Q Island by Russell James

Samhain Publishing, 2015

ISBN: 978-1619229792

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Q Island begins from the point of view of a baby woolly mammoth, watching its herd die from a mysterious ailment, one that soon takes its own short life. Fast forward to the present, as the mammoth, recently discovered frozen in ice, is delivered to a wealthy man with a taste for the unusual, and a terrifying disease is unleashed on the world. The mammoth carries a paleovirus that attacks the body, leaving highly identifiable physical changes, and unpredictable mental and psychological changes. The latter results in deadly consequences for anyone unlucky enough to get near the afflicted. The government quarantines Long Island, hoping to contain the virus and prevent the spread of a terror the world has not seen for thousands of years.

The reader meets several characters whose lives converge on Q Island, for good or ill. Melanie Bailey tries to navigate not only the new world she finds herself trapped in, but her relationship with her husband, who is not on the island. Her autistic son, Aiden, comes into contact with the paleovirus with unique results. He could be fundamental to finding the cure, if he and Melanie can escape Q Island before its inhabitants get them. Tamara, a divorced nurse, experiences firsthand what a person with the paleovirus is capable of when she is confronted by Patient Zero. Elderly Dr. Samuel Bradshaw, who once worked on the Ebola virus in Africa, now finds himself working on a cure for the paleovirus, but to what end? Jimmy, an unsuccessful small-time gang leader afflicted with the virus, becomes far more dangerous when he succumbs to it. An overcompensating survivalist rules the dwellers of a gated community with an iron fist.

While it sounds confusing, the weaving of the characters’ lives in the novel worked exceptionally well. With the introduction of each new character I was concerned I would have a hard time following the multiple storylines, but James kept the action going, and it was interesting to see how lives intertwined.

For the most part, James writes very believable and real characters. At first, I was annoyed with the portrayal of Melanie as she seemed constantly exasperated with her autistic son, and resentful of her husband. However, the strained relationship between husband and wife, her feelings of powerlessness, plus being the sole caregiver for a high-needs child, makes her seem more real. Essentially she’s doing everything by herself, and she finds herself quarantined on an island with the afflicted, the worst of humanity, and the best of humanity as well. The more her story unfolds, the more the reader finds there is more to Melanie.

However, her son, Aiden, was not very believable to me. He’s written as a stereotypical autistic character. There are too many representations of autistic people depicted the same way, with every possible red flag characteristic noted in the DSM-V.  Not every person on the autism spectrum has nonverbal (whether by choice or ability) or uncommunicative behaviors, rocks or keens in times of stress or displeasure, operates in obsessive compulsive ways, lacks outward emotional awareness or expression, or walks with an odd gait, just to name a few. At best, this character was off-putting, as it perpetuates a stereotype of an autistic person, and at worst it could be harmful to the progress made by the autism community.

The paleovirus itself is frighteningly well done, in terms of its communicability and what it does to the human body– it passes from host to host in multiple ways, making it a very difficult virus for which to develop a cure. The treatment of the paleovirus throughout the book reflects the time James put into his research. Let’s hope something as bad as this virus never comes to fruition.  Recommended for adult readers.

Contains: Body horror, gore, graphic violence, sexual assault

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker