Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian – Page 2

Horror, Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Contaminated 2: Mercy Mode keeps the pressure on!

Posted on September 26, 2014September 26, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Contaminated 2: Mercy Mode, by Em Garner (Egmont, Sept. 2014), $17.99, ISBN: 9781606843567

Recommended for ages 14+

Contaminated 2 picks up right where Contaminated left off – the government is closing in on all the Connies, taking them – and sometimes, their families – away to testing facilities. Horror stories abound. Soldiers routinely test citizens for any sign of contamination, whisking them away if even the propensity for contamination shows up.

Velvet, her sister Opal, her boyfriend, Dillon, her mom, and an elderly neighbor are living in Velvet and Opal’s home, scavenging supplies from nearby homes and trying to live on the quiet and stay off the government’s radar. Her mother is showing huge improvements, including conversation, cleaning, even cooking and knitting. Life is still hard, but Velvet knows they have more than so many.

It can’t last, though – soldiers come and burn down the house to smoke Velvet and her family out. She finds herself a test subject in one of the labs she’s heard horror stories about, where a doctor puts her through test after test. As Velvet – and readers – figure things out, the book becomes all-consuming. Will Velvet escape? What secret are the doctors hiding? Will anything ever be the same again?

The fantastic character development we got in Contamination continues here in Mercy Mode. Velvet grows as a character, but we start getting more information about her parents, which really fills in some gaps. I would like to have learned a little more about what caused her mom’s improvement, which tends to be explained away as “remarkable”, but that’s not an issue that will affect your enjoyment of the book; rather, it’s fodder for book discussions that SHOULD take place after reading this series.

Is there going to be a third in this series? The way the second book leaves off, it could go either way. But man, do I have a wish list of things that I want to see if there is.

Em Garner’s author page has links to social media and information about her books and appearances.

Horror, Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen, Uncategorized

Contaminated: A YA tale of horror and infection

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Contaminated, by Em Garner (Egmont USA, 2013). $9.99, ISBN: 9781606843543

Recommended for ages 14+

If losing weight was easy, everyone would be thin – or so the saying goes. But when the diet drink ThinPro hits the market, no one can argue with the results – it tastes pretty good, too, so people are drinking the stuff like it’s Gatorade. One huge problem, though – to keep up with demand, the manufacturers start messing around with the formula, and it becomes tainted with something like Mad Cow Disease. And that something makes holes in people’s brains, contaminating them and turning them into rage-fueled maniacs.

Contaminated begins in the aftermath of this outbreak that left most of the US decimated. The Contaminated – called “Connies” – have largely been put under control by the government; first, through forced lobotomies, now, through the use of collars controlled by electrodes put into captured Connie’s brains. Velvet, a 17 year-old who lost her father and mother to the Contamination, has been struggling to take care of herself and her 10 year-old sister ever since the outbreak. She constantly checks the neighborhood kennel, where Connies have been released to be claimed by family members, for her mom. One day, she finds her and brings her home.

The thing is, the government is keeping a lot of secrets now, and there are whispers that the Contamination isn’t under control. Connies are being taken into custody again, whether or not they’ve been claimed by family, whether or not they’re contained by their collars. Velvet struggles to keep her family together and her mother hidden, especially when Velvet realizes that her mother is improving. As her Pennsylvania neighborhood becomes more and more of a police state, how will she keep her family safe?

This isn’t a zombie tale, the walkers aren’t back from the dead. It’s an infection tale, rooted in a concern over what we’re putting in our bodies and what this stuff really does to us. The infected are rage-zombies, if anything; they lose the ability to connect with society and just want to inflict violence. We get the story through Velvet’s eyes as she lives through the fallout of the infection. She’s a teenager forced into adulthood too fast, with a 10 year-old sister who frustrates the hell out of her, but whom she loves and clings to for a sense of normalcy in the middle of insanity. She fights to keep her sister in school, even though she questions what the heck school is going to do for anyone now, in this new era humanity is in. She works awful jobs to keep her family afloat. She has the added burden of caring for her mother, a shell of a woman retrieved, like a stray animal, from a shelter. It’s a tense story, it’s a story of survival, and finally, it’s a story about family.

