie, with the "zombies" popping out around every corner. It still makes me shiver even now thinking about it.

While this book is creepy and scary, it makes some amazing (and very timely) points on society and its backward viewpoint toward vaccines, fear culture, xenophobia, and more. I found myself nodding furiously so many times. And, of course, it's filled with words that are so familiar to us now--who knew that CDC, PPE, and quarantine would be such commonplace terms?

Overall, while this is a very tense book and it might resonate a bit *too* much right now, it's very well-written. I flew through it--I'm not usually a horror fan, but it was a good balance of scary and humanizing. 4+ stars.
  
Quarantine (2008)
Quarantine (2008)
2008 | Horror, Mystery
Decent Western remake for a change
A really great horror film, made apparently just months after the Spanish original @REC (2007) . What I don't understand is so many people saying this is not as good? It's almost the same film scene for scene, but with a different cast and set in LA. The only changes from the original are a few more attacks and the origin of the virus was changed slightly. The only real problem if you have seen the original first is you know what is coming and when viewing second time round it's not so scary. Otherwise almost a carbon copy of the original but in English. Watch out for Rec2!
  
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Dean (6925 KP) Jan 8, 2018

It's nearly identical for me. Yes Terminal it was ok but not quite as good as this, very low budget. Rec 2 was decent. Rec 3 started to go more horror comedy vibe.

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Dean (6925 KP) rated Rec 2 (2009) in Movies

Jan 8, 2018  
Rec 2 (2009)
Rec 2 (2009)
2009 | Horror, Thriller
6
6.5 (14 Ratings)
Movie Rating
More of the same (0 more)
A good follow up film to Rec, which was re-made months after release as Quarantine. This continues right after the events of the first film, on the same night. In many ways it's more of the same, but a little less scary second time round. The fact you're following a swat team as well diminished the scare factor a bit as well. A couple of plot lines didn't quite make sense, other wise it's very entertaining if you liked the first one. It does also explain the nature of the virus, that was only mentioned briefly in the first film. A good sequel for a change, go and see it!