Cold Storage

Cold Storage by David Koepp (2019) 308 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Chris Messina. This is a book I do not recommend. Perhaps if you have read every book by Michael Crichton and are desperate for another bioterror thriller this will fill your need. When I heard about this back in 2019 I had just read Crichton's The Andromeda Strain and its sequel The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson. Koepp has had a long career as a screenwriter, including often adapting books for Spielberg movies. In fact, Koepp adapted Jurassic Park and The Lost World. This is his first novel. I had high expectations that were not met. The first hour of the audiobook, which takes place back in the late 1980s felt the most like a Crichton sci-fi thriller. I didn't like most of the characters. I don't read horror often, so I was very disturbed by the disgusting, revolting, sickening fungal growth and explosions. There is something too cynical about the way the characters luck into saving the day.
 

What Moves the Dead

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, 165 pages

Longtime soldier Alex Easton has traveled far to visit their childhood friend Madeline Usher, who wrote a few weeks earlier begging for a deathbed visit from her friend. But when Alex arrived, they found Madeline and her brother Roderick in a much more worrisome state than anticipated — in fact, they both looked on the brink of death and much, much older than their years. Obviously something is wrong, and the presence of creepy, crawling (literally) hares doesn't do much to help settle Alex's mind.

I love T. Kingfisher's writing, and I'll read anything she writes, including this twist on Poe's classic short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." All of Kingfisher's books have the sort of realistic protagonist that I can really relate to and appreciate (and not just the one that featured a protagonist named Kara). That said, after reading a few books that feature it, I realize that I'm really not a fan of fungus-based horror. It's gross and creepy, yes, but ugh, it's just not my thing. So this book gets a "meh" from me. Not because of the characters or writing (which are fantastic), but because of the fungus, which Poe was apparently obsessed with.