Short story: I LOVED this book. While Velvet is the only character that is really developed, she’s all we really need, because it’s HER story. The situation? Frighteningly plausible and will make you look at that weight-loss drink a lot more differently. If you’re into post-apocalypse stuff, grab this book, but don’t expect Walking Dead scenarios with walkers taking bites out of people in the streets. Like the best zombie stories, this is a story about how humans cope with the end of their world.

Horror, Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Quarantine 3: The Burnouts brings the post-apocalyptic trilogy to a tense end

Posted on May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Quarantine 3: The Burnouts, by Lex Thomas, Egmont USA (2014). $17.99, ISBN: 9781606843383

Recommended for ages 14+

The third book in Lex Thomas’ post-apocalyptic series continues the story of Will and David, the brothers from McKinley High, where the kids are quarantined in the wake of a disastrous infection. Lucy, the last of the group from the previous book, is still inside – for now – trying to survive, and Hilary, who’s finally, completely, snapped, brings a reign of terror with her as she takes control of the school and all the gangs within it.

The publisher has called this series “Lord of the Flies in a 21st century high school setting”, which is spot-on. The kids inside the school have split into factions that fight to survive life inside the school. It’s a no-man’s land where children will do whatever they are forced to in order to make it to “graduation” – when the disease breaks and they can leave the building, assimilating into life on the outside.

I couldn’t put this book down. It’s got action, fantastic pacing, strong characters, and pulls no punches in its storytelling. There are references to sex, pregnancy, drug abuse, and violence throughout the book, so if any of these are issues for readers, this isn’t your book. It’s a powerful, gut-wrenching book that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you read.

The world in Quarantine isn’t safe inside or outside the McKinley walls – on the outside, there are those who want to destroy what the citizens have put together. They want to destroy the school and destroy the disease that rages on within its walls. The citizens on the outside – the families of the children inside – have to fight to stay alive and keep their kids alive.

The book hits shelves on August 22nd. In the meantime, check out the first two books: Quarantine: The Saints and Quarantine: The Loners and get ready.

Fiction, Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Alena Graedon’s The Word Exchange: an all-too plausible dystopia.

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon. Doubleday Books (2014), $13.99, ISBN: 9780385537667

Recommended for 18+

While Alena Graedon’s The Word Exchange isn’t written for YA/New Adult audiences, I wholeheartedly believe that these readers should read it, much in the way that they should read (if they haven’t already) Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. Alex Awards, are you listening?

The Word Exchange takes place in an entirely believable, very near future. Society is too plugged in – smartphones appear to have morphed into devices called Memes, which think for you. Well, not really – but kind of. They anticipate what you want to do – hail a cab? Order a coffee? – and even offer you words when you can’t think of the word you’re looking for. Ana, a young woman who works with her father, Doug Johnson, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL, for short), uses her meme – something Doug has no patience for; he feels like books and language are a disappearing art. He has no idea how right he is.

There’s a virus – WordFlu – that’s erasing language, stealing it from the populace. They start by bungling words here and there, eventually devolving into gibberish, silence, and ultimately, death. When Doug goes missing, Ana goes on the search for her father and finds herself in the middle of something far greater than she, Doug, or the Dicionary could ever be – could there really be a plot in place to erase language?

Told in the form of journal entries by Ana and her friend, Doug’s associate Bartleby (also known as Horace), The Word Exchange examines what would happen in a society that leaves entirely too much to technology. It’s very unsettling, because it’s only a step or two from where we are now. Imagine if someone were to create an app that let you think of the word that was on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t remember, for pennies a download? Now imagine if you had a Seamless or taxi service available to you without even picking up your phone or pulling up your app? Those bothersome clicks and pokes to the touchscreen would go away, because your Meme would do all the work for you. Would society really hand over the reins so easily?

