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The Three #2
Day Four
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Horror (2015)"Welcome on board The Beautiful Dreamer, your one-way ticket to Relaxation and Fun! Fun! Fun!"
Among the hundreds of pleasure-seekers on board The Beautiful Dreamer's five-day cruise are a hard-partying singles group, a couple repairing their marriage, a famous psychic and her beleaguered assistant, and a pair of elderly sisters determined to go out with a bang.
For three sun-filled days, the journey seems to deliver all that the cruise brochure promised - a one-way ticket to relaxation and fun in the sun.
Until Day Four.
Without warning, the ship stops dead. Electricity and cellular signals are cut off. Smoke pours out of the engine room. The passengers and crew have no way to call for help and are stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, all aboard are certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon. All they have to do is wait.
As supplies run low, the toilets stop working and a virus plagues the ship. But when the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin, irritation escalates to panic. There's a murderer aboard The Beautiful Dreamer... and maybe something worse.
The chilling, relentlessly suspenseful follow-up to The Three, Day Four is a heart-racing tale from Sarah Lotz, a writer Lauren Beukes hails as "a ferociously imaginative storyteller."
Among the hundreds of pleasure-seekers on board The Beautiful Dreamer's five-day cruise are a hard-partying singles group, a couple repairing their marriage, a famous psychic and her beleaguered assistant, and a pair of elderly sisters determined to go out with a bang.
For three sun-filled days, the journey seems to deliver all that the cruise brochure promised - a one-way ticket to relaxation and fun in the sun.
Until Day Four.
Without warning, the ship stops dead. Electricity and cellular signals are cut off. Smoke pours out of the engine room. The passengers and crew have no way to call for help and are stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, all aboard are certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon. All they have to do is wait.
As supplies run low, the toilets stop working and a virus plagues the ship. But when the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin, irritation escalates to panic. There's a murderer aboard The Beautiful Dreamer... and maybe something worse.
The chilling, relentlessly suspenseful follow-up to The Three, Day Four is a heart-racing tale from Sarah Lotz, a writer Lauren Beukes hails as "a ferociously imaginative storyteller."
342 pages, Hardcover
First published May 21, 2015
223 people are currently reading
8327 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Lotz
45 books795 followersSarah Lotz is a screenwriter and fiction novelist with a fondness for the macabre and fake names.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 906 reviews
June 22, 2015
Well, Sarah Lotz has done it again. And by that I mean she's taken an intriguing set up, added decent writing, then ruined the whole thing with an ending that gives the readers no real answers, just throws in another vaguely creepy "twist" and calls it a day. I totally get why a writer would do this -- it's easy! Rather than telling a story that builds to an inevitable climax, it's much easier to have a non-ending ending that doesn't answer any questions. That way it doesn't really matter what comes before -- it doesn't have to hang together -- because it isn't going anywhere. Huge disappointment.
May 20, 2023
3.5 stars
This is the second book in 'The Three' series, but has minimal connection to the first novel and can be read as a standalone with no problem.
*****
If you're planning to take a vacation cruise any time soon you might want to skip this book.
As the story opens the almost 3000 passengers and crew on board the (so called) luxury liner 'Beautiful Dreamer' have experienced smooth sailing for three days. It's now day four....and things take a downturn.
An engine room fire badly injures the head engineer, cuts off the ship's electricity, and interferes with the ship's communication systems. Thus, there's no phone service, no wi-fi, no emergency radio - in short no way to contact anyone outside the ship. Emergency generators are of limited assistance. On top of that the contagious norovirus begins spreading among the passengers and crew.
Pretty soon food supplies dwindle, the ship is sweltering hot, toilets stop working, dirty towels and sheets pile up, cabins reek from vomit and diarrhea, passengers become belligerent, the pool is polluted, people start camping out on decks and recreation areas, etc.
Moreover, the body of a dead girl is found in her cabin - and murder is suspected. In short, the situation becomes hellish.
To add to the confusion, frequent public announcements thank the passengers for their 'patience' but provide no real information about what's happening. And help doesn't seem to be coming! People become frightened and start to offer wild speculations about what's going on. Zombies? Bad weather? War? Bermuda Triangle? Ship drifted off course? .....no one knows.
The story follows a number of passengers and crew members as the situation unfolds. These include: Paul - a rapist/accidental murderer; Celine Del Rey - a fake medium who supposedly conveys messages from loved ones on 'the other side;' Celine's assistant Maddie - who helps her boss rook her marks; Xavier - a blogger who means to expose Celine as a fraud; Helen and Elise - widowed friends who plan to commit suicide; Althea - a conscientious steward on the luxury deck; Jesse - the ship's doctor, who has a whiff of malpractice and a drug addiction in his past; and Devi - a security guard who's ashamed about a rapist he allowed to go free.
The mayhem is escalated by several supernatural creatures ('ghosts') that are seen or heard by passengers and crew members. Some crew men even claim the dead girl is moving around. As the situation aboard ship gets more and more intolerable many people resort to drastic measures, apparently following the dictate 'every man for himself'.
The story held my attention and I was anxious to learn what was going on and what the final outcome would be. At the end of the book it's not crystal clear what had happened...but the speculation is intriguing. All in all, an enjoyable horror story - not too deep, but an entertaining read.
You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/
February 23, 2022
(Review originally published on my blog, March 2015)
The unfortunate thing about Lotz's follow-up (and loose 'sequel') to The Three is that it's not The Three. As one of my favourite books of 2014, it was always going to be a hard act to follow, and I was over the moon to get hold of an advance copy of Lotz's new book. It's with a heavy heart, then, that I have to report I simply didn't enjoy Day Four anywhere near as much. Despite that 'sequel' tag, it's actually a standalone novel, with a tenuous connection to a couple of characters from The Three: just enough to make it clear that both take place in the same world, but no more than that.
The setting is The Beautiful Dreamer, a cheap and not-very-cheerful cruise ship which gets stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. The story unfolds over four days as tensions rise, rescue starts to seem impossible, and conditions grow increasingly wretched. At the same time, the desperate passengers become more and more spooked by inexplicable goings-on: shadowy figures darting around the corridors, a distinctly fake showbiz medium suddenly gaining the ability to make extremely accurate predictions, even the dead - apparently - coming back to life. It's all filtered through a variety of viewpoints, with eight disparate characters revisited in alternate chapters. They are Maddie, long-suffering assistant to the aforementioned celebrity medium; Gary, a middle-aged, married passenger who is also, um, a murderer; Althea, a slightly sociopathic crew member; Helen and Elise, two elderly passengers who have joined the cruise with the intention of killing themselves before it's over; Jesse, the ship's doctor; Devi, a member of the security staff; and Xavier, a blogger trailing Celine (that celebrity medium again) and trying to expose her as a fraud.
What really drew me into this, much more than the premise, was the promise of reading more from Lotz. The Three was so thrilling, its characters so compelling, it was so terrifying, that I was certain I'd be glued to Day Four. The one thing I didn't expect it to be was boring. Unfortunately... it is, in parts.
