I am attempting to go back and read some of these older books to bring up my ratio, but unfortunately I can't find a copy of this in my library system! I will not be reviewing it apologies :(

This book is in my favorite genre, but it’s not my favorite book in the genre. Lots of exposition, repetition, and unlikely outcomes. There’s a sixteen year break in action, which I think would have been a more interesting story than the calamity itself. Although I didn’t enjoy it, I’m sure that some readers will.

Read the beginning of this to try and decide my next read but just couldn't get into it I am afraid. Decided to DNF.

The cover was was made me request and read this book. The plot was very interesting, maybe a bit confusing at times and the ending was rushed while I would've loved a longer and more explained one.

The concept was very intriguing and made for a fast read. The writing was fluent and easy to follow and the characters very different and likable. It's not easy to have all characters easy to like, there's usually one or two you don't like. Here it wasn't the case.

I'll definitely check out more books by this author.

I've been sitting on this ARC I received from Netgalley accidentally for a while. I didn't mean to, I just thought I was caught up and found out... I wasn't. So I reread the description and got excited. A story about an apocalyptic event? Technology-based futuristic society not unlike the one we're headed to? Check and Check, sign me up, this is my kind of story.

Unfortunately, I'll have to make this a spoiler review as it's too hard for me to write my pure disappointment without spoilers. A warning, I tend to go stream of consciousness, I'm not a writer, so there may be grammatical errors abound, so bear with me and strap in.

There was... a lot wrong with this book. I would argue the biggest places were pacing, the sheer amount of exposistion (over 70% of the book), the rushed unbelieveable end (8% of the book) and the long boring bits (22% of the book). He was inconsistant in writing, unoriginal with his descriptions, repeated himself A LOT. Also it just felt like he didn't research, at all, anything. The writing was meh, the characters were cardboard, the dialogue and interaction was cringeworthy and unrealistic. On top of it all it suffered from bullet point disease, he had certain parts you could tell he was certian of, he planned in advance, but then kind of found the inbetween as he went. It didn't work.

Our story opens with an interview with Rick Razer, the Steve Jobs of the future, someone who pioneered advancement in tech. Not just any tech, all tech, finally unifying the wearables, watchables, playables etc that we have already started dabbling in today. RazorVision is the unifying feature, what Google was hoping for with Google Glass, something that augments our reality and brings all our tech together, telling us our stats, showing us our socials, and all around improving our lives. Or so we think. Turton opens up with a very honest approach, discussing the issues with privacy and data, and making it clear this Rick Razor doesn't really care. Sold data means ads get to the right people, the benifets outway the negatives. He even gives this tech away for free as he wants to help improve humanity. Honestly, Turton sets this guy up to be a pretty stand up guy.

Our main character however is Mike Pilkington, a university professor that specializes essentitially in Rick Razor, well his tech at least. He is a staunch supporter of the tech advancements, and is pretty unreasonable with those who don't (as seen with his student Simon, someone set up to be important, but... well I'll get to that later). After a lecture one day, his students show him a viral video, one that they say give them a high like cocaine or something, as a University professor myself, the weird stuff my students show me makes this suprisingly realistic. He watches it, it makes him feel weird, commence paragraphs upon paragraphs of him reminescing about when he used LSD once and what kind of weird he felt, when honestly a "oh, I don't like that" would have sufficed. But whatever. It makes him feel so weird he takes his razortech bike and leaves the razorteched school (it really read like this, he wanted to REALLY make it clear how much Razor was involved with everything). He took these things, angerly called Simon on his RazorVision to give him a piece of his mind about his opinion, while riding a bike (now this is NOT standard professor stuff, I'm close with some of my students, and after they graduate can see myself friends with them, but I would NEVER and have never known a peer to, call a student because I disagreed with them). After his fruitless call, he goes to a pub and gets shitfaced while debating with a super cool antitech dude who just casually after a peer shows him his bunker. (Chekov's Gun much?). But then he remembers, oh yea, I have a wife and 2 month old. Goes home, fights, shows his wife the video, thinks way too long about how much he loves her and has passionate sex.

