The End, by Gary McMahon

In a break from my usual way of presenting reviews, here I'm going to talk about a book that I think is not only excellent, but absolutely worth a read if you love the horror genre.  The thing is, I read it in 2010, to critique it for Gary and so my review is fairly short but the imagery has stayed firmly with me these past four years and I'm really looking forward to reading it again.

Forget zombies, they were only the beginning... This is The End A strange suicide plague grips the city of London, tearing apart the fabric of society. To escape this madness, a small group of strangers must journey north in search of safety. Everyone and everything must eventually come to an End, but in this case it happens quicker and with more savagery than anyone could ever have imagined. When chaos reigns and things start to fall apart, The End might be closer than you think...and sometimes The End is really the beginning of something much worse...

Test cover I made in 2010, so Gary & I
could post images of the book

Mack Booth and his business partner are in London when something happens, driving 75% of the population to either commit suicide or try to kill themselves and as many bystanders as possible.  Assembling a ragtag band of fellow travellers - Becky, his business partners lover, Bob from the hotel and Manisa, who they meet on the way - he heads north, to his cottage on the moors where his heavily pregnant, blind wife is waiting for him.

This is an astonishing book, short and lean, that doesn’t pull any punches as it follows our heroes up country - it’s brutal, gory, poignant, unpleasant, bleak, uncomfortable, hopeful and above all else, never less than believable.  I read this in draft, to deliver a critique and it’s the first time I’ve ever done that and had to struggle to find anything seriously wrong with the ms.

An excellent book, well worth the read and if this doesn’t win awards, there’s no justice.

For a full review, please check out Jim Mcleod's at The Ginger Nuts of Horror website.

The book, from Ian Whates' NewCon Press, can be picked up from Amazon here