Plague by Lisa C Hinsley

As this is all set in the UK it all feels just that little bit more real for me and it hits home just at that shudder part just between your shoulder blades.

There is a fabulous little scare right at the beginning that starts to put your goose bumps on high alert.

As the UK succumbs to the plague families start to get shut in their homes for protection and isolation. As it spreads to a small street somewhere in the north of Wales LH concentrates your focus on one small family.

LH does very well to put across the tension that goes on within a shut in house and as her characters are always so wonderfully rounded and honest the vulnerability and fear is palpable.

She manages to almost bypass the horror and revulsion that is someone suffering with the plague, although she does describe it in a horrifyingly detailed way, it is the innocuous horror of what the State does to “protect” the public that becomes the real terror.

There are plenty of gory moments and some sickening mental visuals which really crawled under my skin, I did start to wonder if I had my own sore throat  and buboes at one point.

The ending is hopeful but with a massive waft of sadness as our main character goes through some of the most horrendous internal dialogue and decisions.

Another brilliant short but terrifying story from Lisa Hinsley.

Plague

That Elusive Cure by Lisa C Hinsley

Lisa C. Hinsley is a new author to me, she has several titles out and I enjoyed this book so much I have downloaded two and got samples of the others! (got to love ebook for that function alone).

You can find out more about Lisa C Hinsley here:

www.lisahinsley.weebly.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaHinsley.author

Twitter: @LisaCHinsley

What a beautiful dedication and  thoughts shared at the beginning of the book.

The first chapter damn near broke my heart. How LCH has managed to write so eloquently, yet factually about such an emotional subject with clear personal touches really pricked at my eyes.

Her main character is Kath, and Kath has terminal bowel cancer. The premise of the story is she is offered that elusive cure via a pod from the future, or does she?

Some really great explanations of the torment that is simply waiting for a call back, a simple text message of hope.

The way that LCH describes the horrific side effects of the chemo and how it wrecks your body; I was almost signing up for the The Moon Walk.

The descriptive writing style of LCH goes into overdrive as she puts you at the door to a church, then inside  and finally next to the “pod” of dreams.  I found the odd bit of dark humour in this book and this was one of those times as Kathy starts to think that Janie, her potential savior, is a mercy serial killer!

As if poor Kath doesn’t have enough in her own life to deal with she desperately tries to help her childhood friend, who has debilitating depression. Surely that should be the other way around? Another reason this book feels so real life and not just a story, nothing is perfect.

This element of the book really made me think about disease and all its forms. Just because we can’t see the disease does it make it not real? I was very torn as to which friend was suffering more.

An “interesting” observation regarding cancer diagnosis and its treatment that I had never thought of was the impact getting well has on your family and friends. What others try to shield from you as you are the “sick” one.

Kath constantly struggles with not being able to fix, cure or care enough about those around her to the point where I was getting annoyed at Kath expecting the pod to fix all the problems not only in her life but in the world, some things should not be fixed.

But is cancer the cause of that selfishness or is it just life?, do we need permission to love our selves first in life?

As things start to build to a crescendo after an interfering husband puts a spanner in the works, all hope seems at a loss, the tension continues to mount as it’s a race to the finish line, but which finish line? 

There are some deaths along the way, some threats and lots of high emotion. I was caught on the edge of my seat for most of this book.

The ending was a bit quick for me, I could see where the author wanted to go, just think it could have gone a few more chapters into explaining things. But sometimes your own imagination is better, and in this case, only a maybe from me?

Not sure what genre this book comes under, its harrowing, informative, a touch of sci-fi and a touch of horror.

BUT it is a book NOT be missed.

That Elusive Cure