Wake by Elizabeth Knox

Description from Goodreads:

"An invisible monster is what you can't see coming. With an invisible monster you never know when you're in danger and when you're safe—if you retreat to your fortress you can't be sure you haven't locked it in with you. The invisible monster is something on which no one is an expert. But everyone has the same relationship to it. It could just as well be peering over your shoulder as mine.

On a sunny spring morning the settlement of Kahukura in Tasman is suddenly overwhelmed by a mysterious mass insanity. A handful of survivors find themselves cut off from the world, and surrounded by the dead. As the group of try to take care of one another, and survive in ever more difficult circumstances, it becomes apparent that this isn't the first time that this has happened, and that they aren't all survivors and victims - two of them are something quite other. And, it seems, they are trapped with something. Something unseen is picking at the loose threads of their characters, corrupting, provoking, and haunting them.

Wake is book that asks: 'What are the last things left when the worst has happened?' It is a book about extreme events, ordinary people, heroic compassion—and invisible monsters."

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Once again, I am in the minority with this book. It has received so many good reviews of 4 and 5 stars that I am beginning to think there’s something wrong with me because I just didn’t get it.

It starts off brilliantly with all kinds of mayhem and unspeakable acts which are excellently described by Elizabeth Knox who really captures the fear and confusion well - this first bit is not for the feint-hearted. I thought this was the start of something that was going to keep me up and make me bleary eyed at work the next day but, alas, this did not last too long as once the initial madness was over, it became quite a monotonous story about the group of people who had survived.

The book is written from the point of view of the survivors and there are quite a few. Each of the survivors are well developed but there are a lot of them and the story changes from one person to the other which I felt was a little confusing and resulted in me not developing a connection or any particular feelings towards any of them and I wasn’t particularly bothered what happened to them either.

The premise of the story is great but it's just written in a way that neither captured nor engaged me but I would like to thank the publisher, Little Brown Book Group UK, via NetGalley for the copy in return for an honest review.

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