Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon
The book: Sparrow Rock
The Author: Nate Kenyon
The Buzz: Huge
Mr. Kenyon is the author of three previous novels. His first, Bloodstone, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist and won the P&E Horror Novel of the year in 2005. His next book, The Reach, received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Pop Syndicate, Dark Scribe and many others. Book three, The Bone Factory, was released in July 2009 and called "masterful" by Booklist. This May, Mr. Kenyon keeps the thrills coming with his fourth sure-to-please tale of terror, Sparrow Rock.
They were just a group of high school kids looking for a place to party. They didn't know the end of the world was coming. Now, alone and trapped belowground in a state-of-the-art bomb shelter, they are being stalked - and the creatures that come for them through the dirt and ash are like nothing anyone has ever seen before. There is a new ruling life-form on earth, and these six humans are the only remaining prey.
A quick jaunt to Mr. Kenyon's website will allow you the opportunity to read the prologue and the first chapter. Just click on the section marked FICTION and both segments will be available at the top of the page. But I'll warn you. Reading them in this manner will only make you mad; mad that you don't have a copy in your hands so you can turn the page and read on.
The story begins through the point of view of Pete, a typical high school student on the cusp of an adulthood he doesn't want. All he really wants is to hang out with his friends, joke around, and have some fun. He is doing just that when one of his friends announces to the group that her grandfather has recently finished building a bomb shelter on his island property. Intrigued by the possibility, the band of teens head out to see this supposed shelter to have a look for themselves, each of them unaware that they are on the verge of an Armageddon they never saw coming.
They soon learn that survival involves not just waiting out the radioactive fallout but overcoming some of the most profound and deadly ecological changes that occur. The terror of undead rats and man-eating ants are just some of the dangers the teens must face.
Famous Monsters of Filmland calls it, "A spine tingling, claustrophobic, end-of-the-world tale that will leave you shuddering in its wake...the best book I've read this year."
I call it the first new book of this year that I can't wait to read.
George Ebey is the author of Broken Clock, Dimensions: Tales of Suspense, The Red Bag, and Widowfield. He is a graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in writing. He lives with his wife, Gail, in Northeast Ohio.
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