Estranged friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years apart when they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote Arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists, determined to protect the land. But Dean's group's exploitation of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes an horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves, Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they're to survive... and more importantly, stop the horror from spreading to the wider world.
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Dean stared into a darkness that no human had entered for at least thirty thousand years.- ONE
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(Titan Books, 6 February 2024, e-galley, 283 pages, ARC from the publisher via NetGalley)
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I'm a fan of the author and really enjoyed Among the Living. He's one of the best horror writers of recent years so I wanted to read this book as I was interested in his take on the well-used zombie trope. This is an original take on a well-used horror plot. The contagion doesn't exactly create zombies but there close enough for kissing. This is well-written, tense and quote frightening at times - everything you need in a good horror yarn.