So what exactly is it that's gone wrong here? First, I was disappointed and a little bit surprised to find third person narration used throughout the book. The first person narratives in The Three were so effective, and with eight main characters to keep track of here, the lack of variety makes it harder than it should be to differentiate them. Attempts to mark them out using repetition within their internal monologues fall a bit flat because they simply become annoying - see Gary's 'his girl' and Althea's intensely irritating 'fuck-darned'. Second, the setting is limiting - the whole book (save the short last section) is set on board the ship, and since part of the story is how generic and tacky it is, it's simply not a place you want to keep reading about. Third, while four days without rescue is certainly unusual, it just isn't long enough or big enough to create the same high-stakes sense of terror and imminent doom that The Three did so well. There are problems with some characters just not being interesting; problems with the simple fact that there are so many characters (once secondary characters are added in, it starts to feel like this surely must be everyone on board the ship).
That's not to say Day Four is actually a bad book. It is gripping, and I didn't want to put it down, though I'd be lying if I said that wasn't at least partly because I kept thinking 'I'll get to the good bit soon'. That Lotz's description is vivid and unflinching is both a strength and a problem; she makes everything feel real, but there's only so many descriptions of confined spaces with no working toilets, running water or air-con it's possible to read without feeling exhausted and slightly nauseated. In fact, when I think about it, maybe the whole reason this didn't work for me was because it was a different brand of horror from what I expected to experience. Far from the scintillating meld of ghost story, sci-fi and found-footage thriller I was expecting after The Three, Day Four details the banal horror of a microcosm of humanity left to its own devices, losing the will to care about hygiene and safety, trying to come to terms with the prospect of a slow and squalid death.
Towards the end, however, Day Four suddenly gains the momentum it should have had all along. After what seems like an anticlimactic conclusion to the characters' stories, the final chapter is composed of newspaper articles and 'leaked' fragments of interviews with the passengers. It was this 'mixed media' approach that gave The Three some of its magic, and it works here too, using partial stories and accounts removed from the scene itself to stir up a delicious sense of ambiguity. Plus it gives you some hints about what may, or may not, have happened after the end of the ship's four days afloat. But who is telling the truth; who's to say what is and isn't real? The ending is nothing short of brilliant, but - no matter how much I'd like to - I just can't say the same about the rest of the book.
I'm aware that every part of my review has involved comparisons between Day Four and The Three. I know that isn't really fair, but since Day Four has been touted as a sequel and even given a similar title and cover, those comparisons are inevitably going to be made. This is a solid book in its own right, with enough exciting bits to make it worth a rainy-day read. Fans of The Three, however, may need to adjust their expectations.
The unfortunate thing about Lotz's follow-up (and loose 'sequel') to The Three is that it's not The Three. As one of my favourite books of 2014, it was always going to be a hard act to follow, and I was over the moon to get hold of an advance copy of Lotz's new book. It's with a heavy heart, then, that I have to report I simply didn't enjoy Day Four anywhere near as much. Despite that 'sequel' tag, it's actually a standalone novel, with a tenuous connection to a couple of characters from The Three: just enough to make it clear that both take place in the same world, but no more than that.
The setting is The Beautiful Dreamer, a cheap and not-very-cheerful cruise ship which gets stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. The story unfolds over four days as tensions rise, rescue starts to seem impossible, and conditions grow increasingly wretched. At the same time, the desperate passengers become more and more spooked by inexplicable goings-on: shadowy figures darting around the corridors, a distinctly fake showbiz medium suddenly gaining the ability to make extremely accurate predictions, even the dead - apparently - coming back to life. It's all filtered through a variety of viewpoints, with eight disparate characters revisited in alternate chapters. They are Maddie, long-suffering assistant to the aforementioned celebrity medium; Gary, a middle-aged, married passenger who is also, um, a murderer; Althea, a slightly sociopathic crew member; Helen and Elise, two elderly passengers who have joined the cruise with the intention of killing themselves before it's over; Jesse, the ship's doctor; Devi, a member of the security staff; and Xavier, a blogger trailing Celine (that celebrity medium again) and trying to expose her as a fraud.
What really drew me into this, much more than the premise, was the promise of reading more from Lotz. The Three was so thrilling, its characters so compelling, it was so terrifying, that I was certain I'd be glued to Day Four. The one thing I didn't expect it to be was boring. Unfortunately... it is, in parts.
So what exactly is it that's gone wrong here? First, I was disappointed and a little bit surprised to find third person narration used throughout the book. The first person narratives in The Three were so effective, and with eight main characters to keep track of here, the lack of variety makes it harder than it should be to differentiate them. Attempts to mark them out using repetition within their internal monologues fall a bit flat because they simply become annoying - see Gary's 'his girl' and Althea's intensely irritating 'fuck-darned'. Second, the setting is limiting - the whole book (save the short last section) is set on board the ship, and since part of the story is how generic and tacky it is, it's simply not a place you want to keep reading about. Third, while four days without rescue is certainly unusual, it just isn't long enough or big enough to create the same high-stakes sense of terror and imminent doom that The Three did so well. There are problems with some characters just not being interesting; problems with the simple fact that there are so many characters (once secondary characters are added in, it starts to feel like this surely must be everyone on board the ship).
That's not to say Day Four is actually a bad book. It is gripping, and I didn't want to put it down, though I'd be lying if I said that wasn't at least partly because I kept thinking 'I'll get to the good bit soon'. That Lotz's description is vivid and unflinching is both a strength and a problem; she makes everything feel real, but there's only so many descriptions of confined spaces with no working toilets, running water or air-con it's possible to read without feeling exhausted and slightly nauseated. In fact, when I think about it, maybe the whole reason this didn't work for me was because it was a different brand of horror from what I expected to experience. Far from the scintillating meld of ghost story, sci-fi and found-footage thriller I was expecting after The Three, Day Four details the banal horror of a microcosm of humanity left to its own devices, losing the will to care about hygiene and safety, trying to come to terms with the prospect of a slow and squalid death.
Towards the end, however, Day Four suddenly gains the momentum it should have had all along. After what seems like an anticlimactic conclusion to the characters' stories, the final chapter is composed of newspaper articles and 'leaked' fragments of interviews with the passengers. It was this 'mixed media' approach that gave The Three some of its magic, and it works here too, using partial stories and accounts removed from the scene itself to stir up a delicious sense of ambiguity. Plus it gives you some hints about what may, or may not, have happened after the end of the ship's four days afloat. But who is telling the truth; who's to say what is and isn't real? The ending is nothing short of brilliant, but - no matter how much I'd like to - I just can't say the same about the rest of the book.
I'm aware that every part of my review has involved comparisons between Day Four and The Three. I know that isn't really fair, but since Day Four has been touted as a sequel and even given a similar title and cover, those comparisons are inevitably going to be made. This is a solid book in its own right, with enough exciting bits to make it worth a rainy-day read. Fans of The Three, however, may need to adjust their expectations.
June 18, 2015
5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/06/15/b...
Sarah Lotz topped my 2014 Horror/Thriller list with her book The Three, terrifying me with a story about four deadly plane crashes and three mysterious child survivors. This year she’s set to dominate my Best-Of lists again with her new book Day Four.
Thing is, The Three may have scared the living daylights out of me, but hey, I was already afraid of flying.
Day Four, however, may have just ruined cruising for me as well.
