Tim Meyer’s 69 is a well-paced, chillingly atmospheric horror novella set in a New Jersey assisted living facility. Amanda is sent to investigate why all of the 69-year-old residents of Sping Lakes have slipped into “living dead” comas, complete with rigor mortis. They’re alive, barely, but possessed by something. The evil baddie of 69 eats memories, and uses your worst ones against you. While cosmic horror is at the root (pun intended ) of the residents’ problems, the underlying terror of 69 is the real-life horror of losing a loved one to the slow mental decline of Alzheimer’s disease. Meyer’s storytelling skills are top-notch.
