Survivor Song Review: Paul Tremblay Turns Panic into Outbreak Horror

A rabies-like outbreak, a desperate hospital run, and a horror novel that never lets you catch your breath

“He jokes about this being a different and ridiculous timeline. Because why? Crazy awful stuff happening. Horrific shit has always happened, is always happening, and everywhere. And will happen, it won’t stop. There aren’t any other timelines and this one has always been a horror.”
― Paul Tremblay, Survivor Song

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay is a whip-cracklingly fast story that immediately pulls you into the nightmare and drowns you in fear, despair, and just a little hope.

Tremblay drops us into Massachusetts, where an area is slowly boiling over with a pandemic-like virus akin to rabies. It spreads through saliva, and the inhabitants are getting quite bitey. Paul, the hapless husband, runs out to the grocery store to help his very pregnant wife. Under normal circumstances, this would be an everyday errand, nothing noteworthy in the slightest. Paul, our loving husband, almost makes it, but he is taken out brutally. His simple errand ends his life.

There is no build-up to the brutal moments here. They can come from anything. That, I think, is one of Tremblay’s talents as a writer. His books tend to take small snippets of time and expand them into full stories, a whole novel contained within an hour or an afternoon. Horror does not always have to come in giant, sprawling tomes. Sometimes it is just a small slice of the most terrifying moments in someone’s life.

“the final tally of what will be considered the end of the epidemic [but not, to be clear, the end of the virus; it will burrow, digging in like a nasty tick; it will migrate; and it will return all but encouraged and welcomed in a country where science and forethought are allowed to be dirty words, where humanity’s greatest invention—the vaccine—is smeared and vilified by narcissistic, purposeful fools [the most dangerous kind, where fear is harvested for fame, profit, and self-esteem], almost ten thousand people will have died. *”

And while we feel pretty bad for Paul, this story is not really about him. It is about the other protagonist we meet in the second chapter, Dr. Ramola Sharma. She is a pediatrician trying to keep her patients calm in the middle of all this turmoil when she gets a call from her very pregnant friend Natalie, who is begging for help. Natalie needs to get to the hospital as soon as possible so she can deliver her baby safely. The idea of labor in the middle of an epidemic where everyone is trying to tear each other apart is terrifying all by itself.

This is where the real heart of Survivor Song begins: the struggle of these two women battling to get Natalie to the hospital. It is a fascinating story, and it leaves you breathless because it is not trying to be anything more complicated than that. You root for these women because they are trying so hard to survive, and because Tremblay makes you connect with them quickly. Even if that connection is formed in broad strokes, you still want them to live.

“Humanity’s greatest invention—the vaccine—is smeared and vilified by narcissistic, purposeful fools [the most dangerous kind, where fear is harvested for fame, profit, and self-esteem],”

Survivor Song is a well-done novel by a master horror writer. There is some character development, but honestly, the speed at which events unfold does not give the characters much time to process what is happening to them, let alone grow from it. It is kill or run. Do not get bitten. Breathe. Do it again. The pacing is frenetic. The words practically vibrate off the page.

If you are a fan of Tremblay, you will enjoy this book. I would recommend it for the pacing alone. Tremblay made me feel like I was running through the woods with branches whipping me in the face. It is also, unsurprisingly, a quick read. Even at 320 pages, it moves fast. So if you want to watch two women try to outrun a pandemic and save the life of an unborn child, this one is worth your time. You will not be let down.