The Mortis by Jonathan R. Miller

[lilysreviews]

Blurb: A husband and wife are staying in a hotel on a remote islet when the sickness comes. In a matter of days the resort is overrun with the ill and the dying, all of them lost in a psychosis brought upon by the disease. The islet quickly falls, and the only safe haven is Cãlo, a southern township that the locals—the indigenous population who used to serve as resort workers—call their home.

The couple is forced to flee into La Sielve, the wildlands, and what follows is an out-and-out struggle for their very survival, a series of unnerving trials that test their bodies, minds, and their relationship with one another.

They soon learn that the islet is not the only place affected by the sickness, that it's everywhere, and that the carriers are only those with European heritage, and at first the husband and wife—him biracial, her African-American—believe they may be immune, that they may be able to ride out the collapse. But when they begin to notice signs of the sickness in themselves, in each other, they start to wonder if they're really as healthy as they hoped.

A story of love, loss, and the struggle to maintain one's humanity in the face of animalism, The Mortis explores the lengths we will—and sometimes won't—go for each other during the crises we face, and delves into themes as diverse as marriage, culture, race, societal structure, and ideological rigidity.

Review: The Mortis was a good read and the author explored the themes of love, loss, how people handle themselves (and each other) in adversity, and the lengths that people will (or will not) go to very well.

Whether the timing was of my reading the book was off or for some other reason I cannot quite pin down, I could not quite connect with the storyline or the characters. I will re-read the book in the future to see if my opinion changes.

(Provided by Smith Publicity for review.)

(cover image and blurb (c)Jonathan R. Miller