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The Final Diary #01 The Sickness
William Daniels: Author, coward, murderer, survivor.
The news reports are confusing.
The infection takes everyone by surprise and the infected have one thing on their minds: murder.
William Daniels writes books for children, is a loving husband and a caring father. His dream life is shattered when his wife comes home from work and tells him a homeless man bit her. On top of that, Gemma, William’s fifteen-year old daughter hasn’t come home from school.
He joins forces with his bullying neighbour and together with his freshly infected wife in the back of the car and an unwritten diary in his bag; they head out to search for Gemma.
When street thugs, a junkie and even the police cross his path, William soon learns that the infected are the least of his worries.
One thing is certain- the cost of survival in an infection-ravaged London is high.
The news reports are confusing.
The infection takes everyone by surprise and the infected have one thing on their minds: murder.
William Daniels writes books for children, is a loving husband and a caring father. His dream life is shattered when his wife comes home from work and tells him a homeless man bit her. On top of that, Gemma, William’s fifteen-year old daughter hasn’t come home from school.
He joins forces with his bullying neighbour and together with his freshly infected wife in the back of the car and an unwritten diary in his bag; they head out to search for Gemma.
When street thugs, a junkie and even the police cross his path, William soon learns that the infected are the least of his worries.
One thing is certain- the cost of survival in an infection-ravaged London is high.
265 pages, ebook
First published July 21, 2014
5 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
P.B. Simister
2 books8 followersP.B. Simister was born in the north of England.
He moved to the south-west, south-east and back to the north,
where he currently lives with his wife, two sons, two dogs, two cats
and the ghosts of two mischievous (definitely not evil) bunnies.
He found a love for the horror genre at an early age and enjoys writing about the things that scare him.
All his work is written in front of a disinterested cat.
Need more information? Newsletter sign-up? Dead bodies? Ginger spice quadro foametto obtuse hectagon latte zinger with iced steam?
Find it all at...
https://www.pbsimister.com/
He moved to the south-west, south-east and back to the north,
where he currently lives with his wife, two sons, two dogs, two cats
and the ghosts of two mischievous (definitely not evil) bunnies.
He found a love for the horror genre at an early age and enjoys writing about the things that scare him.
All his work is written in front of a disinterested cat.
Need more information? Newsletter sign-up? Dead bodies? Ginger spice quadro foametto obtuse hectagon latte zinger with iced steam?
Find it all at...
https://www.pbsimister.com/
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 10, 2014
Since I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review, I assume that the author wants as much detail from me as possible. For that reason, I approached the book with the eye of a critic, not just as a reader.
Things this book did well:
1) The dog doesn’t die. Some of the points below will be spoiler-tagged but I’m just going to go ahead and say this one straight out, so animal lovers, fear not: you can read this without worrying that Barney will become a Lunchable for a vicious subhuman monster. Yay!
2) The etiology of the infection. I’m not sure how plausible it is from a scientific standpoint, but from an “Eeew” and “Yikes!” perspective it works for me.
3) The mysterious
4) Dexy! I just want to hug this poor little guy. Life has thrown him a serious load of crap but he still manages to love his brother and Barney the dog.
5) It’s a page-turner. They’re constantly being chased by something or fighting something (occasionally each other). There are lots of battles and blood and gore and smashed zombie skulls. (Minor nit though: since whatever-it-is is clearly contagious, is it really smart to splatter blood around with such abandon?)
6)
7) Jim's tagline, "As you say, William. As you say." I don't know why but I loved this. It gave him a certain cynical/sarcastic panache that I really appreciated.
Things this book did not do so well:
1) It needed a plot. For about 80% of the book the characters wander about aimlessly (or run, if Infected are chasing them) with no purpose whatsoever. At first the goal is , but that happens fairly quickly and then all they do is react for the rest of the book: they run from Infected, they run from the police, they escape from the police, they run to the hospital, they escape from the hospital, but none of it is to any purpose. Near the end Then there is the fact that the horde of zombies are there when it’s convenient but somehow lose track of our heroes for days on end. They feel more like a plot device than an actual threat.
2) It needed an editor. I was frequently thrown out of the narrative by punctuation errors, confusing scene shifts, odd metaphors and so on. One example: the characters are barricaded in a room and they jam a crowbar between the door handle and the wall so their attackers “couldn’t pull the door open.” And yet not a page later they are pressing themselves against the door to prevent it being pushed open. Another example: “I glanced over my shoulder to see the main hoodie raise both his arms, he then then [sic] dropped them to his sides and start [sic] racing towards us at an inhuman speed.” A third example: “The report of the gun was deafening, like a small explosion.” Well yes, a gun firing IS a small explosion. The use of commas instead of periods at the end of a piece of dialog was epidemic (pun intended).
