Plague Land Series, Book 1

October 15, 2017
A New Jersey teen transplanted to London survives a devastating new pandemic--but almost nobody else does. Leon's misery in his new British school seems like the absolute worst, until the dying begins. The plague starts as merely a series of nightmarish and unconnected deaths, but the disease spreads almost faster than rumor. Moments after infection, the victims begin hemorrhaging, and within hours they've been reduced to a bloody soup. Vignettes from alternate points of view show the advancing disaster, but to Leon, it's merely a fearful suspicion based on odd news stories. The conspiracy boards are alight: is this plague engineered by the CIA, North Korea, Mossad, Russia, aliens, or the Islamic State? With his mother and younger sister, Leon flees the city, but there's nowhere safe from the illness that's about to destroy all animal life on Earth. Cinematically gory imagery of melted bodies and twitching viscera punctuate Leon's months of survival as one of the last remaining humans. Leon is racially undescribed but seemingly white; the uneven representations of race, class, and culture rely on stale tropes. It's not clear if the sequel will be able achieve the gross-out levels of this opener, since there's not many humans left to liquefy. For fans of overwhelming and grisly carnage. (Horror. 13-16)

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November 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-A high-impact horrific thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seat and begging for the next installment. Leon and his sister Grace have recently moved to London, England, and Leon is finding it hard to fit in when rumors of a mysterious virus begin to trickle into the news. Within a week, the virus has arrived in London; witnessing people melting into liquid right before their eyes, Leon and his family go out on the run for survival. Within a month, the virus has wiped away almost every living creature on Earth. When Leon and Grace are taken in by a close-knit group of survivors, they start to wonder if surviving the virus was the easiest part of this nightmare. This fast-paced thriller is extremely intense and full of surprises, providing the YA horror genre with a wonderful postapocalyptic addition. Smaller chapters from all over the world showing the devastation of the virus creates a horrifying picture of mass destruction and a layered look at the plot. Adding to the multidimensional view of the story are small vignettes where the virus itself narrates and describes how it is evolving and replicating. Gratuitous graphic descriptions of death, including one where a young girl is burned alive, a murder/suicide scene, and an attempted rape make this a read for mature teens. VERDICT A strong choice for horror and sci-fi shelves.-Stephanie Wilkes, Good Hope Middle School, West Monroe, LA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Plague narratives have long served as allegories for unrestricted, indiscriminate forces that humanity has had to overcome or risk extinction. In the vein of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (1969), Scarrow's series starter centers on 16-year-old Leon, while interspersed vignettes show how a disease originates and evolves in West Africa. Vivid, gruesome descriptions of the epidemic are undoubtedly Scarrow's strong suit, and his video game design background is clearly evident. Plotting and character development do sometimes take a backseat to the shock value of gory descriptions. Even action sequences, which would seem a good fit for this kind of story, can be sloppy and tough to follow. The result incorporates elements of a thrilling family survival story, a clinical study of a fictional pathogen, body horror, and an action-packed dystopian narrative. None of these facets are fully fleshed out, but that doesn't mean readers won't find pieces of this to groove along to.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)