This is the story about the Beautiful Dreamer, a cruise ship carrying just under 3000 souls on board for her four-days-fight-nights voyage through the Gulf of Mexico. It’s New Year’s Eve on the final night and everyone’s ready to party and usher in a fresh new start, when the unthinkable happens. The ship suddenly stops dead in the water – no power, no radio, no cellphone signals. The much prayed for rescue never comes, and as the days go by, things get worse – the toilets stop running, food starts spoiling, and all over the ship, reports are coming in about passengers and crew members seeing and hearing some strange, impossible things…
Before this book, I’d never considered how much we take for granted on a cruise. If you’ve ever been on one, then you know the drill. From the moment you board to the time you disembark, everything is organized and planned for your pleasure and convenience. Your luggage is brought to your stateroom, where your excursion tickets await. Your dining times are scheduled, unless you wish to hit up the buffet where more food than you could ever imagine is piled in mountains on the serving tables. Everything works like a well-oiled machine, despite the hoopla of hundreds of guests all crammed into staterooms on multiple decks along the long narrow corridors that span almost the entire length of the ship.
But when the engines stop and the lights go out, how cheery do you think a cruise ship is then? Without power and the ability to cook or keep food fresh, what good are the all-you-can-eat buffets? When the infrastructure starts to break down, the crew overworked and sick of the abuse from irate passengers, the entire system falls apart. A cruise ship is like a floating city, after all. When order fails on a ship, you can expect to see the same kind of uncontrolled spiral into chaos. And I have to say Sarah Lotz has perfectly envisioned and captured this descent into pure anarchy.
On top of that, compared to The Three which was more of a suspense/thriller, Day Four reads more like a horror novel in the traditional sense. We’re exposed to some disturbing things right off the bat, even if the horrors are the more mundane kind to start with. For most of us, cruise ships mean vacation and relaxation, plenty of fun in the sun. However, beneath the glitzy façade lies the dark truths no one likes to talk about. Slovenly and rude passengers. Inclement weather and unstable seas. The risk of norovirus and infectious diseases. Sexual predators and assault. There’s plenty in the secret world of cruise ship problems that can turn a fun-filled vacation into a nightmare, I’m sure.
The day after the Beautiful Dreamer breaks down, when it’s clear that no rescue is coming and the captain is hiding the truth of the problem, that’s when the real creepy fun begin. Several passengers start exhibiting strange behavior, the superstitious crew insist on seeing visions of the Lady in White who haunts the belly of the ship, a child is spotted darting around the lower decks even though it is an adults-only New Year’s cruise, and a dead body of a young woman is found in her stateroom with rumors saying that she died just before the ship stopped. Imagine all that going down in the middle of the ocean stranded miles from civilization, tempers and tensions high with full-blown panic not too far behind. Oh, and throw in an open bar, because alcohol is sure to make any bad situation better! Right?
No surprise that in a short time, the Beautiful Dreamer turns into a floating hell. Amidst the paranormal eeriness that pervades the story is added stresses of the passengers and crew, and Sarah Lotz does an incredible job showing that people can be driven to all sorts of ugliness when they are feeling frightened and trapped. More than once, I entertained the thought of the ship sinking and everyone going down with it on this voyage of the damned, and realized I probably wouldn’t even feel too bad if that happened. What amazes me is that so much goes on in this book, but everything is tied together in some way. The story is told through the perspectives of about half a dozen people whose lives are all linked, showing all sides of the narrative. All of it forms a picture of the kind of dread that’s both awful and claustrophobic, and the writing puts you right there on the Beautiful Dreamer in the middle of that craziness.
I didn’t think it would be possible, but I think I enjoyed Day Four even more than The Three. It’s a real page-turner and an easier read in many ways, written in a more traditional style versus an epistolary format. The book is advertised as a sequel to The Three but really it is a stand alone novel that can be enjoyed on its own, and I’d even say pick this one if you had the choice between the two, though both books are fantastic and worth reading.
Highly recommended, with just one warning: you probably want to avoid Day Four if you have a cruise planned in the near future! I love cruises and the vibrant atmosphere of a cruise ship, and despite what I said at the beginning of my review, I doubt this book would be enough to turn me off cruising…but I probably won’t be planning my next one until the memories of this terrifying story are out of my system!
Sarah Lotz topped my 2014 Horror/Thriller list with her book The Three, terrifying me with a story about four deadly plane crashes and three mysterious child survivors. This year she’s set to dominate my Best-Of lists again with her new book Day Four.
Thing is, The Three may have scared the living daylights out of me, but hey, I was already afraid of flying.
Day Four, however, may have just ruined cruising for me as well.
This is the story about the Beautiful Dreamer, a cruise ship carrying just under 3000 souls on board for her four-days-fight-nights voyage through the Gulf of Mexico. It’s New Year’s Eve on the final night and everyone’s ready to party and usher in a fresh new start, when the unthinkable happens. The ship suddenly stops dead in the water – no power, no radio, no cellphone signals. The much prayed for rescue never comes, and as the days go by, things get worse – the toilets stop running, food starts spoiling, and all over the ship, reports are coming in about passengers and crew members seeing and hearing some strange, impossible things…
Before this book, I’d never considered how much we take for granted on a cruise. If you’ve ever been on one, then you know the drill. From the moment you board to the time you disembark, everything is organized and planned for your pleasure and convenience. Your luggage is brought to your stateroom, where your excursion tickets await. Your dining times are scheduled, unless you wish to hit up the buffet where more food than you could ever imagine is piled in mountains on the serving tables. Everything works like a well-oiled machine, despite the hoopla of hundreds of guests all crammed into staterooms on multiple decks along the long narrow corridors that span almost the entire length of the ship.
But when the engines stop and the lights go out, how cheery do you think a cruise ship is then? Without power and the ability to cook or keep food fresh, what good are the all-you-can-eat buffets? When the infrastructure starts to break down, the crew overworked and sick of the abuse from irate passengers, the entire system falls apart. A cruise ship is like a floating city, after all. When order fails on a ship, you can expect to see the same kind of uncontrolled spiral into chaos. And I have to say Sarah Lotz has perfectly envisioned and captured this descent into pure anarchy.
On top of that, compared to The Three which was more of a suspense/thriller, Day Four reads more like a horror novel in the traditional sense. We’re exposed to some disturbing things right off the bat, even if the horrors are the more mundane kind to start with. For most of us, cruise ships mean vacation and relaxation, plenty of fun in the sun. However, beneath the glitzy façade lies the dark truths no one likes to talk about. Slovenly and rude passengers. Inclement weather and unstable seas. The risk of norovirus and infectious diseases. Sexual predators and assault. There’s plenty in the secret world of cruise ship problems that can turn a fun-filled vacation into a nightmare, I’m sure.
The day after the Beautiful Dreamer breaks down, when it’s clear that no rescue is coming and the captain is hiding the truth of the problem, that’s when the real creepy fun begin. Several passengers start exhibiting strange behavior, the superstitious crew insist on seeing visions of the Lady in White who haunts the belly of the ship, a child is spotted darting around the lower decks even though it is an adults-only New Year’s cruise, and a dead body of a young woman is found in her stateroom with rumors saying that she died just before the ship stopped. Imagine all that going down in the middle of the ocean stranded miles from civilization, tempers and tensions high with full-blown panic not too far behind. Oh, and throw in an open bar, because alcohol is sure to make any bad situation better! Right?
