Nightmare City

by Andrew Klavan

[lizarodz]

Rating 3.5 Stars

Let me just start by stating that this book was not what I expected. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the synopsis is misleading. All in all, Nightmare City is a fast paced mystery with horror thrown in for good measure.

Tom is our protagonist and he is the star reporter of his high school paper. He got in trouble due to a story that he wrote that has made him mighty unpopular and open a can of worms in the process. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you too much about the story because it has so many twists and turns that you must experience yourself first hand and I don’t want to spoil it for you.


There is horror in the book in the form of the ‘malevolents’, hungry zombie like creatures. The beginning of the book was quite confusing to me, but on the second part, as Tom figured out what was going on, it all started to make sense for me too. I have no idea what I would have done in this situation because Tom’s circumstances where horrible indeed.

Other characters of significance are Lisa and Tom’s mom. Lisa is Tom’s editor in the paper and a good friend, she sometimes act as his conscience. Tom’s mom had a really big blow when Tom’s older brother died in Afghanistan, and she is a really good person. Overall, the characterization was good and is the writing of the story.

The plot is, as I mentioned before, a little confusing. I promise that it will all make sense by the second part though! Within the story there are moments of pertinent flashbacks to give the reader insight about Toms’ life, his friends, and his dilemmas. Something I don’t understand is why Tom felt that it was his sole responsibility to expose what happened, in my opinion it was all much bigger that he could handle. Just saying…

Nightmare City is not a zombie story per se, but a story with a mystery, a story about right and wrong, about perseverance, about questions and answers.

Some quotes for you:

“Tom’s curiosity began to kick in – that eager electric pulse that compelled him to know more, to search for the truth, to solve the puzzle. He could never resist it.”

“Well… Just because something is in your imagination doesn’t mean it’s imaginary”


“He felt afraid. Worse than afraid. He felt hopeless. The fog was everywhere. The creatures were everywhere. He didn’t know where he was. He couldn’t see where he was going. How could he ever expect to escape?”