Valet Reader

Blue triangles are a central part of Sigler’s Infected. Blue triangles make me think of magic eight balls. That’s reasonable right? Although I may not have played with one in awhile, since the last question I asked one these “magical” devices was “should I ever ask you a question again?” and the response was “my reply is no.” I can’t help but wonder whether or not the toy, that was invented in 1946, had anything to do with Sigler’s thought process when writing this book. I’d guess that the magic eight-ball would respond with “don’t count on it.”

Now, what we have here is a book that falls nicely into the horror/thriller genre of books. A genre which I usually don’t find myself reading all that often. So, to that affect I must say it was a nice change of pace. Mr. Sigler himself was kind enough to comment on a recent post of mine in which I discussed a signing of his and odds are that, had he not done so, I would not have read this book.

It’s in my nature to compare books I read to others I’ve read. Like I said, this novel falls into a new genre for me and it wasn’t easy for me to think of something to compare it to. In the end though, I think it would be fair to say that there could possibly be some similarities between this work and Scott Smith’s The Ruins. A book which I liked and was unfortunately made into a god awful movie. Suffice it to say, despite the fleeting similarities, Infected is in a class of it’s own when it comes to my personal library.

Let me ask you a question. If you woke up one morning and found several unusual, itchy, rash type spots on your skin, what would you do? Would you a.) regret sleeping with that woman/man you took home the other night b.) do a google search and try and diagnosis yourself c.) ignore it or d.) take a knife and cut the spots out? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out what the characters in this particular book do in that situation but I’ll tell you this much, it ain’t pretty.

When Perry Dawsey finds himself in a predicament, he does his best to ignore it. You see, he has a history of lashing out and he really can’t afford to let his anger get the best of him. But, when you’re infected with a bizarre rash and begin hearing voices, there’s really only so much you can do or handle before you start to lose your mind. What Perry doesn’t know, unfortunately, is that the infection he has is a parasite, and the other victims of said parasite have had the tendency to go on homicidal rampages before killing themselves. You see, this presents a problem for our dear Mr. Dawsey.

While Mr. Dawsey is suffering through his viral attack, unbeknown to him, the government is doing their best to track down a living specimen of the infection. Well, all I’ll tell you about that is that the parasites taking over Perry’s body are none to happy about being pursued by the feds, yes, they know.

While Sigler’s book was a nice break for me in terms of genre jumping I have yet to decide whether or not I will continue on with this series. Yes, it is a series. I certainly enjoyed the storyline and his writing but when it comes down to it, I’m just not so sure I’m sold on books like this. The character development for the most part is there, although there seems to be a little bit lacking when it comes to those characters not named Perry Dawsey. Then again, the story is about Perry and his new little friends, so there really isn’t much of a need for a whole of lot of blabber about everyone else in the story.

If you’re pursuing a bio-thriller/horror story, this is certainly a book that will satiate you. If you’re not interested in gore, self mutilation and or killing sprees, then keep your distance.