Generation

by William Knight

[celinenyx]

When I started reading Generation I was expecting full horror with a little bit of crime mystery. The first page did nothing to change those expectations; we begin with Patient SW0112 who feels how his own body is decomposing in graphic detail. I got quite a strong stomach for this kind of story; but I was very glad that this book is more than just three-hundred pages of gore.

Hendrix Harrison is a journalist for the Strange Phenomena magazine. When he gets sent to a small village to do research for a story, he comes across something way bigger than just a ghost sighting. There are bodies disappearing from a university facility, and it looks like they were used for testing genetic modification drugs by a pharmaceutical company. People are noticing that Hendrix is digging in stuff he isn't supposed to and some people are getting very, very annoyed.

When a book has an average rating of over four stars on Goodreads I get sceptical. It's impossible that everyone loves the same book, right? In the case of Generation I have to admit, this book is of a very professional standard. It's very well written with just the right amount of suspense, conspiracy, gruesomeness and science. I really liked how the virus that turns people into some kind of concious zombies was developed. Some authors take the easy way out and leave the details unexplained; Mr Knight on the other hand gives us a solid foundation so we can believe in his story.

Generation is a very engaging book. Slowly you discover together with Hendrix what is going on at the university and the pharmaceutical company. For me personally it was too slow. I knew what was going on about halfway of the book, and the main characters took several agonizing chapters until they finally wanted to admit the "big secret". I did like the big conspiracy though, so I wasn't that annoyed.

The characters were pretty lifelike and layered, but it turned out they just weren't people I very much liked. It's hard for me to identify with a single ex-military turned journalist. There was also a little romance that I didn't understand at all. I couldn't find any reason for them to be attracted to each other.

Luckily these were just minor problems and they didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. I think a lot of lovers of thrillers will adore Generation. I would definitely recommend it, on the condition that you can handle a little bit of gore!