There are slight spoilers near the end, in the "Additional Comments" section.
Review:
So. This book was kind of unpleasant. And yet I read it in one sitting, without intending to. I guess that means it was good?
There are basically three storylines, each following different characters. There is Ann, her little sister Margaret, and their mother. There is Jackie, Ann's friend. And there is Charlie and his nearly blind dog, Mitchie.
Everything starts off with Ann and Margaret's mother, who isn't feeling well, to the point that she coughs up a bloody chunk of...something...during an interview. She quickly deteriorates into a mindless monster that craves meat. But not just any meat. No, she needs live animals. Margaret and Ann care for her for a while, until Margaret gets bit and becomes like her mother. Ann continues to search for live animals, while doing her best to hide the horror brewing inside her house from everyone outside, including Jackie.
Jackie is in love with Ann but doesn't know if Ann feels the same way about her. Jackie is also a mess. Ever since her mother died of cancer, she's been living with her father. The only thing that gives her even a little control over her emotions and violent impulses are the trees she has mentally connected with specific events in her life. When she learns that one of those trees has been cut down, she loses it and the police have to be called. Luckily for her, she has a special trick up her sleeve.
Charlie is an elderly man who walks his elderly dog along the same route every day. Every day, he visits the same woman and tries to figure out how to get his own particular horror to finally leave him alone, and, every day, he fails.
