The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People by William Todd Rose

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Life for Bosley Coughlin has never been easy. He’s seen things that no one else has seen and has done things he’s not always proud of. Yet there’s something about him that sets him apart from everyone else. You see, he can travel through time. He’s never sure as to where he’ll end up whenever Time comes to claim him, but the things he experiences wherever he goes leave him scarred for life. Most especially since he’s repeatedly given glimpses of how the world will end soon enough. Mind you, it’s not pretty.

With every trip he takes, he becomes privy to the circumstances that lead to the Earth’s demise. Chaos and destruction now reign supreme. Cold, callous beings, shells of those formerly living, now walk the streets, eager to prey on unsuspecting souls. Falling into their hands guarantees a quick, merciless death, a certainty survivors now do their best to avoid.

Bosley knows what caused the apocalypse. He was there from the beginning. Clarice Hudson has been an integral part in contributing to man’s downfall, something he did his best to avoid. Beautiful and alluring, he knows she’s unaware of the demons that now exist inside her. Everything about her calls out to him, yet that’s a luxury he can never give in to.

The girl is tainted and it’s up to him to fix the situation before it can get out of hand. It’s the only way he can ensure that his beloved Ocean can lead a normal life within the dark and murky world she now lives in. Her very existence depends on him taking matters into his own hands. For her, he will do anything. For her, he will make things right, if only to give her that fighting chance she so very much deserves.

This book hooked me in from the very beginning. William’s style of writing is so engrossing that it catches the reader off the bat. I had a hard time putting the book down once I got started. He’s painted such vivid picture of a world spiraling into madness. A world where the undead are everywhere and those left remaining must do everything they can to survive. I totally recommend the story – a gripping tale that will leave you wanting to read more!

Available for purchase via the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Permuted Press.

Synopsis:

Bosley Coughlin can travel through time. And the future does not look good.

Through a heady cocktail of drugs and the occult, Bosley slips through time and space and glimpses The End. Cities lay in ruins, and those who still cling to life hide in the rubble like frightened animals. Walking carcasses shamble through the debris exacting a horrible fate upon any living they find.

This horrific future is the only world fourteen year old Ocean has ever known. Starving and alone, she struggles for even the most basic of necessities: food, water, shelter, love…

In the present, Bosley stumbles across Clarice Hudson and soon realizes that she is much more than a simple shop girl. One by one, she displays the seven symptoms of the contagion that will bring Bosley’s world to an end and create the nightmare Ocean calls home. Clarice may hold the key to stopping the coming apocalypse and sparing Ocean from the atrocities of mankind’s imminent future… but only if Coughlin is willing to push beyond every notion he’s ever held about right and wrong.

About The Author:

Named by The Google+ Insider’s Guide as one of their top 32 authors to follow, William Todd Rose is a speculative fiction author currently residing in Parkersburg, West Virginia. His short work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, as well as having been featured on several podcasts. In 2009, his debut novella Shadow of the Woodpile was released as the flagship publication for the independent publisher Fetid Press. This was soon followed up by the apocalyptic novel Cry Havoc in 2010, as well as The 7 Habits of Highly Infective People: A Novel of Contagion, Drugs, Time Travel, and the Living Dead. 2010 also saw the release of the grindhouse inspired e-book Shut The Fuck Up And Die!. In 2011, Living Dead Press published his short story collection Sex in the Time of Zombies and 2011 saw the publication of The Dead and Dying and Permuted Press’ release of the expanded, second edition of The 7 Habits.

Mr. Rose’s work is often described with adjectives such as bizarre, strange, and weird. In fact, Dr. Michael West (better known to listeners of the Library of the Living Dead podcast as Dr. Pus) began his description of Shadow of the Woodpile with “Not that William Todd Rose is weird, and perhaps a better word would be unique, but he is . . . “; one of his short stories was once described as “perhaps the strangest horror story I have ever read”, and the editors at Flashquake magazine rejected one of his non-genre pieces as “irreconcilably weird”. These types of statements, however, do not offend the author in the least bit.

“I think it’s one of the greatest compliments I can receive, to have my writing described that way. If someone says that I’m weird or unusual or unique then that means I’m doing something entirely different from the majority of work that is currently out there. I don’t want to be just another cookie-cutter knock off of the current bestseller. I want to explore new ground, fresh ideas . . .”

While Mr. Rose has been known to delve into the worlds of scifi and cyberpunk, his main affinity is for dark fiction with a particularly special place in his heart for zombie lit.

He is currently at work on his next project.

Connect With Him Online:

Website: http://www.williamtoddrose.com
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3227981.William_Todd_Rose
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sex_zombie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/William-Todd-Rose/153946597931
Email: wtoddrose@gmail.com