However in the night, the world goes to hell in a handbasket. Post people who viewed his video go zombie crazy and start murdering everyone. He escapes to bar with his 2 month old, and rather than saving the man who runs it, watches him die and takes his bunker. Well to be honest, the guy told him to get in the bunker and while stashing little baby girl, the dude died, but still. They proceed to stay down there for 8 WEEKS, even though later the book makes it clear that the madness ended in less than 24hrs. He had a window to the outside, you'd think he'd notice it had calmed down? I dunno, that's just a personal meh, nothing wrong with the writing, I just don't get it. With broken ribs and a 2 month old, I feel like I would've tried to find help. He leaves the bunker finally, immediatley finds the nicest couple in the world. Seriously every character is the same in this book, all sickenly perfect humans, never a bad thought, even when it is thoughts. He immediatly goes back to this couple place, and then 16 freakin years pass.
No joke, it jumps forward 16 years. Ok, whatever, the plot doesn't take place in the present, it's fine, the author will have a good reason to jump ahead. But dear reader, he didn't. There was literally no reason to jump ahead, beyond little baby Zara being grown up. Growing up in a tech free world. Something that the story hints will be important, but literally is not. You could cut Zara out of this book and it'd progress the same way. She brought nothing to the table. Even though he found two people immediately after leaving his bunker, apparently it hasn't been so smooth since, and they've formed a community with a handful of other survivors who slowly couple up and make babies, for a total community size of I believe 18.

Now this community. Every single person is WELL RESPECTED in this community, each one. Every single page long description of every single character talked about how WELL RESPECTED they are, and used those words. Everyone had a tragic backstory (understadable and not an issue) but had found solace in this community. They all were the exact same. Super nice, kind, talented. No bad apples, not one in the bunch. The princess of them all (and she was described as a princess at one point) is Zara. Lovely, sweet, limber, musculer, lean, built, Zara. Sweet as honey, everyone treats her like family. But she's lonely, as there is noone her age (even though.. there is one boy 2 years younger but he never gets mentioned again). Now Zara is the definition of all talk no action. Everyone builds her up so much. At one point she goes on mission outside the community, smokes some pot, looks around, talks to the people she's with, becomes so desperate she starts seeing someone twice her age as attractive. Comes home and everyone raaaaaves about how awesome she is, she was amazing at it, she kept them safe, they didn't know what they'd do without her. But she didn't do anything. Let alone anything more than those she was with. The only point of tension and action was a man falling off his bike. But man oh man is she special and strong, and limber and musculer (seriously give Mr. Turton a thesaurus).

After the bike incident proved fatal. The group goes out to find a doctor. They magically in the first place they go to find a doctor and a nurse. Sweet. They think about how lucky they are rather than how poorly written that is. But don't you worry, the author has something up his sleeve to make up for it. Insert eyeroll. Well in the like 5 hours since meeting, our Mike has decided he is head over heels in love with the doctor. Like they've known each other less than a day and are snoggin. Well one of the new people (there are a doctor, a nurse, and two others) is apparently her ex, and is mad. So he shoots one of the only interesting characters in the book and then shoots himself. This is the equivelant of a horror movie shooting itself in the foot by showing their terrible cg monster. It accomplished nothing, only was covering up their lack of a creative solution to the situation, and made me as a reader take the book a lot less seriosuly.

So what does the group do? They get home and decide to leave to find out if Rick Razor really did cause all this with the video. Oh and because Mike and the Doctor are in love now she's coming. The doctor, who a very WELL RESPECTED member of the community died to get, is going to leave to satisfy her new beau's curiostity. This is where I just lost it. None of this was believeable, none of this made any sort of sense, a relationship of a few days does not cause this. Also this is where things started becoming extremely inconsistant. In show of welcome, the community invites the newbies to join... the founders commitee. But... everyone after Mike and the couple were all new, with this logic EVERY SINGLE TOWNSPERSON would be on that commitee. But, whatever. Mike and the Doctor also get married, the first marriage in the community! Wait a second, they've had numerous marriages. The man who just died killed his wife during the night of terror and remarried and had 4 kids while in the community. So... I guess they don't matter? Mike and Doctor are the first. Whatever.