No surprise that in a short time, the Beautiful Dreamer turns into a floating hell. Amidst the paranormal eeriness that pervades the story is added stresses of the passengers and crew, and Sarah Lotz does an incredible job showing that people can be driven to all sorts of ugliness when they are feeling frightened and trapped. More than once, I entertained the thought of the ship sinking and everyone going down with it on this voyage of the damned, and realized I probably wouldn’t even feel too bad if that happened. What amazes me is that so much goes on in this book, but everything is tied together in some way. The story is told through the perspectives of about half a dozen people whose lives are all linked, showing all sides of the narrative. All of it forms a picture of the kind of dread that’s both awful and claustrophobic, and the writing puts you right there on the Beautiful Dreamer in the middle of that craziness.
I didn’t think it would be possible, but I think I enjoyed Day Four even more than The Three. It’s a real page-turner and an easier read in many ways, written in a more traditional style versus an epistolary format. The book is advertised as a sequel to The Three but really it is a stand alone novel that can be enjoyed on its own, and I’d even say pick this one if you had the choice between the two, though both books are fantastic and worth reading.
Highly recommended, with just one warning: you probably want to avoid Day Four if you have a cruise planned in the near future! I love cruises and the vibrant atmosphere of a cruise ship, and despite what I said at the beginning of my review, I doubt this book would be enough to turn me off cruising…but I probably won’t be planning my next one until the memories of this terrifying story are out of my system!
July 24, 2015
I have read both of Lotz's books and they both suffer from the same problems.
1. They are categorized as horror, yet aren't. At best, they are just a mishmash of styles.
2. She insists in using multiple viewpoints to tell the story but is incapable of writing in multiple voices. To compensate, she throws the occasional foreign words into the mix - "ja," "G'day" (oh, look, he's Australian) and "fucked-darned", a meaningless word in any language. The effect is not what she hopes - its just unimaginably annoying.
3. She uses confusing, meaningless ending, perhaps in the belief that is what is required in thrillers. It is not. Resolution is what is needed, and neither book has one. If that was supposed to be a cliff hanger, it fails miserably.
4. Zero character development, beyond some overblown feature (such as "serial rapist" or "fake psychic") that distinguishs each character from another. No central protagonists - these books seem like first drafts of the Irwin Allen-type disaster films they are clearly meant to inspire.
The first book - "The Three" - was silly but this one asks readers to suspend their disbelief beyond all reason.
What is so maddening is that the premises for both books start soundly - the series was clearly sold based on back-copy blurbs alone - but the whole thing just collapses under its own weight.
1. They are categorized as horror, yet aren't. At best, they are just a mishmash of styles.
2. She insists in using multiple viewpoints to tell the story but is incapable of writing in multiple voices. To compensate, she throws the occasional foreign words into the mix - "ja," "G'day" (oh, look, he's Australian) and "fucked-darned", a meaningless word in any language. The effect is not what she hopes - its just unimaginably annoying.
3. She uses confusing, meaningless ending, perhaps in the belief that is what is required in thrillers. It is not. Resolution is what is needed, and neither book has one. If that was supposed to be a cliff hanger, it fails miserably.
4. Zero character development, beyond some overblown feature (such as "serial rapist" or "fake psychic") that distinguishs each character from another. No central protagonists - these books seem like first drafts of the Irwin Allen-type disaster films they are clearly meant to inspire.
The first book - "The Three" - was silly but this one asks readers to suspend their disbelief beyond all reason.
What is so maddening is that the premises for both books start soundly - the series was clearly sold based on back-copy blurbs alone - but the whole thing just collapses under its own weight.
May 20, 2015
The Three was in my top 10 of 2014 so I was really looking forward to “Day Four” a standalone horror thriller that also works as a sequel. In fact my honest opinion is that whilst you could quite happily read Day Four first, if you start with The Three you will get added oomph to this novel, a greater depth – so that would be my recommendation.
Onto Day Four then, I guess the truth is it freaked me out a little. Ok, a lot. In the best way possible. It is dark, scary, atmospheric and beautifully done so that you are constantly on edge..also you will never find me setting foot on a cruise ship. Ever. Just in case. The problem (or the genius) is that whilst Sarah Lotz has written a fantasy, a world that is ours but in which strange things are occurring, she writes it so realistically and with such fervour that it is amazingly and frighteningly believable.
Very basically then as I truly think the less you know of the plot before diving in the more you will get out of it, the story starts off fairly low key as we meet an eclectic group of passengers and staff on board the Beautiful Dreamer cruise ship. The author sets her characters up beautifully, by the time things start to go wrong you will probably already have decided who to root for and who you would like to see nasty things happen to – then the nasty things start happening and boy will it mess with your head.
Day Four is thoroughly haunting and gorgeously creepy – Sarah Lotz builds the tension with some elegant writing and cleverly obscure foreshadowing, a really most marvellously constructed story that stayed with me long after finishing it – and boy does this author know how to set you up and then throw an ending at you. Simply brilliant.
If you are expecting The Three again that is not what you will get. There is a different style to Day Four that is equally as compelling – Sarah Lotz is carefully and alluringly building her world, a world that is slightly off kilter and very very intriguing. There is a flow to it, shrouded in mystery, I’m not sure I’ve seen a “series” done quite in this way before and it is just superb. I do wonder (all the time godarnit!) what she has up her sleeve for us next, but whatever it is I’m going to be right there. Whether there is a plan to bring these two and future stories together eventually into some kind of grand finale, I do not know. I hope so because with a creative mind such as this author obviously has (strange as it may be) I can imagine that it would be a wonder to behold. No pressure Sarah!
Highly Recommended
Onto Day Four then, I guess the truth is it freaked me out a little. Ok, a lot. In the best way possible. It is dark, scary, atmospheric and beautifully done so that you are constantly on edge..also you will never find me setting foot on a cruise ship. Ever. Just in case. The problem (or the genius) is that whilst Sarah Lotz has written a fantasy, a world that is ours but in which strange things are occurring, she writes it so realistically and with such fervour that it is amazingly and frighteningly believable.
Very basically then as I truly think the less you know of the plot before diving in the more you will get out of it, the story starts off fairly low key as we meet an eclectic group of passengers and staff on board the Beautiful Dreamer cruise ship. The author sets her characters up beautifully, by the time things start to go wrong you will probably already have decided who to root for and who you would like to see nasty things happen to – then the nasty things start happening and boy will it mess with your head.
Day Four is thoroughly haunting and gorgeously creepy – Sarah Lotz builds the tension with some elegant writing and cleverly obscure foreshadowing, a really most marvellously constructed story that stayed with me long after finishing it – and boy does this author know how to set you up and then throw an ending at you. Simply brilliant.
If you are expecting The Three again that is not what you will get. There is a different style to Day Four that is equally as compelling – Sarah Lotz is carefully and alluringly building her world, a world that is slightly off kilter and very very intriguing. There is a flow to it, shrouded in mystery, I’m not sure I’ve seen a “series” done quite in this way before and it is just superb. I do wonder (all the time godarnit!) what she has up her sleeve for us next, but whatever it is I’m going to be right there. Whether there is a plan to bring these two and future stories together eventually into some kind of grand finale, I do not know. I hope so because with a creative mind such as this author obviously has (strange as it may be) I can imagine that it would be a wonder to behold. No pressure Sarah!
