Drawing uncomfortably close behind her as she fumbled with the lock, he pushed her inside the instant the door opened. After stepping inside, he locked the door behind them.
“Where’s your medication?” he demanded, face grim, immovable.
Fear caused the hairs on her arms to stand on end. “I was planning on taking it at night. It makes me groggy,” she stammered.
“You’re taking it now.”
“But I don’t want to!”
“Brigita, I can stay here all day, if you’d like. I won’t leave until you oblige.”
Was he telling the truth? If she took her dose, would he leave? Or would he stay, her rendered weak and controllable by the medication?
After considerable thought, she went to the bathroom and returned with her pill bottle. Renner read the label, nodded, then poured two pills from the container onto his palm. Passing them to Brigita, she dry-swallowed them, acquiescing to another day of being weakened against the evil forces, unable to see them and protect her or Milena from their tricks.
Done taking her meds, she waited for Renner to leave, but he plunked down on the living room sofa, crossed his long, athletic legs on the coffee table, and clicked on the television.
Panic fluttered in her chest like a wild bird trapped in an attic. Escaping to the spare bedroom, she barricaded the door with a wooden bookcase. A sensation washed over her—déjà vu—yet it wasn’t her, but a bruised and beaten Milena barricading the door in a parallel situation. Foreshadowing? Strangely, this felt like it had already come to pass. Which made no sense, but her mind had grown fuzzy as grogginess swiftly crept in. The meds doing their job.
Would she be safe inside her room until Milena returned from work? She sure hoped so because her eyes were refusing to stay open, leaving her defenseless.
Code of Reanimation is a science fiction horror novel and a spin-off from author Lanie Mores’s earlier work, Father of Contention; however, this new book can easily be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone. With its creative and frightening plot, made all the more alarming by the world’s recent experience with a viral pandemic and its associated rumors, I was thoroughly absorbed into this very cinematic story from page one.
Brigita Nowak is the engaging, sympathetic, but somewhat unreliable main character of the story. She is plagued by horrific and uncontrollable visions and has a tragic history of treatment for mental illness. The story reveals that the women of her family, including her sister, had the gift of sight, though the topics of each woman’s visions varied greatly from one to another. While her sister, Milena, had insight into matters of love and romance, all Brigita saw were premonitions of death and dying. Besides this cursed gift, her parents had her committed to a psychiatric hospital when she was seventeen rather than trying to help her develop coping mechanisms or rules for handling the awful knowledge these visions of the future handed her. Brigita is at this hospital for the story’s riveting opening, the place a shambles, and all the staff and other patients inexplicably missing.
Now, Brigita’s only living relative is her beyond-beautiful sister, Milena, who has been working two jobs to pay Brigita’s medical expenses. She obviously loves her sister but is completely enamored of Dr. Renner Scholz, to whom she has recently become engaged. She, too, has visions but has allowed herself to be convinced that Brigita’s are a symptom of her schizophrenia rather than true foresight. While I thought the diabolic Dr. Scholz was a bit cartoonish and Milena was too conveniently in his thrall, Brigita does have a well-done ally in her next-door neighbor and boss, Amir. The chemistry between these two is fabulous, and I was all in on their relationship developing into a romance.
The intriguing storyline is bolstered even more with twists and turns in the plot. Scenes are described so well that they feel cinematic. For those sensitive to such matters, be warned that there are some vividly detailed descriptions of horrible science experiments and decomposing zombies sprinkled throughout the text.
The story is truly good versus evil, with edge-of-your-seat
excitement, shockingly realistic horror, and some nicely done love scenes. I
recommend CODE OF REANIMATION to readers of science fiction horror, zombie
stories, and medical experimentation gone awry.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for hosting today, and for writing such a wonderful review. You really made my day! Much appreciated. ❤
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