Brian O'Grady

Amanda Flynn is a young widow recovering from the death, just a year ago, of her husband and young son. She has relied heavily on the emotional and practical support of her in-laws, Greg and Lisa, but now she's finally ready to try to strike out on her own and start a new life. She joins the American Red Cross as part of a disaster response team, and has barely completed her training when a hurricane hits Honduras, and she is deployed with her team to the most seriously affected area.

The hurricane's effects are the least of their problems. A strange illness is stalking the area, apparently brought in by a vulture possibly blown in by the storm. The mortality rate is terrifying; everyone dies.

Except Amanda.

She gets ill, but recovers, and when finally rescued is rushed to a top secret American military medical facility, where she is tested and tested and tested, first to be sure she really isn't contagious, and then to find out why she recovered. And the doctor in control of her "treatment" has no intention of letting her go until he's gotten the medical breakthrough he wants. Meanwhile, Amanda is experiencing some strange, new sensations, and this is where the story takes a dark and dangerous turn.

I'm not generally a fan of dark thrillers treading the edges of the horror genre, but there's a lot to like about this one. Amanda is a convincingly drawn character, basically decent but by no means a saint, struggling with the very real effects and temptations of what the EDH1 virus did to her. The science behind the virus, to the extent that it's described and to the limits of my knowledge, seems frighteningly plausible.

Toughest of all, O'Grady has military, political, and CDC officials doing some very skeevy things, for mixed good and bad motivations, without descending into cheap stereotypes about Black Helicopters and Evil Government. These are real human beings, struggling with real concerns and real temptations.

Not least among the tempted is Amanda, reacting to the alarming changes the virus has made in her.

The relationships between Amanda and her in-laws, and Amanda and her aunt, are also interesting and compelling.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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Book Tour Review & Giveaway: We’re today’s stop on the Partners in Crime virtual book tour for bestselling author Dr. Brian O’Grady’s latest medical thriller, Amanda’s Story. It’s the prequel to his bestselling novel Hybrid so, for those of you who haven’t read Hybrid, no worries because it makes sense to me to read Amanda’s Story first anyway. Read the rest of my review & an excerpt, and enter to win a copy at target="_top">http://popcornreads.com/?p=5017.… (més)

What would we be if we were more than we are now - less than human?

Brian O'Grady's Hybrid explores the idea of a mutated virus that, if it doesn't kill you first, activates parts of the human brain that allow somewhat paranormal, 'super'human abilities. And that's just the beginning of the problems facing the characters in the book.

The characters in the book are reasonably well drawn and diverse enough to hold the readers' attention with a few interesting choices with regard to character flaws, and traits that sometimes feed into the confusion that is the book's major issue. O'Grady's major fail in respect of the progression of the novel was in the way the separate threads of the story do not appear to all resolve, or sufficiently resolve to avoid leaving the reader with a feeling of 'now what.' Perhaps he intended to follow Hybrid with a sequel, and so the lapse was deliberate, but with the virus having such far reaching consequences, as a reader I felt somewhat cheated not to know how things turned out for those left behind afterwards.

Otherwise, the action is non stop, intense and the villains, mostly believable. Perhaps there is, at times, a little bit too much going on at once, the book is certainly a page turner.… (més)