Deep Freeze

Went with the audio for this, and Scott Brick did a good job bringing the pace and action to life in this one.

An attempted store robbery, a bus crash. A tragic death that was not only a drowning, but a complete freezing beneath the frozen lake. When John Reiff wakes up in a scientific lab, what should be an absolute miracle, he has no idea where he is, or who he can trust—nor does he know why he has this sneaking suspicion that things are not as they seem. As the events of the novel progress, the reader just might find out that everyone has secrets.

I listened to this one while reading I Was a Teenage Slasher, and the thing that stuck out the most was the authors’ completely different decisions: this one features incredibly short chapters, over 100 total. And while that could easily turn your night of “just one more” into a never ending sequence of more, I did find the shorter bits to be hard to digest as there was a lot of science, as well as a lot of confusion. As a plot structure, it makes perfect sense, as we know and find things out as John Reiff begins to, it just didn’t fully grab me. Until one particular line at the end of chapter 44 completely hooked me. Like I actually said, “alright I’m all in.” And while I won’t spoil it, I’m excited for readers to get into it.

With how technothriller the blurb sounds, I was surprised with how dystopian this was. The world outside of the lab is shambles of what once was. War, famine, inflation, the use of AI—has turned the world into a husk. People died, starved to death, while the richer got richer still. So of course John Reiff has been roped into something completely corrupted! A guinea pig to a bigger scheme.

I really enjoyed the mystery of this one, as well as the fact that almost everyone was hiding something different. The commentary of where it seems we are headed was nice as well, although a bit jarring as this is rather near, near-future. While the end did go a bit action thriller on us, it was entertaining throughout and I enjoyed the ending a lot. I’m glad to see there’s a planned sequel.