Dogs by Mike Sullivan
Muddy Paws Press, 2022
ISBN: 9798986056913
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )
Dogs is one of those little novellas that work fine for a quick blast of excitement that requires no thinking. At only 114 pages double-spaced, any reader will be through it in an hour or two. There’s no real character development, no twisting plot, but it does have excitement and a touch of gore, and that’s really all readers are looking for in something this short. For a quick shot of diversionary reading, Dogs rolls over and does the trick.
The plot: Tom comes home to visit his parents, who live in a gated community. The family dog goes crazy and tries to attack him, and Tom quickly finds out that all the dogs in the neighborhood have gone canine-crazy and now regard humans as fleshy Milk-Bones. Tom needs to survive and escape. The end.
That’s all there is, and that’s all that’s needed. Again, this is just action. It’s kind of like the old Jean-Claude Van Damme films: you never watch them for anything deep, you just want ass-kicking and excitement. That’s what Dogs delivers. There is plenty of bloodshed between the dogs, Tom, and a couple neighbors, and the author writes the attack sequences well enough to keep reader interest up, it’s not just ‘the dog mauled and killed the person’, though. There are some face-offs and tactics in the human vs. dog duels. This isn’t totally brainless: it’s just meant to tear along at a good pace, and it does that just fine. There are plenty of unanswered questions by the end of the book, so don’t expect a wrap-up that explains everything. Obviously, if you love dogs and can’t stand fiction that involves them getting hurt, you may want to skip this (even though they are bad dogs).
File this one in the category of “fast reads that involve nature biting back”. Alongside other books of that ilk, such as Grizzly and The Roo, the novella Dogs will fit in just fine. Worth it for the quick fun.
Reviewed by Murray Samuelson
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