Emmy Laybourne

It was just a test report. Like one of many, many he'd written up in the past. Except this time, several of the test subjects are dead..." At first, Dr. James Cutlass had thought his new job at NORAD was thrilling and full of opportunities, but that was before the demonstration... "Dress Your Marines in White" is the story of the terrifying choices surrounding a chemical weapons demonstration gone horribly wrong. DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE is a new original science-fiction story from writer and actress Emmy Laybourne, who has appeared in movies like Superstar and The In-Laws and has performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and with UCB and Chicago City Limits. It is a prequel to her debut novel, Monument 14, which will be available on June 5th. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Tor.Com Original (Prequel to Monument 14)

Dress Your Marines in White

As seen on Caity Reads.

This was an interesting read. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but the downfalls far outweighed the good things for me. It was nice to get some background of the chemicals released in Monument 14. It was also fairly terrifying to think of a scientist creating compounds like these. Emmy’s writing is gross, and imaginary which is good. Especially for a story like this.

However, I had a few issues with this short story. First, the format in which is was written didn’t mesh well with me. I understood the three different font types were supposed to separate the story. A font for the present, a font for the past, and a font for the report James was writing. I understood the purpose, but with the three intermingled it was kind of weird.

Second, I was not a fan of the main character. James is the father of a character we meet in the first book, Brayden. He is a scientist that helped create and test the chemicals that are released in the first book. At the beginning of the story, James felt juvenile to me; talking about how “uncool it is to cry in front of pretty ladies”. And to top the cake off, he made a few comments when describing people that came off as rather racist. I’m not sure if this is what Emmy intended for his character or not, but either way it rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall, I would say this is wasn’t really necessary. Sure, you get a little hint at the history of the chemicals, but it wasn’t extremely informative. It really just shows you the first time they’re tested on humans. That being said, it’s super quick and free, so there’s not much to lose in reading it. It was interesting, and you get a really dark story out of it.

Dress Your Marines in White A Tor.Com Original (Prequel to Monument 14)

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