3) It needed to actually feel like a diary. The title is “The Final Diary” – the main character is an author of YA fantasy novels who is supposedly keeping a diary about events. But absolutely nothing about the way the book is written conveys any sense that this is an actual diary. There are no dates for entries, no scene-setting indicating that he’s writing (“Finally I have a chance to put down what happened this afternoon, but word fail me…” or “We lost Fred today; it hurts me to write about it but I must get it down so that we don’t forget what he did for us…”), and most importantly not a trace of the introspection that a diarist usually brings to his task. It’s written in the standard this-happened-that-happened simple past, which is fine for edge-of-your-seat adventure; but a diary by necessity imposes a certain distance since entries are written after the fact, when the writer has had time to consider, choose his words carefully.
4) It needed likable characters. Aside from Dexy, I didn’t much care about any of them. I wanted to like the main character, William – pacifist mildly-nerdy fantasy author thrown into a zombie apocalypse, I can empathize with that – but sadly I didn’t. I think the narrative was meant to show him growing as a person, overcoming his cowardice, but the only reason we know he’s a coward is that the author tells us he us. We don’t actually see it. doesn’t fit his character and started the downhill slide for me not liking him, and when he I went completely cold on him. You just don’t DO that to people, even if they did beat the crap out of you earlier. Jim can’t utter a sentence without the word “fuck” which palls pretty quickly. Everyone else except for Dexy is two-dimensional at best.
5) The characters needed credible motives. Secondary character Jim is your cookie-cutter action hero, a British GI Joe, who has zero reason to take up with William...and yet he does. Probably because William wouldn’t have made it two blocks without him, but that’s the author forcing the character's hand, not the character acting naturally for the sake of something he wants. (It wouldn’t be that hard to give him a motive, e.g. ). Cops turn to ? The army ? Even the hoodie-wearing zombie dude Maybe this is intended to come out in book two, but that’s a long time to wait to make sense of things.
In short, I think this book has potential but it would have benefited from a little help somewhere along the line.
Things this book did well:
1) The dog doesn’t die. Some of the points below will be spoiler-tagged but I’m just going to go ahead and say this one straight out, so animal lovers, fear not: you can read this without worrying that Barney will become a Lunchable for a vicious subhuman monster. Yay!
2) The etiology of the infection. I’m not sure how plausible it is from a scientific standpoint, but from an “Eeew” and “Yikes!” perspective it works for me.
3) The mysterious
4) Dexy! I just want to hug this poor little guy. Life has thrown him a serious load of crap but he still manages to love his brother and Barney the dog.
5) It’s a page-turner. They’re constantly being chased by something or fighting something (occasionally each other). There are lots of battles and blood and gore and smashed zombie skulls. (Minor nit though: since whatever-it-is is clearly contagious, is it really smart to splatter blood around with such abandon?)
6)
7) Jim's tagline, "As you say, William. As you say." I don't know why but I loved this. It gave him a certain cynical/sarcastic panache that I really appreciated.
Things this book did not do so well:
1) It needed a plot. For about 80% of the book the characters wander about aimlessly (or run, if Infected are chasing them) with no purpose whatsoever. At first the goal is , but that happens fairly quickly and then all they do is react for the rest of the book: they run from Infected, they run from the police, they escape from the police, they run to the hospital, they escape from the hospital, but none of it is to any purpose. Near the end Then there is the fact that the horde of zombies are there when it’s convenient but somehow lose track of our heroes for days on end. They feel more like a plot device than an actual threat.
2) It needed an editor. I was frequently thrown out of the narrative by punctuation errors, confusing scene shifts, odd metaphors and so on. One example: the characters are barricaded in a room and they jam a crowbar between the door handle and the wall so their attackers “couldn’t pull the door open.” And yet not a page later they are pressing themselves against the door to prevent it being pushed open. Another example: “I glanced over my shoulder to see the main hoodie raise both his arms, he then then [sic] dropped them to his sides and start [sic] racing towards us at an inhuman speed.” A third example: “The report of the gun was deafening, like a small explosion.” Well yes, a gun firing IS a small explosion. The use of commas instead of periods at the end of a piece of dialog was epidemic (pun intended).
