Flood Plains

by Mark Wheaton

For New Orleans native BT, one devastating hurricane was enough to last a lifetime. Like many Louisianans, after Katrina he packed up his family, moved west to Houston, and started over from scratch. Finding low-paid work on a computer assembly line on the north side of the city, BT and a handful of other transplants - including would-be track star Alan Terrell, single mom Zakiyah Weldele and her daughter, Angela, and others – begin putting down roots. But then, a monster of a late summer hurricane roars into the Gulf heading straight for Houston. For BT and the others, deja vu turns to horror as they discover, buried within the storm, an Apocalyptic nightmare of monumental proportions.

Unleashed on Galveston Island only to soon exploit the flooding of the Bayou City and spread inland, a monstrous, ghostly collective emerges from the ocean floor after lying dormant for a hundred years. Cutting a swath of supernatural destruction through the city, the mysterious creature unleashes an infinite array of oil-based tentacles to hunt and devour every human soul it encounters.

Cut off from the rest of the world, BT and the survivors of a first assault must rally together as they fight to survive, search for family members, and try to escape the demonic leviathan. They soon discover that they alone may hold the key to stopping the madness, but it will come at a great cost. For each of the survivors, this becomes a test of will but also their humanity as a personal struggle becomes a race to save all mankind from this fiendish abomination.

Genres: Horror, Supernatural

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2012

Reviews

[Kaisersoze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty average horror about something which awakens in a hurricane and sweeps across the flood plains of Texas, devouring everything in its path. Some of the characters were well drawn, but the threat itself was very one-note, and, to my mind at least, difficult to swallow once the reveal of what it is takes place.

Wheaton also commits my mortal-sin of head hopping between characters, and pads out the narrative by introducing characters who add little to nothing to proceedings and could easily have been edited out with no affect on the overall main story.

2.5 Flesh Consuming Tendrils of Ooze for Flood Plains.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has several things going for it. (1) Good characters. Survivors of Katrina facing down another hurricane with a new supernatural element works well. They are complex and you care about them. (2) An interesting monster. This is a monster romp with clearly the biggest monster in the history of monster romps. Interesting concept also. (3) Well written. Even with the Wheaton books that I do not like he has a high degree of skill with narration and dialogue which is no surprise since he is successful scriptwriter. No exception here. This novel, which I did like, moves at a brisk pace smoothly toward the finale. Well done and enjoyable. It would be a good one to take to the beach.....

[Luana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-constructed horror/disaster novella with compelling characters and some great social undertones. The heroes of Flood Plains are a bunch of poor Texas factory workers who are suddenly confronted with not only a hurricane, but also the Lovecraftian beastie it unleashes. The interpersonal squabbling provides a solid tension, without ever sacrificing the outside threat as so many horror stories do. Some characters may not like each other, but they're rational enough adults to know when it's time to stick together against the sludge worms. Without wanting to spoil a late-game revelation about the creature's nature, the book felt more optimistic in its world-outlook than other Wheaton stories. Just a tiny smidge, mind you, it still ain't a Dr. Who episode or anything.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems like a cross between a disaster novel & a horror novel. It follows a group of people, some of whom are survivors from hurricane Katrina.then in the next big storm some killer slime/oil/ghost stuff that travels in the water has them fighting to survive the thing that eats/dissolves thousands of people. The book was easy to get into and I liked the characters.

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 Stars
The writing is decent, but it's bloated, not engaging enough for this type of read. I've got a creature like the Blob (sludge, oily substance, tentacled worm thing) that tosses, cuts like a whip, burns, and eats people which sounds great, right? It would be if I didn't get sentences like this: Something's got my foot caught on something! Says the man getting attacked. Real scary and intense...Not. It doesn't even sound right. Well I skimmed and skipped to find out what happened to who and this author was not afraid to kill off his cast of characters. This book played out like a B-low budget movie and I have to say I didn't like it. I would have stopped at the 10% point if I wasn't one of those people that's tries to finish things. And the ending was...Not For Me~

[Randy Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

One devastating hurricane, one giant oil-based creature with gobs of tentacles filled with souls of the dead looking for more souls, and a old black physic women and her physic granddaughter and a small group of survivors most of which by the end aren't survivors make up a tale worth reading, at least till you get to the end. Now to look for something that's hopefully better.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun monster/ghost story. I enjoyed the creature emencly. One thing bugged me though. A character at one point breaks his arm and seems to be able to do a lot of things reguardless, like carry people and use tools and go up and down ladders. Otherwise irt was a fun ride.

[Don Carling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good horror book. It kept me wanting to go on.

[Amanda]

Could not get into this.