So Doctor, Mike and Zara take off to figure out what happened to the world. If you feel like I spent a long time on this, so do I. It was about 71% of the book. No joke, just check my Kindle, they leave town at 71% through. They leave town, they have no issues on the road. They have two side stories, both standard predictable fair. One a crazy man whose locked up his zombified wife and daughter for 16 years. Not only has this been done a 1000 times before, but very recently in pop culture to the release of this book with the Walking Dead season 2. Then they encounter a group of guys on the road who immediately try and rape Zara *yawn*, every apocalypse story ever. I think the author thought he was being original by adding how Zara enjoyed the attention before it was too much, which is refreshing. They take off in a car the guys had cause they found some gasoline (which can only last stored properly up to 6 months.. but yea 16 years later sure.... RESEARCH, this one is a common misconception in apocalypse stories, however, yet another recent pop culture show "The last man on Earth" finally commented on that easily researched yet overlooked fact).

So, pointless, non plot propelling side stories done, we progress to the ACTUAL plot. But wait a second...we are now at 83% of the book. So whatever is about to go down, is going to go down fast. Now the book has been hinting throughout that Rick Razor had had some big gameplan to fix the growing seperation of wealth. It's hinted that this video was a unifier and would be his solution. It was very much suggested he had a gameplan, and established he was a smart man, so what comes next was so... freaking dumb I can't control my rage at wasting my time reading it. They come to the Razor tower, they enter, and rather than finding Rick Razor waiting to we awaken the world or having succumbed to his own equalizer. They find, and I can't even try to be nice. A cult, he's somehow become a psychopath, with no build up in the 50% exposistion to this. His idea of the great equalizer was to create a cult (oh by the way Simon's there! The one that hated Tech! oh wait, now he's dead, so he didn't matter at all). This cult goes against everything Razor talked about prior, and even during their time there. His great equalizer event was meant to clear the world so he could bang a bunch of chicks and populate the world with his babies. For REAL THAT WAS THE AUTHOR'S SOLUTION. A very smart man thinking that could work somehow. Incest asside, what? So he's created this community where everyone has to have their boobs out and have sex with him. Then in the equivelant of the villian explaining the plan to the hero, he tells them his twin boys know the passcode and it requires his retinas to restart the tech. Oh by the way, one of the twins is in love with Zara, they met five minutes ago, but whatever, he's in love with her and wants to help her escape and wants to go with her. But rather than get anyones hands dirty, lets introduce a hypnotist, the one that made the video, and convince him in 60 seconds he feels so guilty he needs to kill Rick Razor, so he does. So now, they've got a full building of cultists with no leader, an evil twin, a good twin, and our little family of Zara, Mike and the Doctor. Shits about to go down. They gotta escape right?

Oh... I guess not. It's the epilogue and Zara is pregnant with good twins baby. Bad twin fishes his dad's eyes out of the river. Now, let's revisit the research complaint again. I don't quite know how Razor's tech worked in regard to a retina scan. BUT Eyes begin clouding over in a matter of hours after death. So fishing them out of the river months later as implied by this epilogue (very preggo and married Zara) would be fruitless. Retinae cease to do anything once they are severed from the brain, meaning death or ripping them out of the head would mean they aren't doing anything. Regardless of the clouding over the issue. MONTHS later there probably wouldn't be any eyes left.
ANNND the book is over. That's how quick it happened. It was so quick, and so freaking bad. Like I haven't felt a book was this bad since "Book of the Unnamed Midwife".

I'm sure it doens't help that I read Butler's Parables recently which are amazingly written books telling the story of a growing community living in the wastelands of humanity. Seriously amazing books. If you hated this book as much as me read them. If you LIKED this book READ THEM so you can see what a good version is.

This book was so horribly written. Every character was a cardboard cutout cut to the same shape with a different image printed on it. Absolutely nothing advanced the plot. I never felt compelled beyond my own obsession with finishing what I started to continue the book. Even when the author did attempt to make us care about a character there was no purpose, no one was put in danger, there was no action or concern or anything. The "Suicide mission" of going to Razor tower wasn't really though, immediately they had people do it for them. Zara did ABSOLUTELY nothing this whole book, except exist. If you removed her, you would not miss her, and some of the cringiest moments would be gone.

