Michael J. Seidlinger is a Filipino American author of My Pet Serial Killer, Dreams of Being, The Fun We’ve Had, and nine other books.At The Lineup he tagged twelve underrated dark and extraordinary pandemic books, including:
Killing Williamsburg by Bradley SpinelliRead about the other entries on the list.
Spinelli’s debut novel sends us back to 1999 for one of the scariest possible pandemics of all: a mysterious disease that causes the infected to commit suicide. Simultaneously acting as a masterful piece of Brooklyn history, the novel depicts the freneticnature of hysteria in the extremely close quarters of a city like New York. Benson, our protagonist, witnesses each and every friend and acquaintance from his active nightlife catch the “Bug,” and decides to form a sort of DIY crew to take matters of containment and cleanup into his own hands.
Killing Williamsburg manages to take the apocalyptic and the party narrative and blend them into one with truly alarming results. The fact that a good chunk of New York City’s population was frequenting bars and restaurants up until the final hours before the citywide “shelter in place” only makes this novel more relatable.
--Marshal Zeringue
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