The Curse of the Sequel Persists...

Contagious - Scott Sigler   



Let down by two sequels in  row - that has to be some kind of record!

Let's be clear, my expectations for this book were WAY high. When I read Infected, it had me by the throat. Any time I wasn't at school or sleeping, I was reading that book.  Dishes?  Let them pile up. Papers to grade? They'll still be there in the morning. This one just didn't have the same effect - it took me a week to finish.

When the action picks up, Perry Dawsey has been successfully rid of his triangles physically although to say there is emotional backlash is an understatement. He has a lingering psychic connection to other triangle hosts, and is working with hard-boiled CIA agent Dew Phillips (my latest literary crush - I am determined that Xander Berkeley from 24 should play him in the movie, if there is ever a movie)...

Xander Berkeley

...and CDC scientist Margaret Montoya to track down new hosts of the strange disease. The main conflict for the first part of the book is that Montoya and Phillips are desperate for a live host in order to study and hopefully conquer the disease, while Perry's idea of "helping" is to kill the hosts on the spot.  Arguments ensue, but subside when it becomes evident that there is a new strain of the disease, much more threatening, and....wait for it...CONTAGIOUS. (And also spread in the GROSSEST WAY YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE.) (And no, it's not what you're probably thinking.)

One of the problems I had with this book is that there are just TOO MANY CHARACTERS.  Infected focused very tightly on the trio of Perry, Dew, and Margaret; there were supporting characters, but they were just that: supporting.  In this volume there are at least seven or eight characters who get their own point-of-view chapters, and I'm still not quite sure I could keep them all straight. One of them is one of the most disturbing villains I've ever read - a seven-year-old little girl who is a host of the new strain of the disease. And she's not disturbing in a Hannibal Lecter, oh-that's-kind-of-intriguing way; she's disturbing in an I-think-I-want-to-skip-to-the next-section-and-see-what Perry's-doing way. Shudder.

I also hated, hated, and give me one more HATED the ending.  It was a logical ending - perhaps the only logical ending - but I still hate it.  Damn you, Sigler, why did you have to leave your readers with a bad taste in their mouths? (An unfortunate metaphor, as you'll know if you read the book.)

3.5 out of 6 stars