One of the things I ask my student during critiques (Illustration Department) is "If it was gone would you miss it?" To point out when they are doing superfluous things, or over-complicating, or bogging down their good work with garbage. This book was 99% that. I would not miss 99% of what happened in this book. I would miss the concept. A solid and interesting one. Horribly executed by an author that couldn't even be bothered to research how many deer are in a herd, cause it's not "dozens".

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. but lets all take a moment and look at this cover art. It gives you all the chills. I highly recommend this book.

Bit of a frustrating read. Thought some of the themes of the book were very relevant for the times and deserved further exploration. Unfortunately, where The Malaise really feel down for me, at least, was the characterisation and the dialogue which felt flat a lot of the time.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A very atmospheric, addictive read. I enjoyed the British humor but at the heart of this book is a very dark reality of the possibility of social media, technology and the internet completely taking over. This book genuinely gave me chills and some scenes were quite hard to read. A great dystopian/thriller/sci fi mix and a recommended read.

Thankyou to NetGalley, John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg and the author, David Turton, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Malaise in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought the premise of the story sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, I could not get into it at all. I struggled to read this one.
Not a book for me but one that you need to judge for yourself..

The Malaise is an entertaining end of the world story, but at the end of the day it was just trying for too much story in too little space.
Professor Michael Pilkington couldn't be more enthusiastic about Razor Technology. Since its founding, it's gone on to connect the world to itself - and all for free (as long as you don't count paying with your personal information as a cost...). But all that changes one night after a viral video sends the world mad, leaving only a handful of survivors to pick up the pieces.
Personally, I enjoyed this book, though there were definitely some quibbles I had. Anyone who's read a book or seen a movie is going to see the tragic deaths coming - and there really was too much plot for the pacing. 16 years goes by in a blink, and only after that our community realises it needs a doctor? And it's all capped off with a quest to find the big bad, the man who caused all this, and of course he's not just misguided but completely deranged. The ending was rushed, even compared to the pace of the book, and I had a major issue with the very end. (No spoilers, but - in that scenario, the eyes would be almost the first to go.)
All that said, I just want to re-emphasise that I did enjoy this. It's entertaining when you suspend your disbelief and just go with it, and the writing is actually solidly good. If you're in the mood to watch the world burn, and want to have some fun along the way, this could just be what you're looking for.

Ok, so I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book. I enjoyed the premise of a small group of people coming together to make do in a world that went made because of technology.

However, the ending was abrupt and at times nonsensical. For example, we are led to believe that a girl and guy will fall in love and the son will help kill his father all in the matter of a few short hours?! This part of the book really lacked the storytelling that the rest of the book had. There was little development and it just seemed not to fit with the rest of the book.

In 2038, technology runs nearly everything in the world -- from smart houses and self-driving cars to emails sent by thought and RazorVision VR glasses -- the modern world runs with technology invented by Rick Razor, Then one day the tech mogul barricades himself in his fortified glass tower and a strange video is released that goes viral. Soon the video has been watched billions of times....literally everyone with access to RazorVision has seen it. More than once. Then the killing starts..... Within 24 hours, there are very few people left alive. Can the survivors start over? Will they ever understand what happened?

For the most part, I enjoyed this story. It some exciting and gruesome moments, plus the concept of the apocalypse coming via technology is an interesting one. Although the concept of a corporation or madman ending life on earth isn't a new plot in dystopian/science fiction, I liked the fact that in this case the weapon of mass destruction was technology itself. The survivors make for interesting characters.....the group is a rag tag bunch from nearly all walks of life. They are all thrown together to start civilization all over again from the basics, while looking for answers to what caused the destruction of modern society. Strong people in a very tough time. There were some parts of the plot I found to be a bit too easy/coincidental to be realistic....but it wasn't enough cheese to pull me out of the story entirely. The plot moved along at a nice pace with good suspense. It definitely kept my interest. The ending was a bit fast for me.....I wanted the final boss fight/altercation to be a little more in-depth. But,overall, the book was an enjoyable read for me. I love apocalyptic/dystopian stories. The Malaise is definitely worth a read! The story has me re-thinking my curiosity about VR and complex, adaptable AI software!