The book starts slowly, laying groundwork – the mystery of Doug’s disappearance happens fairly soon in the book, but Ana’s search builds until about halfway through the book, when the action just explodes. Layered and tautly paced, this book was unputdownable for the second half. She’s got complex, three-dimensional characters, and a plot that chilled me to the bone just thinking about it – because it could happen. Very easily.

Teens and young adults should be reading this book, because they’re the next generation – they’ll appreciate the setting and hopefully, the message that Ms. Graedon delivers. It’s a fantastic book discussion group title that explores technology, morality, and the politics of doing business in an increasingly online world. I loved this book and can’t wait to see some of the discussions that evolve around it.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Teen

Ann Brashares The Here and Now gives us time travel and dystopia.

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

There Here and Now, by Ann Brashares. Random House Children’s (2014), $18.99, ISBN: 9780385736800

Recommended for ages 14+

Ann Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, gives us a well-constructed story with dypstopian elements, time travel, and a race through the past, present and future to stop a terrifying future.

Prenna is a 17 year-old Traveler – she, her mother, and a group of her people came to our present time to escape a future where a blood plague ravaged the population. The Travelers live under a restrictive list of rules that appear to exist more for their power-hungry leaders rather than the actual good of the people (or the Natives – people in the right timeline – that the rules are supposed to protect). When Prenna finds herself growing closer to her friend Ethan, she starts questioning not only the rules, but the entire structure their society was built on – and she and Ethan find themselves drawn into a race against time to put a stop to the dismal future from which Prenna came, all the while pursued by the leaders who want to silence Prenna, possibly for good.

The Here and Now has elements of The Giver – the post-apocalyptic society governed by rules really spoke to me – and is one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I needed to know what was going to happen next; Ms. Brashares constructed a compelling narrative with enough mystery to keep me going for that famous “one page more”. Within the overall story structure, there are mini-mysteries that the two teens have to unravel to get the next piece of the puzzle; add to that the internal conflict Prenna feels at duty to her family and the love she and Ethan feel for one another, and you have a great read for teens that can spawn interesting conversations about the implications of time travel: what would happen if you went back in time and changed things, even if they were for the better? What kind of society would develop if a blood-borne plague spiraled out of control? More than a teen romance, The Here and Now offers the opportunity to draw teens into complex conversations about the world around them.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen

Book Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan (Random House, 2009)

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 14+

Mary and her brother Jed live in a post-apocalyptic world, in a small village overseen by the Sisterhood and the Guardians. The Sisterhood is the reunion of church and state, a governing body that rules through their faith. The Guardians keep them safe from the Forest of Hands and Teeth, always outside their gates.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth refer to the zombies that wander, ever-present, just outside of the settlement. When the settlement fences are breached, Mary, her brother and a small group of survivors escape and seek the ocean, where Mary believes they will be able to start over. But they have to make it through the forest first.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is one of those books that has layer upon layer of complex storytelling, all centered around the main character, Mary. Ms. Ryan explores her relationships – with her mother, her brother, her best friend, fiance, and his brother, her true love – against the backdrop of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. She is an obsessive character, driven by her drive to question. What lies beyond the settlement? Are there more settlements, more people, out there? What secrets does the Sisterhood keep from everyone? Where is the ocean, that her mother raised her on stories about? At times, the character appears cold and self-serving; she is single-minded in her purpose.

As the first in a post-apocalyptic series (The Dead-Tossed Waves and The Dark and Hollow Places are the sequels), the book is bleak but compelling. It doesn’t focus on the zombie horror, but it’s an ever-present threat that crawls down the reader’s spine and makes one’s heart beat with a sense of urgency at key points.

Author Carrie Ryan writes for middle grade and young adult readers, and has a full list of work available on her website, where readers can also follow her blog, follow her on social media, find out about appearances and news, and download icons, buttons, banners, and bookmarks.