Highly Recommended
April 9, 2023
In her sequel to The Three, Sarah Lotz places us aboard a Caribbean cruise ship — the sort of place that's hell on earth to begin with — and then strands its crew and passengers adrift for five days following an inexplicable engine failure. There is no way to contact shore, and bafflingly, no other vessels in the ordinarily crowded Gulf they can hail for assistance. Everything slowly descends into fear and loathing as food runs low, the plumbing backs up, the captain remains out of sight, a sexual predator stalks the ship, and a celebrity psychic begins rallying the increasingly frantic and terrified survivors into something like a doomsday cult. At least the bars remain open.
Despite being a whole lot punchier and tighter in its storytelling than The Three, I'm eventually forced to rate this one lower. In addition to trading on a dead-obvious premise (why yes, any society will break down completely when everything that represents security and hope is taken away from them — who knew!?), Lotz has essentially written this series into a conceptual dead end now that we know unambiguously what has caused both novels' bizarre events. It's as if Lotz grabbed one of the funniest lines from Black Adder — "As private parts to the gods are we, they play with us for their sport" — took it seriously and fashioned a paranormal horror series out of it. But apart from some effectively bleak and apocalyptic moments, there really is nowhere for this voyage to go.
Despite being a whole lot punchier and tighter in its storytelling than The Three, I'm eventually forced to rate this one lower. In addition to trading on a dead-obvious premise (why yes, any society will break down completely when everything that represents security and hope is taken away from them — who knew!?), Lotz has essentially written this series into a conceptual dead end now that we know unambiguously what has caused both novels' bizarre events. It's as if Lotz grabbed one of the funniest lines from Black Adder — "As private parts to the gods are we, they play with us for their sport" — took it seriously and fashioned a paranormal horror series out of it. But apart from some effectively bleak and apocalyptic moments, there really is nowhere for this voyage to go.
March 5, 2016
Passengers spend three glorious days on board the cruise ship Beautiful Dreamer then on day four the engines stop and the electricity fails but the alcohol flows freely and no-one is overly concerned as help will surely arrive soon. Things start to go horribly wrong as a virus overtakes the ship, the toilets stop working and a passenger is found murdered. Panic ensues but this cruise turned nightmare is far from over.
Lotz has taken every scenario that could happen on a cruise ship and packed it into the Beautiful Dreamer, the cruise ship from hell. It has virus outbreaks, disgruntled passengers, angry staff, incompetence, drink spiking, suicide pacts, engine malfunction, murder and a little of the super natural.
Day Four was a dark and unsettling read. I’ve never been keen on cruising but I don’t think this story would turn die hard cruisers off. It’s a fictional tale, right! None of it could happen in real life, could it??
Some readers may not like the open ending. It reminded me of Life of Pi where the interpretation of the story is left up to the reader and their imagination.
I have my own theory of what happened to the ship and passengers but this could differ greatly to how another reader interprets the ending.
With thanks to Hachette Australia for my uncorrected proof to read and review.
Lotz has taken every scenario that could happen on a cruise ship and packed it into the Beautiful Dreamer, the cruise ship from hell. It has virus outbreaks, disgruntled passengers, angry staff, incompetence, drink spiking, suicide pacts, engine malfunction, murder and a little of the super natural.
Day Four was a dark and unsettling read. I’ve never been keen on cruising but I don’t think this story would turn die hard cruisers off. It’s a fictional tale, right! None of it could happen in real life, could it??
Some readers may not like the open ending. It reminded me of Life of Pi where the interpretation of the story is left up to the reader and their imagination.
I have my own theory of what happened to the ship and passengers but this could differ greatly to how another reader interprets the ending.
With thanks to Hachette Australia for my uncorrected proof to read and review.
July 11, 2015
What on earth happened at the end of this book??
This whole read was an exercise in frustration. There were so many spooky moments that would build up and fall flat on it's ass. And then the ending just took a confusing out of nowhere turn into huh? Nothing really gets answered or wrapped up.
Very disappointed in this book.
This whole read was an exercise in frustration. There were so many spooky moments that would build up and fall flat on it's ass. And then the ending just took a confusing out of nowhere turn into huh? Nothing really gets answered or wrapped up.
Very disappointed in this book.
April 1, 2015
It's a problem when the premise of the book is why I keep reading, rather than any real interest in the characters and their experiences. I haven't read the author's previous book, so I'm not in a position to draw the comparisons other reviewers are drawing between that one and this one. I can only judge Day Four on its own merits. And as it stands, it's a solid beach-friendly page-turner about a cruise ship that suddenly breaks down, with inexplicable things happening aboard. My big problem with the book was that all the sense of escalation as things get worse happened in the setting, not the characters: The electricity and the toilets stop working, the food runs low, the passengers get antsy and crazy and threaten to sue, norovirus spreads, all miseries familiar from the news. And the escalation of the situation is certainly detailed. But the characters themselves remain fairly static throughout. They all start in states of desperation for various reasons, and with one exception — a character who stops being a thinking person pretty early and just becomes a series of tics, and eventually comes to a very vague end — they stay about as desperate without much more revealed about who they are. The last part of the book switches into an impersonal interview format and almost completely loses the characters, which is frustrating, but not as much of a loss as it should be.
So much of this book feels like a Stephen King novel: The high-concept premise, the big diverse cast of quirky people who all have secrets and big flaws and questionable motives, the intervention of the supernatural, the rising tide of horror, the not-very-satisfying ending. But I kept wondering what King would do with these characters and story, because in his heyday, he certainly would have dug deeper than this. (And the book would have been 800 pages long, but I wouldn't have minded.) Again, this was diverting and fun, it just doesn't rise above average thriller for me.
So much of this book feels like a Stephen King novel: The high-concept premise, the big diverse cast of quirky people who all have secrets and big flaws and questionable motives, the intervention of the supernatural, the rising tide of horror, the not-very-satisfying ending. But I kept wondering what King would do with these characters and story, because in his heyday, he certainly would have dug deeper than this. (And the book would have been 800 pages long, but I wouldn't have minded.) Again, this was diverting and fun, it just doesn't rise above average thriller for me.
November 3, 2024
This was a fun horror story set on a stranded cruise liner. It was also that rare beast: a sequel that was better than the first book.
It was a different kind of rarity for me, too: despite the large amounts of horror I read, I never seem to be reading any horror on Hallowe’en. Not this year, though, as I was reading this one on the eve of ghosts and ghoulies!
It was a different kind of rarity for me, too: despite the large amounts of horror I read, I never seem to be reading any horror on Hallowe’en. Not this year, though, as I was reading this one on the eve of ghosts and ghoulies!
August 16, 2015
This is the second horror book I read by Lotz and really like it. I didn't think I was a fan of horror but Lotz writes so well. This book and her last one will catch your attention a few pages in. It is scary, creepy and eerie. Give it a try if you'r NOT going on a cruise in the near future. Easy read, fast pace and gripping.
July 20, 2015
Starts strong, but ultimately the narrative style was too disjointed and broken up for the story. And the ending kinda lost me. Not that the plot of the ending was bad per se, but it just felt like we were suddenly in a different book. Didn't live up to my expectations, because wow a horror story set on a cruise ship feels like crazy fertile territory.
March 18, 2017
This started off really good but then the last 100 or so pages flushed it all down the toilet. Plus that ending wth was up with that hot mess of an ending?! Ugh.
September 23, 2015
I’m curious: is this the same Sarah Lotz who wrote the unforgettable novel, The Three? It sure doesn’t read as though it was written by the same author. I am shocked at the terrible, stilted, and unnatural dialogue between the characters! And what’s up with psychic, Celine Del Ray, starting every second sentence with, “Know this.”? Good grief it was annoying!