3) It needed to actually feel like a diary. The title is “The Final Diary” – the main character is an author of YA fantasy novels who is supposedly keeping a diary about events. But absolutely nothing about the way the book is written conveys any sense that this is an actual diary. There are no dates for entries, no scene-setting indicating that he’s writing (“Finally I have a chance to put down what happened this afternoon, but word fail me…” or “We lost Fred today; it hurts me to write about it but I must get it down so that we don’t forget what he did for us…”), and most importantly not a trace of the introspection that a diarist usually brings to his task. It’s written in the standard this-happened-that-happened simple past, which is fine for edge-of-your-seat adventure; but a diary by necessity imposes a certain distance since entries are written after the fact, when the writer has had time to consider, choose his words carefully.
4) It needed likable characters. Aside from Dexy, I didn’t much care about any of them. I wanted to like the main character, William – pacifist mildly-nerdy fantasy author thrown into a zombie apocalypse, I can empathize with that – but sadly I didn’t. I think the narrative was meant to show him growing as a person, overcoming his cowardice, but the only reason we know he’s a coward is that the author tells us he us. We don’t actually see it. doesn’t fit his character and started the downhill slide for me not liking him, and when he I went completely cold on him. You just don’t DO that to people, even if they did beat the crap out of you earlier. Jim can’t utter a sentence without the word “fuck” which palls pretty quickly. Everyone else except for Dexy is two-dimensional at best.
5) The characters needed credible motives. Secondary character Jim is your cookie-cutter action hero, a British GI Joe, who has zero reason to take up with William...and yet he does. Probably because William wouldn’t have made it two blocks without him, but that’s the author forcing the character's hand, not the character acting naturally for the sake of something he wants. (It wouldn’t be that hard to give him a motive, e.g. ). Cops turn to ? The army ? Even the hoodie-wearing zombie dude Maybe this is intended to come out in book two, but that’s a long time to wait to make sense of things.
In short, I think this book has potential but it would have benefited from a little help somewhere along the line.
August 9, 2014
The Final Diary follows a man named William as he chronicles the events during an outbreak of a Zombie-like Infection in Britain. As William races to find his daughter whose lost amid the chaos in London, he makes unlikely allies and meets unforeseen enemies along the way.
One of the things I really enjoyed about The Final Diary was the character Jim. He was very smart, a true survivor, plus it didn't hurt that he had a military background so his combat knowledge was a bonus! I really liked how he just switched on while others were still worried about being seen as looters or murderers despite seeing neighbors literally being ripped apart in front of them. If The Final Diary were ever to become a film, Vinnie Jones could play Jim perfectly. It's who I pictured immediately.
Another thing I enjoyed were the Zombies themselves. Yes they might not be considered true Undead but they still acted exactly like Zombies so that's what I'm calling them. Although I could have done without the Hoodie character assembling them, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Lastly, I really liked the development of the world and the characters within it. P.B. Simister gave voice to a wide cast of characters and yet they never felt as if they were carbon copies of one another or just generic placeholders waiting to be slaughtered. Even if a character had minimal page time they were developed as best they could for the time they had. Also while this is a British Zombie story, the accents were easy to understand.
Now, while I enjoyed The Final Diary, it did have a few issues that I felt worth mentioning.
First off, I really hated the Hoodie character. He reminded me way too much of Eliza from the Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo. Completely different characters but their actions within the book felt similar. I'm not gonna lie, some of the resentment I felt from that series started to carry over and be projected onto the Hoodie character in this one by books end as that's how closely related they felt. I really hope he is killed off or has a severely diminished role in the next book.
Secondly, while I liked William as a character, he also grated on the nerves a bit with his tone of voice. He was always so polite and courteous even when people were being dicks straight to his face. Yet when talking to others, especially children, it felt like he was being condescending to them. Without his neighbor I seriously doubt he would've survived very long. He just was too soft in some aspects and had too much of a logical mind in others. Thankfully this seems to resolve itself somewhat by books end although the condescending voice remained.
Lastly, I really wish the book had been a bit shorter.Some spots read like a Sunday drive through the country just with rotting corpses in the street and the occasional shuffler seen in the distance. I didn't feel the danger the characters were in because too much time transpired between action sequences. While the story was very good it did drag in places. Had these scenes been condensed just a touch the overall story in my opinion would've flowed better and my adrenaline level throughout would've went up thus increasing my overall enjoyability a bit more.
Final Thoughts
Despite the overall tone of the book reminding me of a British Zombie Fallout, I still couldn't help myself from really enjoying this one in the end. Sure, William was a bit weak at times for my liking and yes, I did find the ending a bit predictable but few books are perfect so some disappointments weren't all that unexpected.
With that being said, I'll be rating The Final Diary: The Sickness by P.B. Simister ★★★★.
