A Chronicle of Post-Contaminated Life

In a world obsessed with appearance and weight, it isn't a stretch to imagine a diet drink that really worked would become an instant phenomenon. In Em Garner's Contaminated, we see the unexpected outcomes of this obsession, and it ain't pretty!

Velvet bears the burden of her parents' relationship with ThinPro, the diet water everyone was obsessed with. When people around the country started going crazy, destroying and murdering at will, uncontrollable rage, an inability to feel or understand pain, everyone immediately thought the zombie apocalypse had begun. Kill at will was the standard reaction as the Contaminated began to attack. What they didn't realize until later was that the Contaminated, or Connies, weren't zombies. They were victims of something like Mad Cow disease after ThinPro illegally and unethically changed the source of its protein to animal discards from butchers and factories. They couldn't keep up with the demand for their product and it is better to mislead the public than lose money, right?! Well, that decision was catastrophic as those who drank the liquid became Connies and ravaged the country. Even the President wasn't spared.

Now Velvet takes care of her little sister, Opal, and works to support them, and scours the Connie Kennels each week in search of her mother. Her mother turned later than her father, so Velvet hopes she was spared the fate he most likely succumbed to- a bullet to the head. Once they figured out the source of the Contamination, labs were able to devise collars that would keep the Connies calm and able to be taken home to their families. Unfortunately, most families weren't interested in a rabid family member, so they left them to be shipped back to the labs from where they never returned. But Velvet wasn't going to let that happen to her mother, and when she finally located her, she was determined to bring her home. Unfortunately, the world wasn't ready for the Connies to be back amongst them. Velvet encounters more problems than she expected, not only with taking care of her mother, but also from the people around her. Velvet isn't someone to give in easily, though, and even though two years ago she couldn't picture herself doing the things she must do now, Velvet will do anything to keep the remainder of her family together. Anything.

The cover of this book looks pretty fierce, right? I'll bet you expect some serious "zombie" blood and gore scenes thanks to that cover. And the author praise on the jacket? "Relentlessly horrifying... a bone-chilling, riveting debut," says Ann Aguirre (who knows horrifying, and did it beautifully in the Enclave series). "Absolutely unputdownable" from Jennifer Armentrout. This all leads you to think of an action-packed story full of attacks, evasion, and survival. Sadly, that isn't what you are going to get from this book. Now, don't get me wrong, the book wasn't bad, but I was so confused by the complete lack of "zombies" or at least some wild Connies, that I found myself turned off by a book I might otherwise have liked had I not been misled. I am completely baffled by the billing that this book could at all compare to Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin or Charlie Higson's The Enemy or even Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth (which was must less crazy than the first two, but still had some zombie action). Instead, this book was all about the reconstruction and how everyone is moving on with their lives. There was one attack and a few flashbacks of news stories or an attack or two, but they were only back story- nothing to lead the plot. Instead, this is a story of hardship, family, and love and devotion, which I love, don't get me wrong, but could have been better with a little more of the action I expected to find. In fact, I think my disappointment jaded my opinion of the book, and I struggled to finish it as a result. 

Had I known this was a reconstruction book, and not expected something "relentlessly horrifying", I would have probably really liked this book. In fact, I really loved Velvet's character. She was one tough cookie. Even when adults tried to push her around or take advantage of her, she wouldn't back down. She was only interested in taking care of her sister and her mother, even if it meant being evicted from their government assisted apartment and moving back to their previously quarantined and now empty (and dangerous) neighborhood. I really liked this girl. She not only had guts, she was totally unapologetic about it. I only wished I wasn't swirling in disappointment when I started this book so I could have focused more on the pretty good story hidden inside. One complaint is that the story just ENDS! No real conclusion, no wrap-up, just done. I wonder if Garner expects to write a sequel, because there was no closure here. So if you are going to give this to a student, be sure to take the book jacket off- maybe then they would enjoy it. But this won't catch the attention of those action-craving boys, so I think the target audience is a little narrow. 

Rumors and Candidness Bring Keplinger to the Top

Do you remember the unfortunate girl in high school who carried the nickname "slut"? If you think back really hard, can you remember a shred of truth to those rumors? Did anyone actually know for a fact they had happened? Most likely not, and in Kody Keplinger's third novel, A Midsummer's Nightmare, we see a candid portrayal of a girl who starts off wearing that label like a badge of honor and eventually finds a little soul searching is all she needed to get to the root of her choices and actions.

Whitley suffers through each school year in order to make it to the summer- her only time with her father. Now that she has graduated, this summer is even more exciting. It is a chance to hang out with her dad, make cocktails, and relax, as opposed to the misery of living with her mother where her mom ignores her most of the time and only acknowledges her existence to complain about her father. At her last big graduation party, Whitley gives in to her drunken state and meets a guy who she wakes up next to the next morning. He was fun, and certainly good looking, but she is moving on from this place, and she doesn't plan on looking back.

When she gets to her father's place, she quickly realizes things have changed. He moved out of his condo and into a house, and he is engaged. For her father, who goes through girlfriends so fast Whitley doesn't even bother to learn their names, this is a huge development. But even worse, her dad's fiance has two kids. And despite the odds, that new stepbrother-to-be just happens to be the boy from the party the week before! As if things couldn't be any worse, Whitley is now going to be related to her latest hookup.

