Cover Image: Penitence

Penitence

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Member Reviews

this was a great start to a series, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the plot itself. I look forward to reading more in this series.

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I love a good dystopian book. This one fell a little short for me. This is a me issue & not the books fault. This was a decent story with interesting characters. It just didn't do it for me.

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This is a gritty is hard-hitting apocalyptic horror is a tale of humanity at it's best and worst!

The story begins on a farm. All the chickens in overcrowded pens suddenly die to the horror of those working there. Very soon after this new and lethal bird flu jumps species.

This is not a new scenario by any means, the end of civilisation by some new kind of plague has been seen before. This bird flu deffinatly does the job and the book has very graphic depictions of the disease and the brutal and grisly deaths it causes.

What I like is the anti hero this author introduces. Teddy is a hardened lifer incarcerated in a top-security penitentiary.

Teddy begins to notice that all of the other inmates start to get sick most die. Teddy gets Ill but survives at this point troops are called in to unilaterally kill everyone in the compound to try to contain the disease.

Teddy escapes and soon realizes the disease did not necessarily spare the best and niw the world devolves into a game of survival of the fittest.

Eventually Teddy finds a female survivor and his son and discover the sanctuary of a survivor community... But it may not prove to be what they hoped for.

The new world this writer has created is gritty, realistic and bleak. This novel is the first of a trilogy.

It is unclear if Teddy will find redemption, freedom, or death in a harsh new world order.

However, a sympathetically relatable anti-hero has been created and will hopefully overcome some of these struggles in the series going forward. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

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I am a sucker for an apocalypse novel, especially if there are killer viruses afoot. One of my favorite mobile games is about trying to develop a disease that wipes out the population of the planet, so this is something I have a dark fascination about. I am always willing to pick up a novel with that theme. Often times they disappoint, this did not.

We start the book with Teddy. He is our main character and I expected him to be more of an anti-hero. You don’t want to be rooting for him because he was in federal prison for doing bad things to people, but the world is ending and he’s one of few who survived so go Teddy! He was a bit of what I expected, but also came across as a really big boy scout. I mean, come on, we all know the things you did. We all know because you told us fairly quickly and bluntly. So can we please stop acting like he’s a good ole boy who just got caught in an unfortunate circumstance? I really didn’t like that about him. You don’t end up with a life sentence in federal prison because you had a bad day. But, regardless, the plot was enough to move me along despite my irritations with Teddy. In the end I just had to disregard what I thought his character should be and accept what he was and then we got along just fine.

Jane and Danny were fantastic. Jane is a woman after my own heart and I would like to think that in similar circumstances I could show the same resilience. I enjoyed them both immensely and I sincerely wanted to see the three of them ride off into the sunset together. They made me laugh, they made me cry, and I love it when that happens.

The plot was not quite what I expected but I liked how it worked out, which is always a nice surprise. I didn’t expect so much of the story to take place in the prison. But despite not expecting it, I loved it. A completely contained environment that gets infiltrated by a virus that kills nearly everyone it infects. How do you keep order and at the same time try to keep people healthy too? You’re still dealing with bad people who are violent and unpredictable in nature, add in the threat of death and things can spiral out of control very quickly. And spiral out of control they did. It was deliciously devilish.

I liked how the book ended. I understand that the book is expected to be a series, so it makes sense in that aspect. But if I never read the second book I would also be satisfied with how it ended. Teddy is still looking for redemption, trying to be the man that he might have become if not for the prison stint, and being put into a situation that is at once completely alien but oddly familiar. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Here is a hard-hitting new apocalyptic tale of a fate humans perhaps deserve! The action begins on a squalid battery farm. The chickens in their overcrowded pens suddenly and catastrophically die en masse One morning, to the horror of those working there. It does not take long for this new and lethal bird flu to jump species.
This is not a new trope by any means, the end of civilisation as we know it by some new kind of plague. Flu does the job well enough, though the graphic depictions of gangrenous pustules around the throat alongside the choking and puking to death create enough lurid schlock to satisfy those SF/apocalyptic afficionadoes who may be partial to a little plague.
But the moment maketh the man and this author introduces the reader to Teddy, a hardened lifer incarcerated in a top-security penitentiary. To begin with, all Teddy notices is that all of a sudden he is getting a new cell mate, the screws seem to have it in for him even more and he has to fight his position among other prisoners yet again, before the new source of the soon starts to make itself felt: both screws and inmates start to get sick.
When the troops are called in to unilaterally kill everyone in the compound, Teddy plans his escape. There then follow a series of adventures on the road and Teddy is to find that the disease did not necessarily spare the best. Eventually he falls into the hands of a female survivor and his son and when each discover the sanctuary of a survivor community, things almost start to look rosy....
However, gritty and painful realism is the new world this writer has created, and not necessarily one where cosy endings will have their place. Also, this novel is only the first of what looks to be a trilogy. Whether or not Teddy will find redemption, or for that matter, freedom in an emerging and hideous new world order, remain to be seen in the sequels.
Either way, a sympathetic though damaged hero, or rather a ti-hero has been created and will no doubt continue to entertain with his misadventures in stories to come.

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Penitence by Mark Campbell. Did not expect to like this book or Teddy as much as I did. Very well written post apocalyptic tale . Will be buying the next book in the series.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

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In Georgia a small poultry farm has most of its chickens die. Thinking it’s aa fluke, the supervisor doesn’t report it. However the illness is bird flu that has an antigenic shift that makes it skip species. It is now a flu that people catch. A flu that kills almost every person. Some people don’t die from it. A convict, Teddy, in a maximum security federal prison in Arizona has the experience of seeing his fellow convicts and guards get sick with the flu and dies. Teddy gets the flu but manages to survive it. Then to his horror, th government has sent soldiers in to kill any survivors in the prison. He manages to escape and wants to go to Tucson as there is a sanctuary for the people. The government tells the people falsely that they have a cure. There is no cure. Even though he makes it, he can’t believe what has happened to the U.S.A. What has happened to Tucson? Still he hopes that the sanctuary will have food and water for him. He meets a woman named Jane and her little boy. Jane thinks the sanctuary is a death trap. Jane relents and takes her little boy and goes with Teddy to the sanctuary. What will happen at the sanctuary? Will they survive and find a better life?

The story held my attention as I was amazed at Teddy’s experience in the prison. His journey to the city was an unbelievable yet amazing that he made it to Tucson. It is a compelling story. I couldn’t help wondering if I would have been able to do what Teddy did.

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This is a new author for me and I have to say that I enjoyed the book. It’s the story of Teddy Saunders who is an inmate in a maximum security prison when a mutation of the avian flu hits. The world as Teddy knows it ends and he must learn to survive in it. I can hardly wait to read the second book in the series.

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The H7N9 bird flu strain proves fatal to most who contract it. This is the story of Teddy Saunders, a prisoner of a maximum security penitentiary in Arizona and his journey through the beginnings of the end of life as we know it.

I enjoyed this very much. I like a dystopian novel but sometimes they can get bogged down in politics or science, switching POV's so much you end up dizzy. This story is told from Teddy's point of view. It revolves around his thoughts, feelings and experiences and that, for me, makes for an easy read. The descriptions have enough punch behind them for the reader to feel the horror of the situation he finds himself in and the interactions between characters are smooth.

All in all one of the better end of the world scenario books I have read to date.

Book 2 is now published and I'm just about to buy it to continue to read Teddy's story.

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