Title: The Loop
Author: Jeremy Robert Johnson
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley
From Goodreads: "Stranger Things meets World War Z in this heart-racing conspiracy thriller as a lonely young woman teams up with a group of fellow outcasts to survive the night in a town overcome by a science experiment gone wrong.
Turner Falls is a small tourist town nestled in the hills of western Oregon, the kind of town you escape to for a vacation. When an inexplicable outbreak rapidly develops, this idyllic town becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence as the teenaged children of several executives from the local biotech firm become ill and aggressively murderous. Suddenly the town is on edge, and Lucy and her friends must do everything it takes just to fight through the night."
My Opinion: This story takes place over the course of one night, but I have to say, there is so much action packed into that single night you don't need any more time! Lucy goes out to a party with a couple of friends, more to keep busy and get out of the house than because she's excited about it, and all hell breaks loose. It turns out, the tissue from an alien species has been replicated and implanted into a group of kids in town and has had an unexpected side effect, to say the least. It's supposed to control them but instead turns them into little killing machines with a hive mind. The worst part, which is saying a lot due to the sheer number of awful things that happen on that fateful night, is that the kids need to kill to keep them calm, even while they are salivating over the violence they are inflicting! Crazy, I know!
The book started out at a nice, normal pace, introducing the characters and giving their back stories, and then before you know it, it throws you headlong into the action, and doesn't take its foot off the brake for the rest of the book. Definitely a page turner, with an explosive conclusion.
As mentioned above, the pacing of the plot is very quick, making it near impossible to put the book down as you don't want to miss a thing. The characters are very well written and grow and develop throughout the book, especially our Lucy. I'm still amazed that all this happened in just one night! (Broken record, I know, but still ....)
In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for a quirky, unique horror story, that moves at a fast pace without sacrificing character development.
5/5 stars.
I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