Reviewed originally @Blood,Sweat and Books
*Copy reviewed provided by the Author. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in an which way for providing them.
One of the things I really enjoyed about The Final Diary was the character Jim. He was very smart, a true survivor, plus it didn't hurt that he had a military background so his combat knowledge was a bonus! I really liked how he just switched on while others were still worried about being seen as looters or murderers despite seeing neighbors literally being ripped apart in front of them. If The Final Diary were ever to become a film, Vinnie Jones could play Jim perfectly. It's who I pictured immediately.
Another thing I enjoyed were the Zombies themselves. Yes they might not be considered true Undead but they still acted exactly like Zombies so that's what I'm calling them. Although I could have done without the Hoodie character assembling them, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Lastly, I really liked the development of the world and the characters within it. P.B. Simister gave voice to a wide cast of characters and yet they never felt as if they were carbon copies of one another or just generic placeholders waiting to be slaughtered. Even if a character had minimal page time they were developed as best they could for the time they had. Also while this is a British Zombie story, the accents were easy to understand.
Now, while I enjoyed The Final Diary, it did have a few issues that I felt worth mentioning.
First off, I really hated the Hoodie character. He reminded me way too much of Eliza from the Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo. Completely different characters but their actions within the book felt similar. I'm not gonna lie, some of the resentment I felt from that series started to carry over and be projected onto the Hoodie character in this one by books end as that's how closely related they felt. I really hope he is killed off or has a severely diminished role in the next book.
Secondly, while I liked William as a character, he also grated on the nerves a bit with his tone of voice. He was always so polite and courteous even when people were being dicks straight to his face. Yet when talking to others, especially children, it felt like he was being condescending to them. Without his neighbor I seriously doubt he would've survived very long. He just was too soft in some aspects and had too much of a logical mind in others. Thankfully this seems to resolve itself somewhat by books end although the condescending voice remained.
Lastly, I really wish the book had been a bit shorter.Some spots read like a Sunday drive through the country just with rotting corpses in the street and the occasional shuffler seen in the distance. I didn't feel the danger the characters were in because too much time transpired between action sequences. While the story was very good it did drag in places. Had these scenes been condensed just a touch the overall story in my opinion would've flowed better and my adrenaline level throughout would've went up thus increasing my overall enjoyability a bit more.
Final Thoughts
Despite the overall tone of the book reminding me of a British Zombie Fallout, I still couldn't help myself from really enjoying this one in the end. Sure, William was a bit weak at times for my liking and yes, I did find the ending a bit predictable but few books are perfect so some disappointments weren't all that unexpected.
With that being said, I'll be rating The Final Diary: The Sickness by P.B. Simister ★★★★.
Reviewed originally @Blood,Sweat and Books
*Copy reviewed provided by the Author. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in an which way for providing them.
October 18, 2014
Review coming this month during #zOctober2014
I really enjoyed reading The Final Diary. Not only is the story written in a slightly different way than many others I’ve read, but the characters are unlike most I’ve encountered. The cause of the infection, while a bit out there, is interesting and unique. I love the cover, too. It speaks volumes about this book.
William, the main character, is not a badass military man who can plow through anything and come out on the other side unscathed. He’s a real guy with a wife that has recently been infected and a teenage daughter that never came home from school. He doesn’t always know what the right thing to do is, or react in a way that makes sense, but that is what made it easy for me to relate to him.
This story is filled with nail-biting tension, violence, and gore that will get under your skin and spread quickly. In fact, I had a dream that I chewed all my nails off and was pissed. Must have been my subconscious processing the anxiety while I slept. The world building develops organically, and the pacing is pretty spot on. There are a lot of characters, yet I never once felt overwhelmed by their numbers. Their personalities were distinct and made it easy to pick each out in a crowd. Very impressive. I wasn’t fond of all of the characters, but I won’t nitpick about that here. Not everyone can like every character in a book, so it’s simply my opinion.
The flaws: There were some editing issues, which at times pulled me out of the story. I would definitely recommend a good once-over by a professional editor. While I felt the action and tension were present throughout the story, I would have liked there to be a more focused conflict, besides the infected people. The story starts with a great one, but it was resolved a bit too quickly.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I will certainly recommend The Final Diary to fans of horror, action, gore, and a bit of snarky humor mixed in. I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to read this book.
I really enjoyed reading The Final Diary. Not only is the story written in a slightly different way than many others I’ve read, but the characters are unlike most I’ve encountered. The cause of the infection, while a bit out there, is interesting and unique. I love the cover, too. It speaks volumes about this book.