Horror, Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Teen

Book Review: Ex-Heroes, by Peter Clines (2012, Crown)

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 16+

Peter Clines’ Ex series, beginning with Ex-Heroes, is one of those series created for adults but easily crosses over into the teen readers’ market. It provides an interesting new take on the zombie apocalypse, with this universe offering superheroes who continue protecting humanity by creating a haven in an abandoned Hollywood movie lot for survivors.

As with the best post-apocalyptic/zombie tales, the interplay between people facing the end of the world is what makes Ex-Heroes compelling reading. You not only have survivors, The survivors are split into those inside the sanctuary and those outside – inside the sanctuary, we have the superheroes – metahumans – and “regular” people. Outside, there are predatory gangs that have turned the surrounding areas into their kingdom. They try to infiltrate or sabotage the heroes’ camp and supply runs, but have been largely unsuccessful until they find themselves with a terrifying advantage that could destroy everything the heroes have striven to build. Add in the fact that within the sanctuary, there’s dissension in the ranks as more and more people find themselves uneasy about being governed by superpowered individuals, and you have a the makings of a compelling post-apocalyptic saga.

The best zombie stories are not so much about the undead, but about the survivors and how people break down – or endure – life at the end of the world as they know it. Here, Ex-Heroes shines. The relationships between heroes is complex to begin with, and the stress of the situations around them, added to the fact that there are now superpowered undead to compound the situation, amp up the action and the desperation. We get origin stories and back stories for the major heroes: Stealth. Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. and The Mighty Dragon, and the action shifts pretty seamlessly from past to present, giving us a full picture.

While written for adults, Ex-Heroes is an accessible book for teen audiences who enjoy horror/post-apocalypse fiction. The violence is not gratuitous and while there are allusions to sex and some language and overall content, I see no reason why a mature teen would not be able to read and enjoy this book.

Ex-Heroes is the first book in Peter Clines’ Ex series, which also includes Ex-Patriots, Ex-Communication, and Ex-Purgatory.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: The Giver, by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, 1993)

Posted on December 9, 2011December 10, 2011 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 11-14

In the dystopian future, there is no more war, disease, or poverty. There are no choices, either – in 12-year old Jonas’s community, spouses are assigned to one another, children are assigned to families, and children’s milestones are pre-selected and celebrated once a year. At age seven, they receive jackets that button in the front. At the age of nine, they receive bicycles. At the age of 12, they attend the Ceremony of Twelve, where they are assigned their careers. Jonas, who has been experiencing feelings that has made him feel different from his peers, is assigned to be the Receiver of Memory – the sole repository for the collective memories of the community. He begins to work with the outgoing Receiver, now called The Giver, to receive the memories and learns disturbing truths through both the memories and the truths he begins to see in his daily life in the village.

The Giver is one of those books that sticks with you, changing the way you think about things. What price is a group willing to pay to live in a perfect, ordered society? Jonas, in receiving memories, plays the part of Adam in the Garden of Eden – he receives knowledge, and with knowledge comes confusion. Is his community right because they don’t know better? He begins to question everything around him and everything he’s ever known; when he sees his father commit an act in the course of his daily work that he finds unspeakable, the last vestiges of what he believes in are thrown into chaos.

The Giver is one of the most challenged books books in middle schools across America, usually for its portrayal of euthanasia (but also for what has been considered a sexual reference). Regardless of its challenges, it remains a popular and important middle-school book that speaks to the power of free will and choice. There are many lesson plans for this book on the Web, including this comprehensive one from the Mountain City Elementary School District in Tennessee. The book won the 1994 Newbery Medal and the 1996 William Allen White Children’s Book Award and has been designated an American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Children’s Book. The Giver is the first in a 3-book series that includes Gathering Blue and Messenger.

