If I have said it once, I’ve said it a million times. Just like the vampire stories, zombie stories have become a dime a dozen. There are a ton of them out there. Some are bad; some are just alright or good, while the very few stories shine. I’ve read my fair share of zombie-based books. My favorites include Brian Keene’s The Rising, Max Brooks World War Z and Brian Moreland’s Shadows in the Mist. However, it’s usually the short stories or the ones that I read in small press books that can be that gem of a story that brings a bit of originality to the genre. With Harry Shannon’s Pain, I found that needed edge. While not entirely original in content, there is a certain element in twist in this story that makes it work.
Pain is about a group of people trapped in a small medical clinic in the mountains of Virginia. Up high in the mountain is a top secret base, where experiments using types of gases and viruses are being performed with by our armed forces. A certain biological agent meant to turn people into flesh-eating zombies gets loose and poisons some of the locals, who, in turn, begin to go on a killing spree. A group of men from a top notch military unit are sent in to take out the infected, however they are overrun and end up trapped in the local clinic, along with a doctor, his estranged wife, his assistant (who is screwing his wife). A local drunk in a clown costume, a religious couple with their rebel adapted daughter, and a few other locals all try to survive while help is said to be on the way. However, their only hope for survival is a female communications officer who is now under orders from a top secret government organization that is in charge of cleaning up this viral mess before it gets out of hand. Pain is a story of survival from both the undead and our government trying to cover up a mess they created.
As always, I gave you a plot synopsis in a nutshell as to not give the main parts of the story away. This is a very good book with a lot of surprises and scares. Harry Shannon takes his ideas from the scariest of zombie film moments and enhances them into something deeper. As the reader, you are thrust right into the action of the plot. As you read the book, you’re trying to think your own way out of this mess while developing your own ideas as if you were in this situation. I’m not usually freaked out by zombie books; they are more entertainment for me. This book, however, left me in the dark. I thought I was just going to blow though this story, and say it’s just another zombie book that was fun and a good read. Pain takes zombies to another level. Not only do you feel that you are there with the characters but the level of fear that the book instills in its reader is hard to just pass up on. There is always a reference that refers back to the bathroom window being open, and you know sooner or later a zombie is making its way through it, and when they do, you re screaming out at the book to warn the characters, but you re left feeling helpless.
This is the first book of Harry Shannon’s that I have read. He is a guy that I have seen all over the web and read so much about but never got the opportunity to read one of his many stories. The guy is simply an amazing writer who really knows how to instill fear in his readers and build suspense in his stories that make you not only feel helpless, but leave you thinking about the situation he puts his characters in. I walked away from each chapter of this book with that “What would I do” thought running though my head. You just don’t simply read a story like this and forget about it. It sticks with you. Harry Shannon obviously has the ability in his writing, and to do it with zombies, a sub-genre that horror fans are becoming immune to, takes a lot of talent. Harry Shannon has that talent, and I can’t wait to pick up another one of his twisted tales.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
