Neands
Dan Salmon
OneTree House
Pub. 2020

April 26, 2022

Neands by Dan Salmon is an absolutely stunning story. There were some things I noticed that could be changed or explained better but overall, it was an awesome novel.

This story is based in the year 2022, and I feel it was aimed to imitate what is happening in the world now with Covid. A mutation of the genes is infecting humans and turning them into Neands. When this happens, they become vicious and harmful to humans. When the parents of main character Charlie disappear one day, he’s sent out on a quest to find them and figure out more about the disease. This causes him to stumble upon one of his mother’s friends.

First of all it sounded like it was written in present tense, but in some parts it made it feel like it was past tense. So that could have been explained better. There were only two or three snippets that made me feel like it was past tense so that confused me a little, making me question how it was written.

Another thing that I found was quite common, was that there were spelling mistakes or double of a word where it didn’t fit. There were around six to eight of those and I am surprised it slipped past the publishing.

Nearing the end of the book, I questioned one of the scenes. It kind of felt like it didn’t fit entirely into place. Like, where did this animal come from? How was it opening the doors? It just didn’t feel like it should have been in the novel!

Sometimes Charlie wasn’t the smartest and that got quite irritating. This didn’t sit right with me, made me feel second hand embarrassment or just made me uncomfortable in general.

Salmon’s descriptive language was incredible. This made me feel like I was a part of the scene, smelling the rotting corpse, or feeling the water’s salt on my skin. I am a big fan of descriptive writing so this really caught my attention and held it throughout the whole book.

The characters were wonderfully written and described in a slow way. The author didn’t dump information onto you for you to try and unscramble. I feel this is a problem most authors have a hard time stopping themselves from doing. In some parts of the book, it names other books or comics that you might recognise. I feel this adds a nice wee touch that brings the reader and the characters closer in likes or dislikes.

I also love how Salmon left off on a cliffhanger, making me just that little bit more desperate to pick up the next book and jump back into Charlie’s world!

Neands gets four out of five stars from me! It really had me wanting to know what happens next and how they will escape. I can’t wait to read the second book in the series and experience what happens next. I really want to know what happens to Ivy – does she survive or does she turn??

I thank you for putting this book on the shelves of the store and into my hands!

• Josie is 12 and lives in Whanganui.