Survivor Song

Survivor Song | Paul Tremblay

Imagine two thirtysomething best friends taking one last impromptu road trip together before the widowed gal-pal has her first baby. Now throw in the plot twist that the excursion is just from one end of a small town to the other and they must survive long enough to deliver the child before an unprecedented fast-moving fatal viral disease travels to the bestie’s brain. This is the meticulously mapped premise for Paul Tremblay’s tour de force, Survivor Song.

Set in a familiar present-day, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is under a quarantine order in hopes of containing a rabies outbreak that turns human victims into bone-crushing, flesh-eating predators within an hour of being bitten. Death is inevitable if not given the vaccine and immunoglobulin in time to stop the virus from moving up the central nervous system and passing through the brain barrier. Buckle up, because this race against time is the horrifying daylong journey we take with pediatrician, Dr. Ramola (“Rams”) Sherman and recently bitten and 38-weeks pregnant, Natalie (“Nats”). Rams must desperately spin her wheels on how to outrun the harsh reality that Nats is questioning her own as the seconds fly by. With every mile a nightmare and not a minute to spare, the two women, friends since college, must maneuver through panicked congested streets, flee a chaotic hospital scene before being forcibly constrained, and soon discover ignorance is as dangerous as the infected.

The rampant rabies disease seems like an analogy to the current discourse in our society. At times, Tremblay is so prophetic in the societal similarities between his fictional epidemic and real-world pandemic, that I had to confirm more than once that Survivor Song was indeed written prior to COVID-19. He detours from promises of a happily ever after. We have a clear view of the dead end ahead at every wrong turn, but we go along for the ride anyway, because his writing style makes it such a smooth one. The second half slams on the brakes to take a different route but quickly gets back on track. Suspension of disbelief has some speed bumps regarding the science and containment of the virus, but it’s not what drives the story — an unyielding friendship fuels this far-from-a-fairytale adventure.

The flashbacks of Nats and Rams’ time in college together do nothing to endear us to their characters, nor tell of a bond that would entrust one another in their current crisis. Ramola’s actions and Natalie’s audio journal entries in real-time are enough for us to create our own backstory instead of the stale one Tremblay chose. Also, the omission of the origin of the rapid rabies virus and later, the one line summing up the endemic, gives the impression we read the equivalent of an elevator pitch.

What keeps this story from feeling like a Sunday drive is its pacing. Even when it occasionally slows its roll, it never stalls. The jump scares blindsight you and are so perfectly timed. You’re so focused on the intensity of the moment, you don’t notice its flaws until you see them in your rearview mirror.


Gen X readers may appreciate a sort of nostalgic vibe of eighties YA horror books due to the fact our protagonists must ride out a catastrophic event without the modern conveniences of iPhones or Uber to fall back on for help. It’s fitting there’s a Stranger Things quip during a tense encounter with some over imaginative teenagers.

Erin Bennett is the narrator of the audiobook and performs with distinct dialects of the two radically different personalities of Nats and Rams which makes it easy to follow along as you concentrate on purling the knits and knitting the purls.

You can find Survivor Song in various formats here on Amazon.com or check your local independent bookstore. We may earn a commission from products mentioned in a post. Details here.

TW/CW: gun violence, pregnancy trauma, implied animal cruelty.