William, the main character, is not a badass military man who can plow through anything and come out on the other side unscathed. He’s a real guy with a wife that has recently been infected and a teenage daughter that never came home from school. He doesn’t always know what the right thing to do is, or react in a way that makes sense, but that is what made it easy for me to relate to him.
This story is filled with nail-biting tension, violence, and gore that will get under your skin and spread quickly. In fact, I had a dream that I chewed all my nails off and was pissed. Must have been my subconscious processing the anxiety while I slept. The world building develops organically, and the pacing is pretty spot on. There are a lot of characters, yet I never once felt overwhelmed by their numbers. Their personalities were distinct and made it easy to pick each out in a crowd. Very impressive. I wasn’t fond of all of the characters, but I won’t nitpick about that here. Not everyone can like every character in a book, so it’s simply my opinion.
The flaws: There were some editing issues, which at times pulled me out of the story. I would definitely recommend a good once-over by a professional editor. While I felt the action and tension were present throughout the story, I would have liked there to be a more focused conflict, besides the infected people. The story starts with a great one, but it was resolved a bit too quickly.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I will certainly recommend The Final Diary to fans of horror, action, gore, and a bit of snarky humor mixed in. I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to read this book.
September 13, 2014
I was given the novel "the final diary #01 The Sickness" written by P.B. Simister in exchange for an honest review.
William is a good man who loves his family, but life as he knows it is about to end. He is at home when his wife Holly comes home from her shift at the hospital. On her way home she tries to stop a man from killing a woman in return for her good deed she is bitten. The bite is infected bad and within hours she's trying to tear Williams throat out. Just after he locks her in the garage his neighbour Jim an army veteran shows up and informs him of whats really happening. The whole of London has gone mad, people are turning into cannibals and anyone who is scratched or bitten turns too. William's daughter Gemma who is only 15 is halfway across town at her boyfriends place.William and Jim decide to go find her, hoping they are not to late.
I enjoyed this story, the characters were well detailed and the flow of the story expertly written. While there were a couple of grammar mistakes it is nothing that would affect the quality of the book, they were only minor and not really worth mentioning. P.B. Simister has written a truly terrifying novel and for the small price of $2.15 it is a brilliant read. I give it 5 stars cant wait for book 2.
William is a good man who loves his family, but life as he knows it is about to end. He is at home when his wife Holly comes home from her shift at the hospital. On her way home she tries to stop a man from killing a woman in return for her good deed she is bitten. The bite is infected bad and within hours she's trying to tear Williams throat out. Just after he locks her in the garage his neighbour Jim an army veteran shows up and informs him of whats really happening. The whole of London has gone mad, people are turning into cannibals and anyone who is scratched or bitten turns too. William's daughter Gemma who is only 15 is halfway across town at her boyfriends place.William and Jim decide to go find her, hoping they are not to late.
I enjoyed this story, the characters were well detailed and the flow of the story expertly written. While there were a couple of grammar mistakes it is nothing that would affect the quality of the book, they were only minor and not really worth mentioning. P.B. Simister has written a truly terrifying novel and for the small price of $2.15 it is a brilliant read. I give it 5 stars cant wait for book 2.
September 18, 2014
I received a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed the unique take on the zombie story & causation of infection.The main character is likable,but at times naive & blind to the dangers of his situation.The story takes you through his efforts to find his daughter & banding with others to survive.My one fault with the book is the typical plot line of trying to survive the attacks of ruthless fellow survivors during the initial outbreak of infection.The book does finish nicely without a big cliffhanger.Yet it leaves you wanting to read the next installment to see how the group survives & find out more about the reason the outbreak occurred.
I really enjoyed the unique take on the zombie story & causation of infection.The main character is likable,but at times naive & blind to the dangers of his situation.The story takes you through his efforts to find his daughter & banding with others to survive.My one fault with the book is the typical plot line of trying to survive the attacks of ruthless fellow survivors during the initial outbreak of infection.The book does finish nicely without a big cliffhanger.Yet it leaves you wanting to read the next installment to see how the group survives & find out more about the reason the outbreak occurred.
August 19, 2014
I certainly hope there is a sequel to this!! I loved it, even though it had a little cursing. I loved that it wasn't just another zombie book!! I recommend it to all who wants to read a new twist on zombies!!
February 4, 2020
Loved it
Reading this book made me miss my bus stop, twice! A great gripping yarn, I recommend it to anyone who likes a good zombie tale.
Reading this book made me miss my bus stop, twice! A great gripping yarn, I recommend it to anyone who likes a good zombie tale.
December 29, 2014
Can't wait for book two...if you love zombies it's a must read :)
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