Overall, I think this book had a great ending. Much like Lotz’s previous novel, the excellently written and well plotted, The Three, but still different. I liked the idea on which this story was built, and I enjoyed being part of the panic the passengers felt while being stranded in the ocean with the cruise ship falling apart around them. I really got into all of it and felt the fear and desperation of the characters. I also enjoyed the different points of view of the many voices that tells the story, and I felt the Suicide Sisters were a unique addition to this story.
Day Four most certainly has its strong points and its weak points. However, for me it didn’t hold a candle to The Three. It just wasn’t what I got from the fitting cover and synopsis. So by the way, although reference is made to the aforementioned book, this one can still be read as a stand-alone. I have mixed feelings about Day Four, but it certainly won’t deter me from reading another of Lotz’s future books.
Overall, I think this book had a great ending. Much like Lotz’s previous novel, the excellently written and well plotted, The Three, but still different. I liked the idea on which this story was built, and I enjoyed being part of the panic the passengers felt while being stranded in the ocean with the cruise ship falling apart around them. I really got into all of it and felt the fear and desperation of the characters. I also enjoyed the different points of view of the many voices that tells the story, and I felt the Suicide Sisters were a unique addition to this story.
Day Four most certainly has its strong points and its weak points. However, for me it didn’t hold a candle to The Three. It just wasn’t what I got from the fitting cover and synopsis. So by the way, although reference is made to the aforementioned book, this one can still be read as a stand-alone. I have mixed feelings about Day Four, but it certainly won’t deter me from reading another of Lotz’s future books.
March 10, 2016
The Three didn't really need a sequel, so few books do, but sequel it got. Although in all fairness a fairly tangential, almost thematic one. Of course, it's difficult to do a direct sequel to a book as brutal on its characters as The Three was, so it sort of makes sense. With this one the author scaled down, way, way own to a slimmer more location contained volume, it's the locked ship mystery basically about a cruise gone very very wrong. Only toward the end is there a hint of what The Three was, with the interview style chapters and glance of the larger scheme of things. This one is still a decent story in its own right, it's scary in a plausible way that it seems like a story straight out of the news, it's utterly disgusting, but it is far from great and there is that same ambiguity that didn't do The Three any favors. It's a very quick well paced read that is sure to put you off cruises (at least cut rate ones) for a long time to come or completely. Entertaining enough, but nothing special really.
January 3, 2018
This is a stunner! A horror thriller that stands alone although it does throw a shade of light onto the brilliantly creepy world of The Three. If anything, and this is hard to believe as its predecessor is one of my favourite books of 2014, Day Four is even better than The Three. Truly accomplished and confident, it chills from the first to very last page. Bravo!
April 3, 2019
Kitabi okumaya başlarken aslında konusunu yanlış anladığımı anladim;)
Ama sorun yok. Başlamışsak bitirmemiz lazım. Sürükleyici ve merak uyandiriciydi. Ama sonu fazla tatmin etmedi gibi. Ama yine de okunabilir.
Ama sorun yok. Başlamışsak bitirmemiz lazım. Sürükleyici ve merak uyandiriciydi. Ama sonu fazla tatmin etmedi gibi. Ama yine de okunabilir.
February 15, 2016
I did not enjoy this book. I will say that I have not read the first book - I didn't know this was part of a series, so perhaps that affected my reading. However, I do not feel the desire to read the first book or any that come after. I felt that there were too many characters, with too many "complicated pasts" that didn't add anything to their characters other than tedium.
The American characters were all stereotypes: fat, loud, drunk, obnoxious, entitled assholes. Sure, they exist, but not every character. Of course, this wasn't just limited to the Americans. I found little to like in any of the characters, with the possible exception of the Suicide Sisters. I was the most involved in their story line and history together.
A lot of readers have complained about the last 50 pages of the book, but I felt they were the most interesting from a story perspective, but not in the format given to us. It was all telling - literally, in the form of interviews. I wish we had followed this story as it was unfolding and not in some "top secret" interviews. In fact, I wish this part had been expanded and there had been less (a lot less) of the build up to the storm in the story. I mean, how many times does the smell of sewage and vomit have to be reiterated?
Again, it was an interesting concept and the characters of Helen and Elise were interesting, but as a whole I felt the book to be mean spirited, jarring, and more confusing and obtuse than creepy. I'm all for a little ambiguity, but it was more WTF? than ambiguous.
The American characters were all stereotypes: fat, loud, drunk, obnoxious, entitled assholes. Sure, they exist, but not every character. Of course, this wasn't just limited to the Americans. I found little to like in any of the characters, with the possible exception of the Suicide Sisters. I was the most involved in their story line and history together.
A lot of readers have complained about the last 50 pages of the book, but I felt they were the most interesting from a story perspective, but not in the format given to us. It was all telling - literally, in the form of interviews. I wish we had followed this story as it was unfolding and not in some "top secret" interviews. In fact, I wish this part had been expanded and there had been less (a lot less) of the build up to the storm in the story. I mean, how many times does the smell of sewage and vomit have to be reiterated?
Again, it was an interesting concept and the characters of Helen and Elise were interesting, but as a whole I felt the book to be mean spirited, jarring, and more confusing and obtuse than creepy. I'm all for a little ambiguity, but it was more WTF? than ambiguous.
June 1, 2015
Perhaps it was because I had such high expectations after loving "The Three" so very much, but I never could fully get into "Day Four" to the same degree. It seemed like every cliché horror tactic you've seen or read before, with a good bit of main and minor characters to keep track of. There were some creepy scenes, and the last 15% or so I found very enjoyable, but overall I never got invested or rooted for (or against) anyone. It's like Titanic meets a horror movie. This wasn't a bad book, just not a really good book either. Again, it might have been a case of unrealistically high expectations. Worth reading if you liked the first one, although it's really NOT a sequel. The last few pages were really fun and I do hope there's a third book to see where it goes next.
July 21, 2015
This book was entertaining to read but I felt like it built up an expectation for something big that never came to fruition. I felt kind of ripped off. It wasn't a bad book as far as the storytelling, I guess I was just expecting a more satisfying climax that never happened. Know this - I will never willingly go on cruise.
March 24, 2017
If I cross the spoiler line in my reviews, I'm sorry. It's so hard for me to tell where that line exists, since spoilers don't bother me in the slightest and it seems like occasionally the line has drifted from killer's identity/twist to any major plot point. I usually read a brief recap, sometimes I cheat and read the last few chapters if I get particularly nervous in a story line for reassurance--if anything knowing vaguely what happens soothes me, because I can just relax and appreciate story lines instead of the gotcha moments. And with this book, you don't need to read the previous The Three first, which is something she's done on all her series actually, it doesn't hurt. Though to discuss either in relation to one another well, is spoiler territory.
Though, you can't really skip and read the last 25 pages of either book and really know what happened. She does pretty much tell you, but there are clues scattered though out both books to what happens, since there are a lot of terrible things happening at the same time on multiple levels. And you have to almost appreciate the sly cleverness of the "villain" and the author.
The endings of The Three and Day Four appear to be controversial because how startling they are. I liked the interview with the author at the end of this, where she talks about the lengthy research for this project and her non traditional endings:
"No. There's nothing worse than spoon-feeding and underestimating readers - especially as I know from experience most of them are way smarter than I am. But the answers are all there. They're just not spelled out."