The cover art for this book is awesome! Very eye catching. I wanted to read this story the minute I saw the cover!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from John Hunt Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

<i>Professor Mike Pilkington loves his family and his technology. Unfortunately, in a near-future Britain, both end up forcing him to fight for his life.
In just a couple of days, the world is rendered primitive and nearly devoid of human life after the majority of the population turns homicidal then suicidal. Mike must find other survivors and learn to build a life in this new environment all while trying to care for his baby daughter.</i>

David Turton’s <i>Malaise</i> has an interesting setting and an engaging story. There are no zombies or the like to contend with in this post-apocalyptic setting and so you get more human development than scare tropes, which is a welcome change-up.

The book does have a slightly clumsy writing style, however, which subtracts somewhat from the experience. There is also some character exposition and reflection which is a little clunky and not quite genuine.

<i>Malaise</i> is a good time-filler and would make a good holiday read. 3 out of 5 stars.

If you're looking at the cover of "The Malaise", and thinking, wow this looks interesting. You're not wrong, and you better pick up a copy, especially if you like stories set mostly in the post apocalypse. That, and the cover will be a beautiful addition to your bookshelf, if you're just looking at it because of the cover.

If you do get past the cover however, I'm sure most of you will, you'll find a world set in 2038 a near future. A man named Rick Razor runs most of the technology in the world, and although he's not really a people person and doesn't do very many interviews, the first part of the book switches between interviews of him, and a man named Mike.

The world is still whole, and Rick Razor is trying to find a way to not only help turn third world countries into first world countries, but also fill the world with interesting and planet saving technology at the same time. Although privacy doesn't exactly exist anymore, most people are more than willing to trade that for the interesting technology that he has to offer. That is, until a strange video is uploaded and quickly becomes viral, one of the most viewed videos in the world.

Mike is at work when it happens, giving a lecture to his class, and a student brings it up to him after. He says it's really weird, but it made him feel hyped up, kind of like he was on drugs. But after watching it himself, Mike feels sick and depressed. He wonders if it's because of his past drug use. Later that night however, everyone who felt hyped up by the video changes into a twitching, drooling, killer. He wakes up to find his beautiful wife trying to smother their new baby.

One thing I found interesting about this book was that not only did it show the world post apocalypse, but it showed before as well. The second part of the book takes place in 2054, as Mike and his daughter try to rebuild society. If you don't like the third person viewpoint, you might not like this, but I hope the story would be enough to grab your attention away from that. My favourite character would probably have to be Zara, because she not only plays a big part in the story, but also because she's very strong to have survived growing up in the apocalypse.

Overall I'm glad I read this book. I love stories set in the apocalypse, so I really hoped that I would enjoy this one. Not only were the characters really interesting to get to know, but I was really happy to get to see the world around them as well. I also loved the cult aspect of it. Definitely check it out if you have the chance, and you don't mind a little bit of gore in your stories.

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

Prof Mike Pilkington, IT expert and teacher, is enamoured with Razor Technology, technology which controls every part of life. Mike can see no downside to this until the day that a disturbing video goes viral and the world as he knows it disappears.

I thought the premise of the book was excellent, I really liked the use of the video within the plot, and the first part of the story was nailbitingly tense. Things slowed down a little in the aftermath but it was interesting enough to keep me reading. I thought Mike was a little naive for a professor, and his daughter Zara's personal thoughts and reactions sometimes didn't seem authentic to me. Finally, the ending seemed a bit rushed compared to the rest of the book.

TW: violence, gore, some sexual content including a sexual assault.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, John Hunt Publishing Ltd, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

The Malaise, David Turton's full-length debut novel, is part techno-thriller, part post-apocalyptic horror story and is all too real. I found that once I began reading I had major trouble putting it down and so devoured it in one excitement filled sitting. It's a chilling tale which is more than a little disturbing, and the author used the ubiquity of technology to masterfully craft a truly thrilling story. However, I didn't feel that the writing style suited me too well as it was over simplistic, but testament to the strength of the concept, I still found the book completely captivating.

