The Hospital
Keith C. Blackmore

Format: Audible
Cost: Free

I gave this a go as it was free on Audible and I would say if it ever moves out of that and requires a charge/credit; don’t bother. From the very outset there was wave after wave of awful similes like an ocean of garbage breaking on the shore of your mind. If ever you took an English class on creative writing you will note a couple of things the author has done that your secondary school teachers instructed you to avoid:

1. untamed similes running rampant that add nothing to the story
   1. Much more likely to jolt you out of the story by how bizarre some of them are: “storm clouds as depressing as suicide”
2. repeated the same phrase within a short space of time/text
   1. “Back when the world was…” crops up three (3) times in the hour-long audio
3. unnecessary swearing

I’m all for swearing, I do it a lot, and there are times when it really adds just the right kick to the story or the dialogue. In this, however, there’s random swearing where it’s not really needed and largely makes no sense, which means when it comes to crunch time at the climax of the story the swearing doesn’t have as much impact.

The audiobook only lasts one (1) hour, mercifully, and the narrator is almost as painful as the prose. The main ‘shock value’ zombie event is something that, if you’ve ever played Dead Space 2, has been done much better elsewhere.

1 star because it’s free and short; otherwise, give it a miss.

 

See this review in situ on GoodReads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16123747-the-hospital