If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. Malcolm Devlin gives us a chance to answer that question as we dive head first into his novella ‘And Then I Woke up. He was an engaging teller of his tale, but with some quite notable exceptions that I will not spoil here, his story is that of someone to whom events mostly happened, rather than the person shaping those events. His first collection, ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ was published by Unsung Stories in 2017 and shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. After living so long as a survivor and losing the person closest to him—not to mention having trouble coming to terms with the fact that he’s killed people—Spence decided he no longer wanted to be a part of this narrative (another term the book uses to describe the supposedly made-up zombie apocalypse story).

This is a beautiful exploration of the seductive power of narrative, the need to be a part of something, and the toxic influence of propaganda. Spence’s recitation of his story is both fascinating and stomach churning as he lists explicit details and questions his own motives and perspective.It isn’t even a zombie story, not really, because what’s going on can be described in many different ways. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Interesting take on zombies, where people are essentially zombified by overdosing on negative news media. If there aren’t any physical signs to look for, how does he know if he’s not slipping back into the disease? And the measurement of those 60 seconds can still take the same amount of objective time while still seeming to be of different duration on the opposite sides of that door.

Through Spence’s experiences, he explores the idea of how powerful stories can be in both good and bad ways, how they shape our perceptions of events. In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. To the point where the concept of any objective truth is under attack by what one side considers to be the barbarians at the gate and vice versa.This was a fascinating zombie novel that led to a cool chat with my twelve-year-old about the common experience of feeling like you're in a movie, especially if there's music playing, and whether or not we'd be someone else's believer. Elements of this fable will surely resonate with contemporary readers living in a world where “alternative” facts and competing narratives have driven people to violence and death, and a virus is just one of the natural, social, political, and cultural upheavals that have polarized the population and led them to perceive those on the other side of the divide as monsters or idiots. Hearst UK is the trading name of the National Magazine Company Ltd, 30 Panton Street, Leicester Square, London, SW1Y 4AJ. In the tradition of Mira Grant and Stephen Graham Jones, Malcolm Devlin's And Then I Woke Up is a creepy, layered, literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.

Devlin’s counter to the narrative is subtle and and in some ways radical, involving community efforts on a level I rarely see in such stories. The ending reminds the reader, it’s truly hard to trust anyone, especially if you can’t trust yourself, but it’s what one must do. And there are way more people pouring fuel on that fire than there are trying to find a way to divert the coming conflagration.I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but, the book with a load of hype and ended rubbish was Jodi Picoult's 'My Sisters Keeper'. Intelligent, compassionate and unsettling, And Then I Woke Up is both an invitation to and a caution against allegory.

Gun to my head, I would say there’s a zombie apocalypse and the government, the military, and the media are in bed together (imagine that), working to keep the majority of the population from realizing what’s going on. Like the patch of darkness you can see through an apen window that you keep staring at because you have an idea something might appear there. The central idea of a narrative turned literal virus was intriguing, and for the most part worked well until the "is it or isn't it real" was debated one too many times, or maybe one too few.One of my favorite aspects is how Devlin plays with some more recognizable zombie horror tropes and blends them nearly seamlessly with psychological horror. I was hoping for more of the enigmatic weirdness of Devlin’s best stories (such as ‘Songs Like They Used to Play’), but the style is more commercial than that. And with that, I give you my final warning: This And Then I Woke Up book review will be full of spoilers. And Then I Woke Up feels like a difficult title to rate and review, because it was a difficult title to form a solid opinion on. He, along with others at Ironside rehabilitation, are quite confused as to what is real, and what isn’t.