Survivors

Our Review

Survivors is book three of the Voices series by the amazing G. X. Todd. I finished it yesterday morning and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I wish book four was out already and I will be first in line to read it.

Newcomers to the series don’t have to have read Defender or Hunted but I think it would enrich their reading experience if they did.

In Survivors the world is divided into those who hear voices and those who don’t.

A man named Pilgrim wakes in a shallow grave unable to remember how he came to be there and what came before. The Voice in his head helps him to remember his past and tells him he needs to find a girl named Lacey.

His journey will take him back to old friends and where it all began. He’s going to need all the allies he can get because a war is coming.

Survivors begins in an overcrowded mental health ward of a hospital. The ward is known as ‘The Unit.’ The normally 24 bed unit is overcrowded with 36 people on it not including those in isolation and tensions are rising.

This is where we meet Jackson, Abernathy and Sol. Jackson and Abernathy often spent time together and share a cigarette. Sol has a special route he takes round the unit one which involves counting all the books on the bookshelf. He appears to be in a world of his own, but he does stop occasionally to intervene when someone gives Abernathy a hard time.

From Jackson and the others, we learn that Gibbs, a member of staff who is normally cheerful, is particularly on edge and more and more staff are simply not turning up for duty.

This is also where the reader encounters Birdy, a particularly vicious member of staff who frequently angered me. If I could punch a character in a book Birdy would have been punched! Think Percy in the green mile and you won’t be far off.

The Unit is clearly not a perfect place under normal circumstances, practices are allowed which shouldn’t be. As the situation in the outside world deteriorates there is a noticeable deterioration in the way the patients are treated.

“None of the doors were supposed to be locked. People weren’t supposed to be kept in isolation or held in restraints, either but that happened a lot too.”

Having worked in a mental health place I felt shocked when Gibbs sat down and opened up to Jackson about how bad things are because one of the biggest things you are taught is not to give out personal information that could potentially be used against you somehow.

“I’m not coming to you with this lightly. You must understand I would never normally talk about these things with a patient. Not ever. But I’ve already discussed this with colleagues, with doctors, with professionals, and no one wants to face up to facts.”

When Pilgrim pulls himself out of the earth he is not the Pilgrim we remember from previous books. The voice in his head is “something separate and inexplicable.” He calls his voice ‘Voice.’

He wakes from dreams of red skies and a voice saying “BURNING. MADNESS. DEATH.”

Pilgrim feels the need to move and keep on moving because it is too dangerous to stay still.

I felt like we learnt a lot more about Pilgrim in this book and part of what motivates him not to dwell on his past.

“I feel like I belong in this world…There are bits and pieces of the old one I remember…But its all so distant. It fades from me, and I’m eager to let it. It’s better – easier – if you let stuff go. None of it is coming back. Who I was then isn’t coming back. There’s no place for him here.”

I can’t describe how much I loved this book and I absolutely can’t wait to for the next book.

Survivors is a tantalising masterpiece.

Our Final Rating...

Mon, 3rd August 2020