Strange Days

This gritty psychological journey displays the torment twenty-one-year-old Skye Cassidy endures when a pandemic decimates the population and all seems lost. She is determined to live, but will she survive with her sanity intact?

Skye has just celebrated her twenty-first birthday with her parents and best friend when she hears about the deadly flu-like illness sweeping the country. Before long, the ERs and physician's offices are being overwhelmed and entire areas have been quarantined.

As more and more seats around Skye in class or at the café where she works become empty, she realizes the sickness has made its way to them. Abruptly all the schools close their doors, and many jobs shut down as well, including her own. Soon after, the utilities fail and gas and food become scarce as the sickness reaches epidemic proportions, causing the critical infrastructures to collapse and transportation to grind to a halt.

Skye continues to live while nearly everyone around her perishes, and struggles to adapt while scavenging for what she needs. Finally, in desperation, she sets out on a journey, following the faint sound of a faraway voice on the radio.

Strange Days is a compelling tale of courage and strength in the face of unfathomable loss and the hope for a salvation that seems out of reach.

"When everything is lost but hope, Skye is forced to rebuild her life anew. She has two choices before her: to succumb to misery or to be part of a bold new future. This is a captivating story of tragedy, loss, and a triumphant rebirth." — Esther Wairimu, San Francisco Book Review

"A grim, compelling tale of survival, Strange Days by Sharon Mikeworth takes a fresh angle on apocalyptic fiction. This is a book highlighting the loneliness of the human experience, which is powerfully conveyed even without the context of an epidemic. … Mikeworth's insight into human nature is visceral, particularly for readers who have struggled with solitude, trauma and loss. Though this vision of the future is a troubling one, Strange Days works to remind readers of their humanity, and humility, and perhaps spark greater appreciation for all that they already have, and all that they take for granted." — SPR