‘The Smog’ – Brian O’Gorman (Floaty Ruler)

This will be a quick post today, mostly because of work but also… Well, you’ll see 😉

If you were frequenting these parts, around June last year, you would have seen me having the absolute best time reading Brian O’Gorman’s ‘Spiders’ trilogy (reviews Here, Here and Here), followed up by ‘The Water’, a horrifying piece of alien invasion/zombie fiction. And as quickly as that, I was a fan and looking out for anything else by O’Gorman. There are a few of his books that I still need to read but the one I had my eye open for was ‘The Smog’ and a couple of weeks ago, I was finally able to pop a copy onto my Kindle. Kindle reading is usually reserved for the bus ride home (as I have a habit of finishing my paperback read over lunch) and that’s just what I did with ‘The Smog’ over a couple of bus rides. Let me tell you about it.

Welcome to the town of Gorton. This is a town low on excitement and high on hard work and doing your bit for the community. Many people in Gorton work at Meadowland hospital or Ackland Chemicals, a building that is considered an eyesore by everyone who looks upon it. The residents of Gorton, including Ben Larson, a doctor who is working his last shift in A&E, Wendy Withers a carer for her husband who, since his car accident, has locked-in syndrome and Jane Rogers a lorry driver for Ackland who is revelling in the life that she’s built for herself, will soon fight for survival. An accident in the factory unleashes a deadly smog on the town. As the streets are engulfed in the toxic gas, the survivors try and find a way out. It soon becomes clear that there is something else in the smog, an even greater danger with yellow-striped bodies and buzzing wings…

‘The Smog’ ended up being another great read from Brian O’Gorman and one that I’d absolutely encourage you to go and read if you like ‘insect horror’. I will add the disclaimer though that I skimmed parts and read other bits through half closed eyes. I really hate wasps you see, to the point where the hair on my arms is standing up just writing about the little bastards. What O’Gorman does with those wasps creeped the absolute hell out of me (especially with those early moments with Wendy’s husband who hates wasps almost as much as I do) so there were large chunks of this book that I had real trouble reading, and that’s not a bad thing when you think about. Well played O’Gorman, well played… 😉

Add this to a decent thread of survival horror that runs throughout the plot (engaging characters trying to escape from a town choked in the Smog) and you’ve got a book that won’t let you stop and take a breath, although there are more than a few moments where you might find yourself holding your breath…

And if all that wasn’t enough for you, I loved the twist at the end and how it was employed. And that’s really all I can say about it as I don’t want to give anything away. What I will say is that it really makes you think about everything you’ve just read and what might happen next.

I don’t know if I’d read ‘The Smog’ again because I hate and fear wasps that much, seriously. If you fancy a neat little mix of body/insect/survival horror though, you really need to give it a read. Here’s the Amazon Link to get you started 😉