Review: Symbiote

Symbiote by Michael Nayak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Narrated by Paul Bellantoni
Presented by Dreamscape Media

Big Venom fan here, so you call your book Symbiote and I'm gonna pay attention!

There's a virus spreading through Antarctica, and it's infecting people with murderous rage and inhuman strength.

The setup here was perfect - remote location with just enough characters that you know a decent number of them are going to die horribly. The threat of the cold lurking behind all the chaos the virus causes, and character dynamics, add some interesting plot points.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. The suspense was meted out well and the story moved at a decent pace. We get a few different viewpoints to keep things interesting, and there are a lot of Venom-esque interjections throughout to add an extra creep factor.

I'm very curious as to how this story looks on the page, because the narrator did a brilliant job of defining those crazy symbiote asides and I wonder if it would translate as well on the physical page or if all the parentheses would drive me mad. It feels very much like a Marvel Venom story, without the 'protect the innocents' bit to make the symbiote likeable. I love Venom, so I enjoyed it a lot, but it does also feel a little too close to ripping off the character.

Towards the second half of the book, it was starting to feel like things should have already wrapped up and so it began to drag. I found my thoughts drifting a bit and even though there were still some really cool moments, ultimately I was waiting for it to finish.

The narrator had his work cut out for him with all the different voices and possessions and things and did an absolutely brilliant job of it. Some of the characters sounded a bit the same, but the different tones he used to convey the interjections and things was perfect. I'd happily trust this narrator again.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable read that was a steady 4-star until the last third or so of the book.

I'd recommend this one for horror fans and Venom fans alike.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

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