I was also not particularly enamoured with the conclusion as it felt rushed and disappointing as opposed to the rest of the book. There were some events that came off as contrived and a little too convenient. It's an easy, quick and entertaining read, but if you're looking for a well-built world this may not be for you as there is a lack of attention paid to that very important aspect. That said, it is clear the author is talented as the atmosphere he creates is wonderful and very dark. The cliffhanger ending implies that there will be a sequel, so I hope we get more intricate details of the world and characters when that follow-up is released.

Many thanks to Cosmic Egg Books for an ARC.

A dark and disturbing vision of a dystopian future, The Malaise by David Turton is a real page turner. Set twenty years in the future, in a world where technology is ubiquitous, and one giant corporation Razor Technology, has tendrils in every aspect of day to day life, from driverless cars to RazorVision goggles that have replaced most screens. Mike Pilkington, a university professor has long been a champion of the value of technology, but his world is turned upside down when a strange video goes viral, sweeping through RazorVison users , and leaving them feeling almost euphoric. Mike's reaction is different, he is disturbed and nauseous, but he ignores his misgivings until later that night he wakes to find his wife trying to kill their baby daughter. As a wave of murder and suicide sweeps the globe, a small band of survivors band together, and try to rebuild a future, including Mike and his daughter. Restless, and determined to confirm his theory that RazorTech is behind the tragedy he sets out to find answers at the heart of the corporation, and what he finds is disturbing beyond belief.
This book is so well crafted, it had me hooked from the moment the carnage began, but I also loved reading about the rebuilding of one little corner of the world. What interested me most, and where the author has done a particularly good job, is in the dynamics and relationships between the various characters, and also their relationship to the past and the new world in which they must survive.
My only slight criticism is that I felt the ending did not quite live up to the strength of the rest of the book, but I very much enjoyed the journey I was taken on.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own,

I really enjoyed this book. It starts with most of the western world hooked on Razor Technologies. Why not? It's given out for free and is oh, so handy! Until one day a strange video appears and sweeps the world, getting over 2 billion views.

That night, around midnight, most of the people who saw the video go crazy. Twitching and drooling and trying to kill anything in their way. Professor Mike Pilkington spends a harrowing night fighting his way to safety while carrying his infant daughter, Zara. After surviving the night, they go on to meet others and form a community.

Tiny spoiler here. Finally! A post apocalyptic book that kills off the "zombies" quickly. I could give 4 stars for that alone. However, I don't have to do that because the book is really good all the way through. The community that is formed seems realistic. There are a few things that come a bit too easily, in my opinion, but that's minor.

This book is a really good post apocalyptic read. If you are looking for straight horror, this isn't it. (Though that very cool cover does lead one to think that.) I'm hopeful that there will be more books set in this world.

I really enjoyed this book; it was an easy and entertaining read. The main pull for this book for me was the plot. It is 2030s and technology has advanced to the point where everyone is attached to and reliant on it. Then, almost the entire world population is wiped out overnight because of a strange “virus.” The topic of technology and its concerns with security and privacy is prominent and very relevant to today. It makes me think of the horrific consequences of what might happen in reality so I was very excited and hooked while reading this book.

However, while I thought this book was entertaining and an enjoyable read, I have to criticize the writing itself. The language and dialogue was a bit childish, thus sounding unrealistic to me. It felt like the book was written by a child, or a fan fiction story. The dialogue was very cheesy. Also, the book lacked detail. Scenes hopped from one to the next fairly quickly. I felt like the topic and plot had so much potential to be this great world-building content but there wasn’t any. The author did the complete opposite of “show, not tell.” Therefore, while this book was very enjoyable and I do recommend it if you want a quick, easy read, don’t expect too much. You’ll be left expecting a lot more if you go in thinking it’ll be a lot of world building, zombie killing, and whatnot. Nope.

Anyways, I have a very mixed review of this book. I liked it but I didn’t like the direction it went and the writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

A fascinating, atmospheric and enthralling book that keeps you hooked til the last page.
I loved this dystopian novel, well written and full of well developed and interesting characters.
There is a lot of darkness but there's also hope.
The ending is open and I hope this is going to be a series with further instalment.
Recommended!
Many thanks to John Hunt Publishing Ltd and Netgalley for this ARC