Paused: Stephanie Ellis
Reviewed By Ksenia Murray
Paused by Stephanie Ellis is a short novella about a disease that strikes a town and slowly spreads elsewhere. The disease makes people stop what they’re doing and freeze in place, unable to move. The victims of this disease sit out in the elements, at work, in their cars, or at home with no end in sight. They’re unable to eat, drink, or even blink. Dr. Alex Griffiths is working hard to find a solution to this disease that has struck not only his town, but his family as well. As more and more people are afflicted with this disease, the more life for everyone else comes to a halt. His daughter’s friends are afflicted and they take turns messing with the poor victims while he’s hard at work looking for a cure before it hits his family.
This is a quick read. I sat down and finished reading this within a couple of hours. It’s fast-paced and you start reading when the infection starts spreading. I enjoyed the idea of this book more than the execution of it. I feel like this book would be better if it were longer and there were more details. I enjoyed the world-building but would like more of it. I disliked how many different points of view are in this book. One or two is fine but there are multiple and it’s hard to keep up. I also didn’t like his kids. For some reason, they really annoyed me with their actions. Yes, they’re kids and will do stupid stuff but come on! I wanted to yell and shake some sense into those kids. If that’s what the author was going for then bravo because I fell for it.
All in all, I rate this book a three out of five stars due to how short the book was, the multiple different points of view, and how it ended. It was a good time waster and I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in sci-fi horror with a twist.
Paused
People are stopping, bodies halting regardless of situation or location. They are still alive but completely unresponsive, vulnerable statues utterly at the mercy of their environment. Unable to run from fire, some burn. Unable to return to shore, some drown. Unable to move from the path of a truck, some are crushed. Nor are you safe at home—unable to move, you starve.
Dr Alex Griffiths heads a research department in a university hospital. As more and more succumb to this strange affliction—including his own family—it becomes a race against time for his team to find an answer before they too are affected.
Humanity has been put on pause. Will it ever restart?
You can buy Paused from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Ksenia Murray
Ksenia Murray hails from Oklahoma but moves around constantly. She’s currently writing another novel after having published The Cave and Compendium of Creatures. You can find Ksenia tucked away from the madness of the world with her husband, Chris, and her two pets Cricket and Citrus.
You can follow Ksenia on Twitter @kseniamurray
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