Day Four

A Novel

By: Sarah Lotz

Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins

Step aboard "the cruise ship from hell" (Stephen King) in this "satirical scream of a novel" (New York Times Book Review).
Hundreds of pleasure-seekers stream aboard The Beautiful Dreamer cruise ship for five days of cut-price fun in the Caribbean sun. On the fourth day, disaster strikes: smoke roils out of the engine room, and the ship is stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. Soon supplies run low, a virus plagues the ship, and there are whispered rumors that the cabins on the lower decks are haunted by shadowy figures. Irritation escalates to panic, the crew loses control, factions form, and violent chaos erupts among the survivors.

When, at last, the ship is spotted drifting off the coast of Key West, the world's press reports it empty. But the gloomy headlines may be covering up an even more disturbing reality. Day Four is a heart-racing tale from "a ferociously imaginative storyteller" (Lauren Beukes).

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR THE THREE

"Lotz is a ferociously imaginative storyteller whose twisty plots will kick the stairs out from under you. She's a talent to watch."—Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls

"The Three is really wonderful, a mix of Michael Crichton and Shirley Jackson. Hard to put down and vastly entertaining."—Stephen King

Strong Start, Tedious halfway through, needed more narrators

I loved her first book. So much so that I was anxiously waiting for my next credit to get this one. I was very interested at the beginning, but the story then felt repetitive and tedious. I struggled to get through the last 2 hours of the book. The narrator did the best she could, but there were just too many characters for her to give voices to. This needed two narrators. A male and a female voice would have done wonders for this book. Overall, it was fine, but not as good as her first book I read.

Great story but not so great narration

Great story but the reader does such a horrible job at male voices that it is almost distracting. It'd be 100 times better if they had a male reading those parts

Weird and uneven

What disappointed you about Day Four?

I just felt like this book never could decide what sort of story it wanted to be. One minute things are quick-paced and exciting and terrifying, the next it's a slow-burn, and finally it just ends on this really weird and surreal note involving either an alternate dimension or a trip to the future, and it's all related in transcripts, like the author wanted to finish things up super quick and didn't have the energy for writing it out in her usual style. It just annoyed me.

What could Sarah Lotz have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

One thing that definitely could've been done better is the supernatural elements. In the beginning of the novel it's hinted that what's happening is partly supernatural, but as the novel goes on, the supernatural elements are only just there, like they've been tacked on at the last minute to spice up the story. It isn't until the very end that the supernatural stuff really gains prominence, but then it's lost in some really surreal stuff and you really don't know how to make sense of it all as a reader. Ms. Lotz should have either made those supernatural elements more prominent and defined or taken them out altogether. Either way the story would've benefited.I also think that the story could've been written a bit more evenly in pace and tone. It was just so all-over-the-place, like the author was still figuring out what sort of story she was writing while writing it. I really think that if she had done better in deciding where the story would go and what sort of pace it was going to go at, we'd have a much better story.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Penelope Rawlins?

Sure, if she was narrating a book I was interested in. Her male voices are pretty obviously a woman pretending to be a man, but she does it better than other narrators I could name. And she also handles accents pretty well too.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, it did. Lotz handles multiple narrative point of views very well, developing each narrator quite well. This is also the most diverse cast of characters I've seen in a book: male and female, old and young, every race and ethnicity under the sun. I rarely see that in fiction. It was definitely interesting.

Any additional comments?

You'll be intrigued to see where this story goes, though you'll be left wondering if even the author knows where the story is going as time goes on.

it was ok.....not as good as The Three

I think the use of multiple narrators worked really well in the Three, and while this reader did a good job, it would have been better with not just one reader for every character. I liked the ties back to the three, and the subtle horror that characterize both books. with that being said, I found the three to be much more creepy than this book and the characters more throughly explored and relatable. I was a little bummed with the ending. ...it was pretty much the same conclusion as the three, but less interesting because we have already seen it done. I think I would have liked this book more if I hadn't already read the three. it is probably still worth reading, if you have the time.

Slow... very slow.

I'm going to come clean right off the bat; I'm only around half way through the book. That being said, I feel like I could have jumped into the story right where I'm at and wouldn't have lost anything. The story is taking an agonizingly long time to develop, and the parts that are supposed to be "creepy" never really seem to hit that mark. Most of the content comes across as if I'm overhearing an incredibly uninteresting and mundane conversation held between people I couldn't care less about. As it progresses, I've found that those mundane conversations are becoming more and more annoying and hard to listen to. Right now I'm really struggling with finishing the book.