• Author: Felix I.D. Dimaro
• Publisher: infinity road publishing house
• Publishing year: 2022
• Number of pages: 136 (kindle)
• my rating: 4,5/5

Synopsis:

It started with a viral sensation. A photo of a young Indian boy plucking a single black dandelion from the train tracks situated beside a slum. The weed was considered an abnormality, a genetic mutation. Nothing to be concerned about…

Weeks later, most of the world has gone blind. Black dandelions have sprouted everywhere, from the sands of the Sahara to the Las Vegas strip; lawns and fields have turned midnight black with the proliferation of these coal-colored weeds.

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty, only one thing is clear: humanity is in for a fight unlike any it has ever faced before.

This is the story of the end of the world as we know it. This is the story of a war unknown and unspoken of. Until now.

This is a story of survival.

Review:

I read this as a part of a read along group on instagram… this was my second Felix ID Dimaro book I read.

And this was really good, although very bleak and offering a dark look into a possible future where our planet takes revenge upon its inhabitants, at least the ones that can speak and reason, us humans!
I thought it very well written, I was kept on the edge of my seat and had fun seeing how humanity reacts on situations like a pandemic (and yes, covid proved it, we are savage beasts!)

When a black dandelion appears in India, the world seems doomed. Before anyone knows it, they have spread all over the world. And once the fluff comes in contact with humans, a new pandemic starts, one that’s not going to be stopped as easily as any of the previous pandemics.

What I really like about this book, apart from the fact that it offers a bleak future and doesn’t exactly offer a positive outcome (depending on how you look at it, of course) is the fact that Felix had the guts to give us a disabled antagonist, which isn’t used often in such horror. So he’s not only stuck to his wheelchair but now also to his house, with a sick wife and no way to help her or himself or his neighbours.

I was also very much into the black dandelions that turned into biological eco-weapons (in a way) but not human made (or were they?) but as nature’s device to turn against humanity! (I loved the thought in The Happening, I love it even more in this story!)

Felix knows how to write an eco-horror tale! This was something else from ‘The Fire on Memory Lane’ and it only proves he’s not bound to one genre or one trope in the horror scene! Well done!

I think this might appeal to people who played the game The Last of Us and saw the movie Annihilation! (Haven’t read the books yet)

This is a story about survival, just not that of humanity!