To drown her miseries in this fresh hell she has found herself in, Whitley submerges herself in the local parties and the local nameless boys. She doesn't care what their names are or who they are because they are just a good distraction, but when that distraction starts to have consequences, Whitley starts to see the ugly side of her reputation. She used to just enjoy the perks of all the male attention it garnered, but now the attention has gotten ugly, and borderline scary. But the one man she wants to notice her has no problem ignoring her for the entire summer- her father. And nothing she has done has gotten his attention. Yet.

This is the third book I have read by Keplinger, and I continue to be amazed by her candid writing style that puts the BS aside and focuses on the topics young adults really want to talk about. She isn't afraid to say things adults might be taken aback by or uncomfortable with, because her books aren't for adults- they are for the same teens they are written about. I find it a beautifully honest way to write and applaud Keplinger for sticking to her target audience with brutal honesty. I am sure most people will say these books are appropriate only for older teens because of the sexual content and alcohol use, but I challenge that premise by saying it is a candid picture of teen life that might make some teens think twice or at least encourage them to think differently about their lives and the lives of the people around them.

This book dealt with some hard situations, but the idea of being labeled a slut and publicly humiliated via social media was hard to bear witness to. Therefore, it should make you, the reader, uncomfortable. And the idea of a girl acting out, resorting to alcohol and bad decisions with boys to get her absentee parents to acknowledge her existence? That is the hardest thing to watch because you know how often it happens. Whitley certainly has a chip on her shoulder, and her selfishness is hard to reconcile with, but she is just the kind of flawed heroine we find ourselves relating to. This is another important book from Keplinger that tells the stories you might be too uncomfortable to tell to your teenaged girl. Keplinger isn't afraid to say what everyone is thinking, and I am grateful to have her books out there in the YA universe because of that fearlessness.

Such a Romantic Rush

High School is a battlefield and the kids are at war. What side would you be on? In Jennifer Echols' Such a Rush, we get the story of Leah Jones, a girl whose trailer park home and absentee mother have branded her, but she doesn't want to live up to that brand. In fact, she will take unbelievable risks to break out of that mold.


Leah's mother moves every time she gets a new boyfriend. Always a trailer park, which is almost always by an airport. When they moved to Heaven Beach, Leah decided to take control of her life and got a job as a receptionist at a small private airport. But receptionist wasn't enough for Leah; she wanted to fly. Forging her mother's signature, she gave Mr. Hall the money for a lesson (all the money she had) and demanded a lesson. Seeing the fire and love for flying in Leah, Mr. Hall took her under his wing and taught her to fly. Mr. Hall's sons, however, didn't think their father's generosity was as charitable as it sounded. They assumed Leah was paying for the lessons in a less than appropriate way. Why else would their old man be helping this girl?


When Mr. Hall dies suddenly, Leah's hope of becoming a pilot is gone along with him. No one else would take an almost 18 year old girl seriously as a pilot. She assumes Mr. Hall's business is gone, but when the twin sons, Alec and Grayson, return to Heaven Beach, they announce they are keeping the banner business going. Grayson wants Leah to continue on as a pilot, but she doesn't trust him or the longevity of his business. When Grayson blackmails her to not only fly for him, but to also date his brother Alec, she can't figure out what his motives are. But flying is more important to Leah than anything else in her life. So how far would she go to make sure she could fly?


Jennifer Echols has written books under the MTV imprint, and they are edgy, mature, and fun. They fall in the older realm of Young Adult books, and are best left for older teens in high school. There are some intimate scenes and graphic language, but none of it is filthy. But what Echols does best is appeal to those older teens who can smell BS a mile away. We all know teens are BS detectors of the most critical kind, so they require a book that doesn't patronize them or treat them as a children. They might not be "adults" yet, but they sure don't want to be treated like children. Echols' books are upfront, no nonsense, callin' it like it is, whether you want it or not. And this book is no different.


Leah's life with her flighty, always unemployed, leech of a mother in the trailer parks is a sad one. She is labeled the slut because of the way she dresses and her mother invited Leah's boyfriend to move in pretty much sealed the deal. But you know Leah is a proud, bright young woman. She takes the insults in stride and holds her head high. But internally, she struggles to see past how others define her. And she certainly doesn't take any crap from Grayson. I am going to say that I had a tough time with another female YA character falling for the absolute jerk, but I have come to expect it now. Of course, they always have a reason for acting like a toad, and the reason can be healed or fixed, but it doesn't change the fact that they treat these girls like crap and then the girls want them desperately. I wish we could have a romantic story that doesn't start with a verbally abusive male lead... ahhh... if only....


But Grayson's cantankerousness aside, this was an interesting story. I loved Leah and everything she stood for, even in the face of a world where the only person who ever cared about her was basically a stranger and who passed away. The grief Leah suffered at his loss was touching and quiet, as she felt she didn't really have a right to grieve the same way his sons did, even though she spent more time with him than they did. This is still a mature book better left to older teens. It is fairly romantic and emotional and would probably appeal to older girls most. But the best thing about Echols? She is a BS free zone!