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Publisher Description
Winner of the 2022 Australian Shadows Award for Best Long Fiction
Nominated for the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella
"Intelligent, compassionate and unsettling."—The New York Times
“Devlin twists and breaks the typical zombie narrative without spoiling one of the cleverest conceits in recent horror. Suffice to say that the author takes a scalpel to the post-truth era.”—Esquire
In the tradition of Mira Grant and Stephen Graham Jones, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up is a creepy, layered, literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.
In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…
Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
332 Reviews
Love_witch_magic
Created 2 days ago
Delirious
Created 5 days ago“Unique and well-written, but not the straightforward, visceral horror book I was expecting. There are some complex themes that ambitious readers could devote weeks to unpacking, but that complexity detracted from my personal reading experience rather than enhancing it. I simply wanted to read a really scary book for entertainment—not to perform an in depth forensic analysis! It would have been helpful knowing that beforehand! I suspect readers will be divided on their views on this one! I wouldn’t mind revisiting this book at some point in the future to fully extract everything it has to offer, but that’s not where I was at nor my initial purpose. And at the end of the day, it simply wasn’t the reading experience I hoped to have.”Bulby
Created 6 days agoLestrange02
Created 9 days agoMichael Byrne
Created 13 days ago
““And Then I Woke Up" truly stands out. It’s by far the most unique zombie apocalypse story I’ve ever encountered, and that's what makes it so hard to discuss in this review. I urge anyone reading this review to experience the book without any prior knowledge—avoid reading summaries or looking up additional information. The less you know, the better.
The novel is masterfully crafted, with perfect pacing and deeply authentic, emotionally resonant characters. The ending left me in stunned silence, reflecting on its impact.
To capture the essence of the book, here's a quote that describes one of the characters but also encapsulates the book's tone:
“…I imagined I understood the nature of her silence properly…It was an external stillness that served to balance an internal cacophony.”
This quote perfectly reflects the intricate and haunting beauty of the story.”About Malcolm Devlin
Other books by Malcolm Devlin
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