As you may be able to recall, I read The Mall, the first book of the Downside trilogy, about 2 weeks ago and enjoyed it a large amount. Having done this and discovering that it was the first in a trilogy, I felt the need to take a trip to the library in order to take out and read the following two books, of which The Ward is the first.
In a similar fashion to The Mall, The Ward is set in a sort of “underground” reality in which the two main characters, Farrell the photographer and Lisa who is addicted to plastic surgery, somehow wake up in a hospital known as No Hope where nurses are bossy and lazy, floors are dirty and stained and smoking is allowed. After attempting to escape this dump they end up in the aforementioned underground hospital/reality where people voluntarily book themselves into a ward where their organs are removed, brains are washed and face transplants are performed in a similar manner to the John Travolta/Nicolas Cage film Face Off.
Although it wasn’t as creepy as The Mall it was written just as cleverly and mentions certain things from the previous book such as Highgate Mall (a possible play on Highgate Cemetery?), normal humans being called “browns” and the alternate characters who are perfect or “primo” having an English dialect of their own.
As one can see it’s a book that’s hard to say a lot about without giving too much away. What I can say, though, is that when I closed the book after reading the final page I had one of those moments of wondering what the hell I’d just read. S.L. Grey has, again, managed to create a cleverly-written mind-fuck of a book that I’m sure most fans of horror or thriller will enjoy.
Pete Kent Official 