Survivor Song

Paul Tremblay's horror novel Survivor Song was published in 2020 by William Morrow in hardcover and Titan in paperback. While the book has a COVID-19 feel to it, matching the intense year of publication, the author actually wrote the book two years prior, in 2018. It proved to be a timely publication.

The book takes place in Massachusetts as a new strain of rabies begins affecting the population. The illness prompts the infected to rage, battle, bite, and create overwhelming chaos. Think 28 Days Later on a state level. This is the early wave of the attacks, with many first response workers, facilities, and government agencies unprepared for the pandemic. 

As the novel begins, readers are introduced to Natalie, a pregnant woman living in suburbia with her husband. In this opening nightmare, Natalie's husband is murdered by an infected man, and in the attack, she is bitten. There's a sense of urgency for Natalie to get to a hospital for a vaccination, yet the chaos on the streets and highways makes travel difficult.

Natalie's friend, the protagonist of Tremblay's narrative, is a British pediatrician nicknamed Rams. The two were college roommates and live in the same area. Rams comes to Natalie's aid, and the two begin a perilous quest to overcome countless obstacles, bureaucracy, and waves of infected as they race against time to vaccinate Natalie at a functioning hospital.

At 320 pages, I felt that Survivor Song should have felt a bit more epic. It was my misunderstanding that this novel was a road trip journey, encompassing more landscapes and places as the two “survivors” travel from place to place for shelter. Instead, this is more of a confined road trip, featuring many scenes inside of doctors' offices and hospitals, albeit in a frenzied, panic-fused pace. I think the element of a long road trip ripe with danger would have been more appealing to me, as David Moody, Robert McCammon, and Brian Keene have proven in their more enjoyable post-apocalyptic novels. 

I enjoyed the Rams character immensely, but felt Natalie was a weak link in the story. Her characterization was annoying, with her heightened demands for more urgent care a repetitive cycle that wore itself thin as the book continued. Yet, the star of the show is really the situation – average people placed in extreme circumstances. There were moments of sheer horror, dread, and doom, all placed periodically between passages of subdued dialogue. The book's finale is worth the price of admission and will stay with me for ages. 

Survivor Song is an enjoyable, post-apocalyptic-styled novel that reminds us all just how close we came to annihilation. Get the book HERE.