So spoilers galore and theories below!
Basically its Langoliers meets The Shining set on a a cruise ship.
Though, you can't really skip and read the last 25 pages of either book and really know what happened. She does pretty much tell you, but there are clues scattered though out both books to what happens, since there are a lot of terrible things happening at the same time on multiple levels. And you have to almost appreciate the sly cleverness of the "villain" and the author.
The endings of The Three and Day Four appear to be controversial because how startling they are. I liked the interview with the author at the end of this, where she talks about the lengthy research for this project and her non traditional endings:
"No. There's nothing worse than spoon-feeding and underestimating readers - especially as I know from experience most of them are way smarter than I am. But the answers are all there. They're just not spelled out."
So spoilers galore and theories below!
Basically its Langoliers meets The Shining set on a a cruise ship.
August 18, 2019
Le premier était très intriguant, celui-ci l'est aussi mais la fin est beaucoup plus obscure et incompréhensible. Plutôt déçue.
May 21, 2015
Last week I read The Three and it just about blew my tiny little mind. I love writing with an apocalyptic flavour, and The Three delivered that in spades. Within minutes of finishing the final page, I had already picked up its sequel and had jumped straight in. Day Four builds on the delightfully dark premise of The Three and takes the reader to the next level.
Where The Three is primarily focussed on the aftermath of an event and its continuing fallout, Day Four is more interested in tracking characters as the primary event unfolds. Chapters flick between different characters and their perspectives. Everyone starts seeing things. From the officers on the bridge and the guests in first class, right down to the ship’s cleaners and security staff, all are affected by the strange phenomena.
Becalmed and completely isolated from the outside world, it doesn’t take long for divisions to start forming between the different groups on-board ship. The crew are as bewildered as everyone else, and it is only a matter of time before they start to put their own well-being before that of their charges. Petty jealousies and squabbles start to simmer just under the surface, and with every new day the unnerving sense of panic becomes that little bit harder to bear.
The narrative has a wonderfully claustrophobic feel that grows with each passing chapter. The vast majority of the plot takes place on the ship and those close confines really start to mess with the characters perceptions. There is little better than horror like this that makes your skin crawl. Watching normal people slowly crack under the strain of extraordinary events is fascinating stuff.
The best thing about Day Four, and its predecessor, is that the author doesn’t fully commit to explaining everything. There is a delicious current of ambiguity present in both novels. Just exactly what the hell is going on? Is this a massive global conspiracy, something spookily supernatural, divine intervention or a huge cosmic joke? I honestly don’t know, and the best part is that most of me doesn’t even care. The journey that Lotz takes the reader on is worth the price of admission alone. Each new chapter ramps up the tension and the realisation finally dawns that the scope of events is growing at an exponential rate. The further you read, the stronger the suggestion that this story is building to something mind bogglingly big.
Don’t get me wrong though, slowly but surely details are being revealed. It’s just the case that the whole picture isn’t entirely clear yet. I tell you what, there had better be another damn book in this series. If there isn’t there will be trouble. A tall, mildly-myopic Scotsman crying is not a pretty sight people, and I can one hundred per cent guarantee that no one wants to see it.
Day Four is beautifully creepy, often disturbing and entirely entertaining. If I was forced to choose I think I would favour this book over The Three. Why? Mostly because it does such an expert job of building on the existing narrative created by its predecessor. Lotz’ writing builds skillfully on the mythology she previously revealed, but still manages to keep the reader guessing. I love when an author plays with the reader’s expectations and keeps you on your toes. I didn’t think it could be possible, but if anything, Day Four gets even darker than The Three. The final chapters are so very, very good. Bleak doesn’t even begin to cover it.
After reading The Three, I realised I can effectively rule out ever travelling by air again. Day Four cements the concern that cruise liners should also be added to my big old bumper list of places to avoid. Please do me a favour Ms. Lotz, promise me that whatever happens next it doesn’t involve trains. I like trains; I find them relaxing.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, couldn’t be more simple – read The Three, then read Day Four. Once done, wait patiently for whatever Sarah Lotz does next. Based on the first two novels in this series, I suspect what will come next will be something truly exceptional.
Day Four is published by Hodder and is available from 21st May. Highly recommended. This is hands down one of the best things I’ve read so far in 2015.
Where The Three is primarily focussed on the aftermath of an event and its continuing fallout, Day Four is more interested in tracking characters as the primary event unfolds. Chapters flick between different characters and their perspectives. Everyone starts seeing things. From the officers on the bridge and the guests in first class, right down to the ship’s cleaners and security staff, all are affected by the strange phenomena.
Becalmed and completely isolated from the outside world, it doesn’t take long for divisions to start forming between the different groups on-board ship. The crew are as bewildered as everyone else, and it is only a matter of time before they start to put their own well-being before that of their charges. Petty jealousies and squabbles start to simmer just under the surface, and with every new day the unnerving sense of panic becomes that little bit harder to bear.
The narrative has a wonderfully claustrophobic feel that grows with each passing chapter. The vast majority of the plot takes place on the ship and those close confines really start to mess with the characters perceptions. There is little better than horror like this that makes your skin crawl. Watching normal people slowly crack under the strain of extraordinary events is fascinating stuff.
The best thing about Day Four, and its predecessor, is that the author doesn’t fully commit to explaining everything. There is a delicious current of ambiguity present in both novels. Just exactly what the hell is going on? Is this a massive global conspiracy, something spookily supernatural, divine intervention or a huge cosmic joke? I honestly don’t know, and the best part is that most of me doesn’t even care. The journey that Lotz takes the reader on is worth the price of admission alone. Each new chapter ramps up the tension and the realisation finally dawns that the scope of events is growing at an exponential rate. The further you read, the stronger the suggestion that this story is building to something mind bogglingly big.
Don’t get me wrong though, slowly but surely details are being revealed. It’s just the case that the whole picture isn’t entirely clear yet. I tell you what, there had better be another damn book in this series. If there isn’t there will be trouble. A tall, mildly-myopic Scotsman crying is not a pretty sight people, and I can one hundred per cent guarantee that no one wants to see it.
Day Four is beautifully creepy, often disturbing and entirely entertaining. If I was forced to choose I think I would favour this book over The Three. Why? Mostly because it does such an expert job of building on the existing narrative created by its predecessor. Lotz’ writing builds skillfully on the mythology she previously revealed, but still manages to keep the reader guessing. I love when an author plays with the reader’s expectations and keeps you on your toes. I didn’t think it could be possible, but if anything, Day Four gets even darker than The Three. The final chapters are so very, very good. Bleak doesn’t even begin to cover it.
After reading The Three, I realised I can effectively rule out ever travelling by air again. Day Four cements the concern that cruise liners should also be added to my big old bumper list of places to avoid. Please do me a favour Ms. Lotz, promise me that whatever happens next it doesn’t involve trains. I like trains; I find them relaxing.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, couldn’t be more simple – read The Three, then read Day Four. Once done, wait patiently for whatever Sarah Lotz does next. Based on the first two novels in this series, I suspect what will come next will be something truly exceptional.
Day Four is published by Hodder and is available from 21st May. Highly recommended. This is hands down one of the best things I’ve read so far in 2015.
June 8, 2015
Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/0...
