Kindle Book Review: Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.
Yes! I love mysterious diseases that sweep across America and the world! Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, basically any zombie movie, I’m sold. However, as soon as I started reading Infected, I knew it was different. There were no zombies to be seen here, but it was even more interesting that I had guessed.
The book follows four major storylines. One is a woman named Margaret who was assigned to study the victims of this disease and use her experience as a scientist at the CDC to help solve the problem before the public is made aware of the situation. Storyline two is a policeman named Dew who is trying to catch one of these murderous victims alive so Margaret has something more concrete to study than a dead body. Storyline three is the disease itself. Yep, once in a while you get to see their plans. Not told from first person, of course, but it’s still fascinating. Storyline four, and my personal favorite, is Perry. He’s a former college football player, current IT worker who has developed seven distinct itches in various places around his body.
As the story progresses, we see just how intense this disease is. It’s unlike anything earth has ever seen before. It’s smart. I mean, really smart. We get to see its effects close-up through the character of Perry, and they are probably the most entertaining sections of the book. I like the parts with Dew and Margaret trying to solve the puzzle, but for me Perry was much more engaging.
I absolutely loved the book. Loved it like I can’t even begin to tell you. I hope Scott Sigler writes twenty more books. His writing style is wonderful - he gives the characters real personality, and you lose yourself in the story. The story itself - whoa - it’s addicting. I found myself grabbing the Kindle to read for two minutes here, four minutes here, just to read more. All the other things I was currently reading fell to the side because I didn’t want anything to get in the way of me finishing this book. And the second I finished it, I told my husband he had to read it. And he loved it too. Like me, he spent the next couple of days reading every chance he got, even going in a few minutes late to work the day he finished the book because he saw he only had a couple of dots left on the Kindle progress bar and he just had to get to the end. (Incidentally, it was also his first time reading a full book on the Kindle, and he quite enjoyed it. I think I’m going to have to start sharing it more often.)
In short, the book is exciting and interesting, suspenseful and smart and all the things you want a good mystery/thriller-type book to be. I highly recommend it. I can honestly say it’s one of the best books I’ve read in the past five years.
Get it for your Kindle.
