And Then I Woke Up

Starred review from February 7, 2022
A prescient premise drives this stunning weird tale from Devlin (Unexpected Places to Fall from, Unexpected Places to Land): a disease renders the infected vulnerable to perceptions of relative realities, making them susceptible to “the fiction between the real and the perceived,” or what they refer to as “the narrative.” Two years prior to the start of the novella, the narrator, Lewis “Spence” Spencer, was infected, and, believing that patrons at the restaurant where he worked had turned into a pack of cannibalistic monsters, he and fellow believer Macey killed more than 30 people. Macey’s death helped to break Spence from his delusions, leaving him “cured” but still living in the Ironside medical facility. Now, he meets new patient Leila and together they escape from Ironside. On the outside, Spence seeks redemption for the atrocities he committed as he tries to determine which narrative is true. Devlin does a superb job showing how his afflicted characters are compelled to accept outrageous beliefs that contradict the objective realities before them. The result is an unsettling cautionary tale for the age of alternative facts.

March 15, 2022
Known mainly for his work in the weird-horror subgenre, Devlin starts off his first full-length novel on a strong psychological-horror bent that will mess with readers' heads long after they're finished reading. And with cannibalism a major element throughout, this ""fast zombies""-influenced thriller is not for the faint of heart. The unreliable narrator tells the story of Ironside, a specialized treatment facility for people recovering from a strange, zombie-like virus. The infected become emotionless monsters who erase any remnants of their human selves and seem to be programmed to infect more people. There's also a unique fourth-wall aspect to the narrative that the protagonist and his companion, Leila, are semiaware of--the panoptical notion that they're being watched, but they don't know by whom. The novel also features a strong social commentary aimed at fake news, confirmation bias, and paranoia. Fans of Brian Keene, Adam Nevill, and Simon Stranzas will devour this apocalyptic pandemic tale, which will remind readers of a cross between Resident Evil and Fight Club.

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April 1, 2022

In Devlin's (You Will Grow Into Them) latest, the world is healing in the aftermath of a deadly mass delusion caused by an infection that induces hallucinations of zombies in its victims. Having survived the illness, jack-of-all-trades protagonist Spence now resides in the Ironside rehabilitation facility; there he meets Leila, a new Ironside inmate. Both of them committed gruesome acts of violence when they were afflicted with the zombie hallucinations, convinced that they were surviving the apocalypse. Spence, who's still plagued by guilt, agrees to help Leila escape to find the loved ones she left behind. The plot twists in Devlin's novel turn the archetypal zombie story on its head and make for a thoughtful, if quick, read; readers who balk at metafiction can enjoy it as a horror story, while others can have fun with the novel's genre savvy. VERDICT This unique take on classic horror stories will have wide appeal.--Aaron Heil

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2022
A virus transforms those it infects into violently unreliable narrators in this dystopian novella. Spence was working as a dishwasher in a pizzeria when most of the staff and patrons suddenly turned into rotting, ravenous monsters, forcing Spence and his friend Macey to kill their attackers and set the place on fire. Over months scavenging for food and supplies while defending himself and other survivors from the ravenous "Others," Spence gradually awakens to the truth: He and his compatriots are afflicted with an illness that makes them see the uninfected as monsters when in reality they are just innocent people living their lives. Inside the Ironside facility, Spence has almost come to terms with what happened to him and what he did under the virus's influence. But after he befriends Leila, a new inmate, and learns her story, he must consider if it's better to confront an ugly and painful truth or to live a dangerous, but in some ways comforting, lie. Elements of this fable will surely resonate with contemporary readers living in a world where "alternative" facts and competing narratives have driven people to violence and death, and a virus is just one of the natural, social, political, and cultural upheavals that have polarized the population and led them to perceive those on the other side of the divide as monsters or idiots. Speculative fiction's futuristic and fantastic worlds have always served as a mirror for present-day issues, and this is a fine example of the new wave of stories grappling with our current tumult. Understandably unsettling while offering a glimmer of redemptive hope.

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