Book Title: Blood Mines
Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Horror
Pages: 190
Author: Lynelle Clark
Date Published: 8 February 2018
Synopsis:
Tanya’s life was turned upside down when her son, Steve was attacked by renegades and she had to dig deep facing her worst fear to save them both.
It is the year 2048, 30 years after a devastating quake had changed Gauteng’s geographic features. The effects of the acid water, that covered most of the area, was visible to everyone but the government. The silent death crawling closer leaving devastation in its path. Nothing is excluded from the terror.
Tanya and Steve’s path of survival meet up with the rebels in their search for clean water and she had to face much more than just acid water to stay alive.
A thrilling story of courage and survival.
Tanya’s life was turned upside down when her son, Steve was attacked by renegades and she had to dig deep facing her worst fear to save them both.
It is the year 2048, 30 years after a devastating quake had changed Gauteng’s geographic features. The effects of the acid water, that covered most of the area, was visible to everyone but the government. The silent death crawling closer leaving devastation in its path. Nothing is excluded from the terror.
Tanya and Steve’s path of survival meet up with the rebels in their search for clean water and she had to face much more than just acid water to stay alive.
A thrilling story of courage and survival.
Review:
Blood Mines by Lynelle ClarkMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review 3.5 rounded up to 4*
This is an intriguing post-apocalyptic thriller set in South Africa. I enjoyed it.
Tanya is an interesting character, though I found her to be a bit annoying to be honest, and too trusting to boot, to say that she lived in a virtual war zone (even though there isn't a war as such). She and her son Steve live on a plot of land that is threatened by the acid water that has polluted the land when an earthquake devastated the area around Gauteng thirty years previously. They eke out an existence, but they are living on borrowed time. When she and her son are attacked by renegades and left for dead, she finds herself facing her deepest fear and unknown dangers as she races to find a solution to the poison in the ground.
This story has an interesting and potentially realistic premise. The region of Gauteng in South Africa is heavily mined, with the threat of earthquakes due to the depths of said mines. The author has taken this fact and written a post-apocalyptic nightmare. I found myself completely hooked for most of the story. Told through the eyes of Tanya, I did find some of the plot a little far fetched at times; especially some of the scenes when the mutated animals appear, though this did get me wondering if there was some radioactivity going on rather than just cyanide poisoning, or other toxic chemicals causing the mutations. However, this is only my personal opinion. Other readers may not have this response. Another niggle I had with this story was how quickly the main protagonist trusted complete strangers, as well as how quickly the love interest grew between herself and Dirk. I can understand instant attraction, but insta-love? Not so much. Another pet peeve of mine is the use of terms of endearment like sweetie, honey, or love (and many others) in a derogatory way. I don't know if this is what the author intended when she wrote the story, but I found these terms to be degrading and made me want to punch the characters for using these terms in a sarcastic or patronising way. Maybe it's just a colloquial language difference. Who knows?
Blood Mines is a mixture of danger, horror and romance that kept me riveted from beginning to end. There are some not so nice characters introduced, which made me love to hate them and the descriptive writing made it easy to picture the scenes in my minds eye with ease. I reached the end of the book with mixed feelings. I am not sure if there will be a second book to follow on from this one but I hope so, as, although it doesn't finish on a cliffhanger, there seemed to be some loose ends that were not tied up satisfactorily (in my opinion).
Lynelle Clark is a South African author and this is the first book I have read that has been written by her. I love her fast paced writing style, and the flow was wonderful. There were a couple of proofreading errors (missing punctuation mostly), but this didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. I would consider reading more of this author's books in the future.
Due to scenes of a sexual nature (although not explicit) and some violence, I do not recommend this book to young readers. I do recommend this book if you love post-apocalyptic thrillers/dystopian/horror or science fiction genres. - Lynn Worton
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Taken from Goodreads:
Dedicated author. Hopeless romantic. Loves a good ending.
In my spare time I read and write reviews and help with promotions on my blog. I am a member of a few Touring Hosts that range from Romance, Thrillers, Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical, Horror and Inspirational books.
I had the pleasure to review a new website for authors, a magazine with a difference and reviewed a few non-fiction books.
I plan to be more productive in 2014 and have several books lined up for editing and publishing.
My first story was published in 2012.
I get my inspiration from Life, People, My own experiences and what I read, my love for the Word and the people who seeks answers.
I write short stories in my native tongue: Afrikaans and have a blog where I publish them.
Van uit my Pen: https://uitmypengse.blogspot.co.za/
I've written a few articles that can be found on LinkedIn.
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Thank you for your honest review. It is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, some of the endearing words were meant as sarcastic. :)