BOOK REVIEW | AMONGST THE LIVING | TIM LEBBON

 Among The Living by Tim Lebbon

Hello!

Here we are again with another look at a book. This time it’s Among The Living by Tim Lebbon which is to be published by Titan on February 13th in both the UK and the US

Description

Estranged friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years apart when they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote Arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists, determined to protect the land. But Dean’s group’s exploitation of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes an horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves, Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they’re to survive… and more importantly, stop the horror from spreading to the wider world.

A propulsive horror thriller––fast-moving, frightening, and shockingly relevant—this adventure will grip you until the final terrifying page.

Plot

Emma, Wren, Lanna & Dean are a group of freelancers that travel around the world scoping out potential areas of value for mining companies, making their fortune by selling the information. 

Bethan, Alile & Goyo are a group of environmental activists, who are alerted to an area of potential historical value on Hawkshead Island  when Emma and the Gang stumble on a series of ancient cave paintings whilst looking for a potential mining site in an underground cave system

Venturing further into the underground, they stumble on a grisly burial site. But that is not the only thing they stumble on. They stumble on an evil that could destroy the world

Impression

Billed as The Thing meets The Last of Us, Among The Living is a monster story for the climate change generation. 

Similar to the monster movies of the nineteen fifties which tapped into concerns of the nuclear age, Among the Living taps into the current fears around climate change and the effects that it can have. 

Stepping into similar territory as The Last Storm, Among the Living is set in the near future, and can really be seen as a companion piece to that story, except that the dangers don’t revolve around wildfires and drought, but deals with the idea that global warming can set loose a prehistoric microorganism that can devastate humanity. 

Like any good horror, Tim Lebbon taps into latent fears and exploits with chilling effect. 

In Among The Living, Lebbon writes a Crichtonesque adventure story, mixed with a believable catastrophe. I mean, we know that 48.500 year old zombie viruses have been revitalised by Russian scientists, although the Pandovirus only affects amoebas, Lebbon opens and uses this pandora’s box to write a fast paced story that will have you gripped. 

As usual, Lebbon has family at the heart of the story, and whilst this time it is not biological siblings, it is the relationship between Dean & Bethan at the heart of the story with the book examining the reason for their estrangement. 

Added to this, Lebbon throws in a good dose of body horror. There are heads spitting open and pustules bursting galore. The book is populated with a plethora of monsters to get you squirming.

Among the Living is a nail biting race against time story that will have you on the edge of your seat right to the very end.