Day Four will make you cringe, laugh and shudder. It shows you the horror that can exist in humanity, it provides you haunting events and things that you can’t explain in any sense of the world we know and live in. It will creep you out in so many ways. But, it will also entertain you and make you laugh. There is an incredible balance with the dark parts of this book that keep it from ever becoming too dismal. It is addictive and incredibly hard to put down. At the end of reading this, my largest issue is trying to find information on when Lotz’s next book might be coming out. Oh, and the fact that I will never set foot on a cruise, but that’s not so much an issue for me as for anyone who tries to convince me otherwise.
I think the world can be split into two types of people. Those that enjoy cruises (or the thought of them) and those that don’t see the appeal. I’m of the latter type. Honestly, the thought of being in such an enclosed space with such a large group of people, all the organized activities, the shows, etc. none of that appeals to me. And boy does confirm my natural instinct to steer clear of cruise ships. This book is creepy, it’s a ghost story set on water in a cruise ship full of obnoxious strangers (and coworkers if you’re staff). But even before you get to the supernatural parts, I was already creeped out by the characters. There are some seriously messed up people aboard, and honestly, those that aren’t creepy are just rude and annoying. There are like maybe two exceptions, and that is because probably because of the combination that we got their perspectives (and hopefully they don’t annoy themselves) and they were both people that were on the cruise as a result of their job. And to be fair, I’m sure there are nice normal people that take cruises, I just don’t plan on going on one to find out.
The story is told through several character POVs, and each chapter title tells you who it is. But instead of just blatantly listing the character name like George R. R. Martin, Lotz gives each character (or in one case a pair of characters) a descriptive name such as “The Condemned Man”, “The Devil’s Handmaiden” and “The Suicide Sisters”. For me this added to the fun because when you start reading your first thought is “Why are they called that??”, and well, you just have to read to find out why.
I honestly hate to delve too much into the story on this one. It’s a quick and intensely addictive read. The characters were all quite unique and trust me, none of them are even close to perfect people. Most of them aren’t even likable, but I still wanted to read every word of it. I love how Lotz is able to flesh out these individuals in a way where you quickly identify and understand them. I love the dynamics as things start to go wrong. I just really can’t say enough great things about it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the mysterious, the creepy or just crave haunting tales. It’s one of those books that you know won’t leave you because the story was so well done and powerful. I enjoyed every word of it.
** This is also now required reading for anyone who even considers inviting me on a cruise.
Day Four will make you cringe, laugh and shudder. It shows you the horror that can exist in humanity, it provides you haunting events and things that you can’t explain in any sense of the world we know and live in. It will creep you out in so many ways. But, it will also entertain you and make you laugh. There is an incredible balance with the dark parts of this book that keep it from ever becoming too dismal. It is addictive and incredibly hard to put down. At the end of reading this, my largest issue is trying to find information on when Lotz’s next book might be coming out. Oh, and the fact that I will never set foot on a cruise, but that’s not so much an issue for me as for anyone who tries to convince me otherwise.
I think the world can be split into two types of people. Those that enjoy cruises (or the thought of them) and those that don’t see the appeal. I’m of the latter type. Honestly, the thought of being in such an enclosed space with such a large group of people, all the organized activities, the shows, etc. none of that appeals to me. And boy does confirm my natural instinct to steer clear of cruise ships. This book is creepy, it’s a ghost story set on water in a cruise ship full of obnoxious strangers (and coworkers if you’re staff). But even before you get to the supernatural parts, I was already creeped out by the characters. There are some seriously messed up people aboard, and honestly, those that aren’t creepy are just rude and annoying. There are like maybe two exceptions, and that is because probably because of the combination that we got their perspectives (and hopefully they don’t annoy themselves) and they were both people that were on the cruise as a result of their job. And to be fair, I’m sure there are nice normal people that take cruises, I just don’t plan on going on one to find out.
The story is told through several character POVs, and each chapter title tells you who it is. But instead of just blatantly listing the character name like George R. R. Martin, Lotz gives each character (or in one case a pair of characters) a descriptive name such as “The Condemned Man”, “The Devil’s Handmaiden” and “The Suicide Sisters”. For me this added to the fun because when you start reading your first thought is “Why are they called that??”, and well, you just have to read to find out why.
I honestly hate to delve too much into the story on this one. It’s a quick and intensely addictive read. The characters were all quite unique and trust me, none of them are even close to perfect people. Most of them aren’t even likable, but I still wanted to read every word of it. I love how Lotz is able to flesh out these individuals in a way where you quickly identify and understand them. I love the dynamics as things start to go wrong. I just really can’t say enough great things about it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the mysterious, the creepy or just crave haunting tales. It’s one of those books that you know won’t leave you because the story was so well done and powerful. I enjoyed every word of it.
** This is also now required reading for anyone who even considers inviting me on a cruise.
October 23, 2015
Pseudo follow-up to The Three really only gains interest and momentum when Sarah Lotz decides to abandon The Beautiful Dreamer to its weird fate in a sensationally weird and inconclusive ending. Why couldn’t she have begun the book there!?
Unfortunately, up to that point the book is a pale imitation of bad horror movies such as Ghost Ship. The characterisation is serviceable at best, with many of the large cast bordering on the thoroughly unlikeable, which makes this a particular slog for the reader.
Not to mention that the focus on faecal matter, as the norovirus runs rampant throughout the cruise liner, quickly becomes tedious as opposed to heightening the sense of claustrophobia. Ultimately disappointing, but still a great trashy horror read if you are in the mood for this kind of thing.
Unfortunately, up to that point the book is a pale imitation of bad horror movies such as Ghost Ship. The characterisation is serviceable at best, with many of the large cast bordering on the thoroughly unlikeable, which makes this a particular slog for the reader.
Not to mention that the focus on faecal matter, as the norovirus runs rampant throughout the cruise liner, quickly becomes tedious as opposed to heightening the sense of claustrophobia. Ultimately disappointing, but still a great trashy horror read if you are in the mood for this kind of thing.
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June 18, 2015Like being frightened? Like sleeping with the lights on? Then this is the perfect book for you! In Lotz's previous book, The Three, planes fell from the sky, leaving only three young survivors who were...not what they used to be. In this sequel, everything aboard a cruise ship starts to go horribly wrong on its fourth day at sea, and when help finally arrives, all the passengers aboard the boat appear to be missing. But the truth of where they are is worse than anyone can imagine. Lotz is breathing fresh life into horror writing, and both her books are creepy fun!
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March 20, 2016
Loved it. Kept me intrigued from start to finish. Always a case of "just one more chapter". A massive improvement on the first book in my opinion.
March 14, 2021
لمحبي قصص الكوارث البحرية رغم النهاية الغير واضحة
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2021
Day Four je nastavak the Three (Troje), koju sam procitao prosle godine. Jako te tesko ovo nazvati nastavkom je prica skoro da nije nikako povezana sa prvom knjigom sem tih nekih par stvari. Al svejedno ovo je i dalje odlicna knjiga, cak sta vise, puno mi je bila bolja od prvog dijela. Prica je mnogo ljepse ispricana, kroz prikaz 7 razlicitih ljudi koji su se zadesili na kruzeru. Knjiga se vrlo fluidno cita, a atmosfera je zaista nevjerovatna. Stvar koja je bolja u ovom dijelu je definitivno zavrsetak, koji mi je bio dosta bolji nego u prvom dijelu.
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