Day 94 by D.M. Slate—The “true” meaning of house arrest (4.7 out of 5 Panic Attacks) Imagine being trapped inside your own home. You, your significant other, your kids… All unable to leave because you could be infected and then who would take care of your family? Now imagine being stuck inside your house like this for months. No food other than what you have in your home; no electricity; no real running water and, more importantly, no idea of what is really going on or when it will end. They don't understand, and we don't want to frighten them, so we turned it into a game of sorts. We told the kids it's a contest to see which family can stay inside the house the longest, and that we really want to win. That seemed to work for now… (Slate, Day 94, Eternal Press) D.M. Slate does just that. She makes you see what life would be like through the eyes of one mother as she survives the results of a meteor strike near her home with her husband and two kids. And Slate holds no punches in this profoundly thought out story. Slate should have named this story 94 minutes because the reader is pulled into her world and nothing moves slowly when you have crazed people outside your home and two children who need your protection to survive. For a parent of two children myself, this is a must read. Not because of the possibility of some outbreak like Slate describes, but because of the level of commitment a parent feels toward their child…that ability to protect your flesh and blood to the death…even from those closest to you. And to further the horror Slate describes, she also has an alternate ending listed on her website (http://www.dm-slate.com/)... An ending far darker than the original, yet still portraying that loving spirit of a real parent. Slate knows what true horror is! It's not gore, but that deep rooted terror that is felt in the direst of moments and Slate has found a way to voice that in Day 94. This story will stick with me for a long time.

This little horror novella (a mere 22thousand words) packs quite a punch. I started reading after a long day at work, trying to catch up with my book pile, and I have about an hour of commute. Normally, I drop the book at the door when I get home. I need to check emails, after all. There are very few books that "make it past the door", but in this case, I needed to know what happened next. So I made myself a coffee (while reading), toasted a bun (still reading) and ate it (while reading). The test of any good horror/suspense story is – can I put it down? In this case, “Day 94” passed with flying colours. I couldn't. It's tightly written and plotted, with twists that keep you on the edge of your seat, like it or not. I finished this in one go, and I had a great time throughout. The premise is horrifying all by itself. A family gets trapped in their house, while civilization crumbles around them. A mysterious plague transforms people into 'morphs', this author's take on zombies. Under siege, hungry, cold, terrified, the mother, Joslin, writes a diary. Re-reading it, she thinks about the entries and comments on them, while facing the challenges that are ahead: finding food, keeping her children alive, and facing the greatest fear of them all – an ally who has turned into 'the enemy'. There is more than a dash of "The Shining" by Stephen King in there, the crazed husband trying to break down the door with an axe, and Grant, subsequently, in my mind, looked like Jack Nicholson. That's not a bad thing – it's a classic, written by one of the masters of horror. The book has a few issues, of course, and some aren't even the writer's fault. On my reader, the ebook started with the climactic battle, then stops, and then comes copyright and author's name and then the book actually starts, jolting me right out, until I realised that this was just the cover blurb. In paperbacks, I don't like that kind of formatting, and I skip it, but in ebooks, I loathe it. It gives away too much of the book, and starting something with the most dramatic scene and then ripping the reader right out didn't win any brownie points with this reader. The formatting that shows that it's an excerpt comes through nicely on the PDF, but on the ereader looks exactly the same. Please change that. Secondly, the editing could have been better. "Through" is spelled "thru" several times, and I thought, OK, that's the first person narrator's quirk, but then it became "through", so I assume it was passed over in the editing. There were a few instances of missing words and commas as well, which have a way to jar me out of the text. And in such asuspenseful text, that's not what I want to think about. I want to fear for the characters' survival rather than think "hang on, there's a 'the' missing". The information we get about the author is that it's a debut, and there are a few insecurities. Joslin and the other characters could use a little more depth, the story could be a little longer, maybe another five to ten thousand words more. The text veers wildly between past tense and present tense, confusing me a bit about when the action takes place (and not just in the diary entries). In places, I would have wanted more detail to really feel more of it, but, for those small flaws, the story passed the real test: I couldn't put it down. The author has an excellent feeling for suspense, which many more advanced writers don't have, and the sheer tension of the text overshadowed the little glitches in craft and editing. Well done, Mrs Slate.

News forecasts warn of an impending meteor shower that may come too close to the Earth. After making light of the potential danger, residents of a small Colorado town are shocked when the meteor unleashes a blanketing cloud of dust and disease, burying them in chaos. Joslin and Grant, afraid its worse elsewhere, barricade themselves in the house with their young children. The government abandons them, all utilities and most of the food supply are lost in the middle of winter in Colorado, but their survival begins when death creeps into their home. This book is by far the most terrifying story I've read in a long time. A young mother's accounting of each day into the depths of Hell on Earth was at times more than I could take though I wasn't able to put in down. I cried with her, smiled and cheered her on as she tries to escape her situation with her family intact. Day 94 is one book you won't be able to put down and certainly one you gotta read. D.M. Slate is definitely a "you gotta read" author.

Imagine a giant meteor streaking towards earth, and the government tells you you’ve nothing to fear. They’ve launched a missile to collide with the massive rock formation and break it into smaller pieces. Although one large chunk remains intact, scientists predict that biggest section will break up before entering the ozone and cause nothing more than a shower of stones. Don’t believe everything you hear—that’s the message the novella, Day 94,  by D.M. Slate delivers. Although a work of fiction, this story is guaranteed to make you shiver because it smacks too much of reality. We have no idea what the future holds, and are ignorant of the perils lurking in the vastness of outer space. In Day 94, the heroine keeps a journal, documenting her family’s nightmare and tracking the number of days they’re confined to their home for survival’s sake. Lack of food, water, sporadic electricity, and the fear of breathing the outside air is so vividly played out, you may have to take a break for a drink or a snack to assure yourself you aren’t a character in the book. The family exhausts their supply of wood before turning to burning fences and furniture, all the while avoiding the toxic fumes of the latter as flames gnaw at varnished wood. They pass time, peeping through their barricaded windows, watching the neighbors endure various stages of the zombie-like disease unlashed by the meteor, numbering the casualties they’ve dubbed “morphs.” You will overwhelmingly sense the mother’s need to protect her young children as you would your own, and when Grant, the father, must finally venture out to secure sustenance for his family, you’ll silently beg him not to go, thought know that he must. Honestly, D.M. Slate has penned an awesome tale that will leave you with the scary thought that this is perhaps not just a fictional story. Kudos to the author for leaving this reader breathless too many times. I doubt you'll be able to put this one down.  You can purchase a download at Eternal Press.

D.M. Slate - Day 94 - 4.5 out of 5 Siren Stones D.M. Slate writes a masterful tale of horror as she describes how one woman struggles to survive a meteor strike near her home. Trapped inside with no food or water other than what she had when the incident occurs, Slate’s character strives to protect her family as the meteor’s impact is just the beginning. This book had me moving from one page to the next, waiting in anticipation to see what happens next! I couldn’t put it down as I was pulled into her world and living through the eyes of the mother. My heart raced and ached throughout the entire story.