Fiend By Peter Stenson

Book Review

Whenever I think I’ve seen everything when it comes to zombies, a book like Fiend comes along and completely knocks me on my ass!

Yep, it’s true. Fiend by Peter Stenson, is a novel that completely bends the Zombie genre. Forget everything you think you know because this book will blow your mind.

There’s more than one kind of monster.

When Chase first sees the little girl in umbrella socks disemboweling the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to such horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.

But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived. And with Chase’s life already shattered by addiction, the apocalypse might actually be an opportunity—a last chance to hit restart, win back the love of his life, and become the person he once dreamed of being. That is, if the darkness inside him doesn’t destroy everything…again.

So what makes Fiend so special?

Fiend isn’t so much a zombie apocalypse book, as it is a horrific memoir of a junkie. It’s terrifying and raw. A realistic look at the life of a meth head who will do anything, ANYTHING, to get his next fix. A person, for whom the apocalypse arrived years earlier than it did for the rest of humanity.

Imagine seeing the underbelly of society through the stem of a glass pipe, nothing new for Chase, until there is. Suddenly he is face to face with a flesh eating monster, his own addiction personified. Imagine being slave to something that you wish more than anything you could break free of, only to find that it is now the very key to your survival.

Fiend is dark folks! With a capital D and the least scary thing about this story are the flesh eating monsters. The writing is gritty and violent, but also fantastic. I read it cover to cover in one day, it was that addictive (pun intended). As someone who has experienced drug abuse secondhand, this book was particularly visceral. It is a fantastic read but heed my warning. Even if you think you know zombies, Fiend is not for the faint of heart. It is Requiem For A Dream meets 28 Days Later and it is scary as hell!