Virus

I am not over-exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best horror novels I've read in a long time. I can't remember feeling this edgy reading a novel since I first read James Herbert's the Fog or the Rats. Sarah Langan has a knack for revolting, but sparse descriptions - it's not necessarily what she writes, but what she leaves out in her "images" that makes them stick in your mind.
It's a simple enough story - a virus is running wild, unchecked, in an American town, and the story focuses on the townsfolk as they "change". It's very realistic and looks at the very real emotions of the people as they either surrender or fight against their fates. It's the kind of novel where you don't really know who's going to survive...

At this stage I have to make one clear point: I think one of the reasons that this novel works as well as it does is that it was written by a woman. Now this is not meant as a sexist comment - I've already said that this book focuses on the emotions of the characters and this is where, for me, the book scores most of its points over writers like Stephen King, for example. King, for me, has great concepts but gets carried away with them - he works best when he focuses on the minutiae of the story - but he can not convey complex emotions. Virus does, it focuses on the fragility of the human condition and takes a realistic look at what might be going through the characters thoughts and feelings as they begin to change. It's harrowing stuff, but then great horror is.

For all those people who loved the early James Herbert this is the novel for you. I, for one, can not wait to read another Langan novel.