"Detailed and cinematic, vivid and plausible"

I was given this book after a recommendation by Derren Brown. A zombie novel full of truth, humanity and humour. And it’s really gross as well. What more could you ask?

I loved the mundane reality of living with a zombie outbreak - like borrowing a meat cleaver from the local kebab shop (who is still open in the hope of getting a bit of extra business, despite the outbreak). Or coming to terms with the fact that your own son may have the ‘slow onset’ variety while your sister appallingly offers to kill him for you. Or the fear that perhaps you yourself have the slow onset disease … as you slog away at your desk (don’t we all?).

Clarke also writes beautifully - really beautifully. She can capture everything from the intensity of living with a new born baby to the hordes sweeping through London. She is detailed and cinematic in turn.

The world Clarke creates is so vivid and so plausible - this book will really get under your skin.

SIMON T

"Unusually well written"

This is an excellent read, with echos of Mira Grant - but in a British setting. I'm the 'lowbrow' reader in our family so it's not unusual to catch me reading books with covers showing burning planes under raised gold print or indeed, zombie novels. However, there's a good chance that any particular book I choose will have pedestrian writing. I am sometimes disappointed in the quality of my choices and have several unfinished novels which seemed to have promise but turned out to have annoyingly poor or boring writing, even if the story idea was good.

The Splits, however, is unusually well written, with a wonderfully understated English sensibility. I even decided to take a chance and recommend it to my wife (who is famously highbrow). She found it highly enjoyable and I felt vindicated for the first time! I don't mean it's highly stylised or inaccessible, rather that the writing does the job it's meant to do without pulling you out of the story either with poor writing, overly affected language or plot holes. It really captures the atmosphere of the events and scenes within, but uses just the right amount of description to not slow the story down in any way. It's written from the point of view of a number of characters who were different enough to keep me interested but who are all real enough to be believable and they all fit perfectly into the world described. Highly recommended. Looking forward to more.

JAY ZED

"Left me dazed and wanting more"

Beautiful written and deeply unsettling. Layer upon layer of thoughtful horror. Slams up against the horror of mundanity and normality. The encroaching zombie takeover, meshed with the anxiety causing new procurement system at work, the bullying boss , the requirement to 'love' a nephew and how it gets in the way of the relationship you value with your sibling. And in that sense it’s reminded me of We Need to Talk About Kevin. But at its darkest, most f-----d up it plucked out the shuddery judderiness of Michael Faber's Under the Skin. It’s clear that MV Clark loves film. Every chapter screams to be made into something on the medium size screen - Netflix and “kill”. And that’s testament to her writing which is warm and familiar - drawing you in before thumping you in the gut with something deliciously putrid - for example the grand guignol of an infected child posting his rotting teeth through a letter box with a distraught mother on the other side. So many vivid images - that’s what I want in my horror novels. The ending left me slightly dazed and wanting more. It required a couple of re-reads and made me hopeful for a sequel.  KEN

"A serious and thought provoking attempt to tackle troubling aspects of human nature"

As you would expect with zombie fiction there is horror, gore and a fair bit of action which link to wider social and political trends during the end of the last century. Having lived through those decades, when reading this book, I cannot help but think of the devastation of the AIDs epidemic and the fear and sadness of those times both for those who were touched directly as well as the general climate of suspicion and hopelessness. More recently we have not escaped these dynamics as we respond to fears of otherness played out in discourse about war, terrorism, famine and disease. The author holds these issues up to scrutiny in both an emotionally distant and at times light hearted action narrative as well as painful and beautifully written descriptions of human distress. These focus in particular on sickness within rather than without and the conflict and injuries inside our own minds and in very close personal relationships. These parts of the book carry a deeper emotional resonance and the author brings the two elements of the book together at the end in a surprising and skilful way. The writing becomes much stronger as the book unfolds and the deeper layers of meaning become revealed. I would strongly recommend the book as a serious and thought provoking attempt to tackle troubling aspects of human nature.

GOLD NIGHTINGALE

"Compelling story telling from the get go"

So I don’t like horror, and I don’t like Zombies. Not sure how the hell I ended up reading this but I am very glad I did. Compelling story telling from the get go. Devoured it like an infected. There is more to this story than blood and gore. Strong characters weave a social commentary of zombie Haringey. It reminded me a bit of The power, but with likeable and believable characters and a well strung together plot.

JO

"Does all the things quality horror should do"

A fantastic zombie novel which is incredibly relevant to our times. It does all the things quality horror should do - builds suspense, delivers shocks and distorts everyday reality to great effect. And creates a creeping feeling that something is very very wrong. But it also deals with important issues such as the effects of trauma and the brutal suppression of knowledge by authorities whose power hangs in the balance. It's fun too - the pace never lets up and the characters' personal lives play out in intimate, compelling dramas that make this a true page turner.

LOUISE