Blue Eyes aren’t so Beautiful When They’ll Suck the Life out of You
The Pandemic was a wonderful time for writers to pen a novel. While working on my own book, The Lip Reader, I thought of the many books that would precipitate from our Pandemic experience. S.M. Sykes doesn’t disappoint with Eyes of Blue where the author exaggerates the Covid-19 experience into a plague that devastates humanity.
Instead of a virus erupting out of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in China, a meteor strikes Eastern Europe resulting in a virus that affects the newly dead. This disease reanimates its victims to seek out and absorb power for nourishment—power from a battery, or better yet, the electrical power that keeps human beings humming. All the newly dead have blue eyes—so bright you can see these Deaders coming from a distance.
During the early days of The Fall, Ava Washington, a teenager from Delaware, is on her own, except for her dog companion, Andromeda. Ava is in survival mode depending on Andromeda’s instincts to locate danger—the Deaders, who will literally suck the life out of you, or other humans who will kill on a whim. This new world she finds herself in is deadly.
S.M. Sykes writes an exciting end-of-the-world apocalypse story that kept this reader turning pages until the dramatic and unexpected climax. The characters are fleshed out nicely, scenes are described adequately, and the plot goes through twists and unforeseen turns.
Written in Ava’s perspective, the author writes too many monologues that at times becomes confusing, while jarring me away from the read. A good editor could resolve these issues.
With that said, Eyes of Blue is a YA science fiction novel you won’t want to miss. I for one am looking forward reading A Dim Blue followed by book three in the series, Loss of Blue.
About the Author
During the day, S.M. Sykes is an advertising and marketing professional. Even though English classes in high school were a struggle, the author discovered a passion for storytelling. Eyes of Blue is his debut novel which led to the Eyes of Blue Series.
Michael Thal is the author of the Koolura Series, adventures of a girl with psychic powers.