Lois Lowry is an award-winning YA author; she has received numerous awards, including two Newbery medals (for The Giver and Number the Stars). Her website lists all of the awards she’s won in addition to offering book information, a biography, her blog, her photos, and copies of her speeches.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, 2008)

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 12+
Welcome to Panem, the post-apocalyptic United States of America, divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Every year, two “tributes” between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected from each district to take part in a brutal contest called The Hunger Games, where they fight to the death. There is only one winner. Sixteen-year old Katniss volunteers to her district’s tribute after her 12-year old sister’s name is drawn.

The Hunger Games is the brutal version of a reality game show – think of Stephen King’s (written as Richard Bachman) novel, The Running Man and you’ll have a good frame of reference. The tributes are given mentors – former winners, condemned to preparing future tributes for the games – and stylists to make them look good. The contestants have to project personality in the week of interviews and preparation so that they have a chance at receiving help from sponsors, who can send food, medicine, and supplies to their contestants during the games. The games are televised for all the districts to watch. Katniss struggles to keep her humanity in the midst of the game and rails against being the Capitol’s pawn.

The book moves at a breathtaking pace with an intensity that starts mere pages in and doesn’t let up until the book’s end. The main characters have a good base for character development that will likely continue in the two following books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay; the others are as developed as they need to be in order to further the story and keep the pace. Ms. Collins makes her point about valuing bloodsport over humanity as eloquently as she is brutal in several key scenes in the book. With a strong mix of violence and compassion, boys and girls have both seized on this series and catapulted it to the top of their reading lists. Katniss emerges as a heroine not only for her strength but her ability to retain her sense of self in the middle of the games. She is a complex, conflicted heroine who resonates with ‘tweens and teens alike.

The Hunger Games has won multiple awards and honors. It is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal besteller, and was one of Kirkus and School Library Journal‘s Best Books of 2008. It is an Americna Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Book and one of the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) Teens Top Ten for 2009. Lionsgate Studios will release a movie based on the book in March of 2012.

A comprehensive wiki exists for the series and the author’s website offers author and book information. There are many teacher’s resources for teaching the series available on the Web, including Scholastic’s and Hunger Games Lessons.

Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau (Yearling, 2004)

Posted on November 7, 2011December 10, 2011 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12
A post-apocalyptic novel, The City of Ember begins with The Builders, who created an underground city that would save humankind from an assumed environmental catastrophe. The city was to last for 220 years, at which time they hoped it would be okay to return to the surface. They created Instructions to leave Ember, which they gave to the Mayor, to be passed down to every Mayor until it was time; the box containing the Instructions would then open.

The box was lost after the seventh Mayor tried to force the box open.

In the year 241, the City of Ember is failing. They are running out of food and supplies and there are rolling blackouts that last for longer stretches each time. There are whispers that the generator is failing. Because the population of Ember does not know their above-ground origins, they do not know that there is another choice. Lina and Doon, two 12-year old residents of Ember, learn about some of Ember’s secrets, like the stores of food available to those who know the “right people”. Lina also happens upon a document long hidden in her grandmother’s closet; torn into shreds by her baby sister, she tries to unravel the mystery and thinks she has happened upon a way to leave Ember. Will anyone other than Doon believe her, or will the Mayor and the police try to keep them quiet?

The book tells an intelligent story with fairly well-drawn characters. Ms. DuPrau does not speak down to her audience, but I do wish she had fleshed out the characters a bit more; the Mayor, for instance, is the typical bloated, corrupt politician; Lina’s grandmother’s memory is slipping away, but she remembers that there is something lost that she must find before she dies; the police are one-dimensional, just-following-orders good/bad guys. The overall story, however, is solid and compelling – what happens to a society if their lights go out for good?

The City of Ember is the first in the Books of Ember series and was made into a movie in 2008. Designated as an American Library Association (ALA) Notable book, the book has received Kirkus Editors Choice status and was awarded the 2006 Mark Twain Readers Award. The author’s website offers information on all of Ms. DuPrau’s books, a biography, and an FAQ. The site also offers the chance for visitors to solve a puzzle similar to the document in City of Ember.