Book Review: Prey by Sarah Davis
Prey
Author: Sarah Davis
Published: October 31, 2023
Paperback: 268 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 11-27, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
The fall waterfowl migration has brought something deadly to a small North Dakota town.
Dr. Emily Hayes, a veterinarian and single mom, is the first to submit a sample of mutated Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza—coined H5N1 2.0 or Mad Crow—a highly infectious disease that awakens violent aggression in birds and causes human infection.
Just as the community is about to be overcome by this Hitchcockian nightmare, handsome face from Emily’s past arrives—Dr. Jack Connor. He hopes he can help trace the source of the infection.
As the zoonotic infection spreads, unleashing unimaginable violence and turning birds into lethal creatures, Emily and Jack must overcome their differences and face the secrets that have kept them apart if they are to find a way out of this deadly biological nightmare.
Please be advised with these trigger warnings: Violence, animal death, human death, outbreak/ COVID 19.
Jessica’s Review:
Sarah Davis is a veterinarian, and she writes what she knows! (With some creative licensing). With Prey, Davis takes a crossover of bird flu and swine flu to create mad crow. We do have references to the COVID-19 pandemic happening in the past, and let’s face it: A medical thriller written in present times of course COVID-19 was going to be mentioned. It’s a part of our past, present, and will always be around.
I am a big fan of the 1995 movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, Cuba Gooding Jr and Rene Russo, so I was excited to get a chance to read this novel! And Prey takes off full steam ahead from the beginning! We get very aggressive bird attacks against humans. The description is very vivid, so reader discretion would be advised.
The reader also gets multiple povs with short chapters, so this novel makes for some good and quick reading! For the romance readers, there is a little bit of a second chance romance added in to the mix, so there isn’t just deaths and killer birds!
In case you didn’t know a group of crows is called a murder, and Prey brings on a new meaning to this term! There were a few times as I was reading this book that I would be on the road and would pass a grouping of crows that might or might not fly off, which kind of freaked me out: But how could I not be while reading this book! Especially with one particular attack that happens early on!
I did like the ending, we have an ending but not! With a virus that may always be the case. Prey has a little bit of just about everything to it: Action, terror, horror, killer bird, romance, secrets, hope, and a little bit of supernatural. It should have something for most readers!
I really do like the cover to Prey: It is simple but also not! It achieves what it needs to do and catches my attention! This is one I would definitely pick up in the bookstore to see what it is about.
It was surprising to know that Davis has never seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds! She mentions that in her author notes. I wonder if that is still the case now?
Many thanks to Sarah Davis for sending me a paperback copy to read and review! I enjoyed it and I hope more people read it!