The Hospital

Interesting enough story to give Book 1 in this series, [b:Mountain Man 13254665 Mountain Man (Mountain Man, #1) Keith C. Blackmore https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327822484s/13254665.jpg 18455899], a try.

I really enjoyed this short story. The narrator is great! His reading brought the characters to life.

I gave this a go as it was free on Audible and I would say if it ever moves out of that and requires a charge/credit; don't bother. From the very outset there was wave after wave of awful similes like an ocean of garbage breaking on the shore of your mind. If ever you took an English class on creative writing you will note a couple of things the author has done that your secondary school teachers instructed you to avoid:

- untamed similes running rampant that add nothing to the story (more likely to jolt you out of the story by how bizarre some of them are: “storm clouds as depressing as suicide”)
- repeated the same phrase at least three (3) times within a short space of time/text
- unnecessary swearing

I'm all for swearing, I do it a lot, and there are times when it really adds just the right kick to the story or the dialogue. In this, however, there's random swearing where it's not really needed and largely makes no sense, which means when it comes to crunch time at the climax of the story the swearing doesn't have as much impact.

The audiobook only lasts one (1) hour, mercifully, and the narrator is almost as painful as the prose. The main ‘shock value' zombie event is something that, if you've ever played Dead Space 2, has been done much better elsewhere.

1 star because it's free and short; otherwise, give it a miss.