C for Creepy and D for Disturbing!

In a literary world where YA has come leaps and bounds (especially since I was a kid!), it is surprising to find a much older book within the genre that can compete with the great fiction that is out there right now. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien is a really great post-apocalyptic novel that was written for the YA genre decades ago; it is a trailblazer as far as I am concerned!

The story begins with a girl named Ann Burden who has been left alone in a small valley on her parents farm to survive the aftermath of nuclear war. She is surviving well enough between the fresh food from the farm and the dry and canned goods at the local general store. When her parents, brother, and owners of the store left last fall to find other survivors and never returned, Ann knew she had to keep going as she had in order to survive.

Her lonely but peaceful existence was shattered, however, when she spotted a campfire coming her way through the barren, destroyed landscape. When the mysterious man in a big plastic suit enters the valley, she hides, afraid of what kind of man he is. When he impulsively jumps into a contaminated creek and becomes sick with radiation poisoning, however, Ann decides to abandon her hiding place in order to help him. But after she nurses him back to health, she realizes he is not happy to just share the valley with her- he wants it all, including Ann.

I have read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction in the last 12 months, so it is hard to surprise me these days in this genre, but when the man gets better and starts actually hunting Ann, it was just so disturbing! The way it was written, the way he hunts her, and the sheer magnitude of being the last two alive in this second horror scenario, got to me! It was truly unnerving to see his calculation and deception as he ties up her dog to use for tracking her, locks the store where she is getting her supplies, and takes the keys to her tractor.

This was a really interesting story and quite easy to read with low vocabulary level and comprehension levels. But I don't think this would be a great story for middle schools students- it is just too creepy in a subtle way that gives you the shivers! It would be a GREAT book for an older student who has a low reading level but seeks mature reading material. Now I am going to have to stockpile a HAZMAT suit along with my canned goods, shelter, and ark! I have got to find some cheerier books!

Who Worries About the Moon?

I have been addicted to post-apocalyptic and dystopia fiction lately. In my literary travels, it has been hard to find too much PA or dystopian YA fiction, but I found a really great series with Susan Beth Pfeffer's The Last Survivors series. She has the sensitivity and understanding of a young adult author combined with the hard, stark truth of a post-apocalyptic author. It is a wonderful combination!


In the first book, Life as We Knew it, the story begins with a family in Pennsylvania. A meteor is scheduled to hit the moon, and the whole world is excited to witness the phenomenon. However, something goes terribly wrong, and scientists misjudged the size, density, and power of the meteor. When it hits the moon, it knocks it closer into Earth's orbit, causing a host of problems the world couldn't have fathomed. The pull of the closer moon on the tides causes tidal waves and tsunamis that ravage the coastal cities. The increased gravitational pull causes the earth's crust to weaken in spots where earthquakes ravage the world and volcanoes are created. The volcanoes are so numerous and powerful that they spew such acrid ash into the sky with such enormity that the sun is even blocked out, eventually changing the climate of the world.

Miranda tells the story of the meteor and her family's survival through a journal she is keeping. The family sticks together and manages to gather as much canned food as possible before the world really takes a nose dive. Thanks to the resourcefulness of Miranda's mother and her disciplined use of the food, they are able to make it through the summer and into the early winter, but they quickly start to run out of food. A flu epidemic ravages through the town and Miranda is forced to take care of her mother and both her brothers. But when they begin to run out of food, it looks like they will all starve to death...


In the second book, The Dead and the Gone, the story follows the impact of the moon's shift upon a family in New York. Alex Morales is forced to take care of his sisters, Bri and Julie, in anyway possible since his parents are presumed dead. His incredible faith and involvement in the church is both integral in his family's survival, and in the death of his sister. He must do things that go against everything he believes in to stay alive, but he does it with great burden and guilt. New York is slowly dying, and the people left inside might never be able to flee. The government is keeping the city alive long enough to save the dignitaries, the priceless artwork and artifacts, the history, but they aren't nearly as concerned for the people left behind. Finally, Alex realizes they have to get out, in anyway they can...


In the final book of the trilogy, The World We Live In, Miranda and Alex's stories come together. Miranda's father had left the east coast with his new wife to find her parents in the first book, but they return to Pennsylvania with other survivors: Alex, Julie, a friend named Charlie, and Miranda's new half-sister. Now the families must try to survive together, especially when there is barely enough to feed Miranda, her mother, and her two brothers. But they all come together and vow to make it work. However, Alex has other plans to take Julie to a convent in New York and leave her there. When everyone protests, he insists they stop being a burden on the family and seek out their own destinies. What he didn't expect was to fall in love with Miranda.

This is a great story, and I loved how the first two books are totally different stories that come together in the final installment. I liked the fact that the story was Miranda's journal in the first and third books, but I had to adjust to Alex's story being told in the third person. I was also skeptical of the strong religious aspects of the second book, but since their presence only revolved around Alex and his family, I think it was Pfeffer's representation of a faithful Latino family. I definitely liked Miranda's story more than Alex's, but that was because I could relate to Miranda's situation in rural Pennsylvania more than Alex's life in NYC. Overall, however, this was a great series for a variety of ages. It is talked about in many post-apocalyptic circles by adults, but it is written in a way to be appealing yet not overwhelming for the younger crowd. I think this is appropriate for a high-skilled middle schooler up to high school aged students. The books are fast reads and very interesting! But you may never look at the moon the same again...

Also, if you are interested, Pfeffer has a cute blog at http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com/

Imprisoned by Supreme Fantasy

Young adult fantasy novels have always been "light fantasy": the characters were easy to understand, the scenario or world was not terribly complex, and the plot was easy to follow. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher defies that generalization with gusto.

The story begins with two characters separated by what seems to be two entirely different worlds. Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. Incarceron is a prison that started as a hopeful experiment and centuries later is a heavily guarded secret of the true failure the living, breathing, vindictive prison has become. Centuries prior to the story, the prison was created and a group of intellectual and spiritual leaders entered with the prisoners, knowing the prison would then be sealed with no one to ever go in or out. The world then decided technology was the detriment of their society and forbid all technological advances and thrust themselves into the medieval ages.

Finn is in Incarceron and knows somehow that he was born outside the prison. He just knows he doesn't belong there. One of the spiritual leaders, a former slave, and Finn's blood brother join him in his quest to find a way out of the prison. But the prison knows everything. It hears them, taunts them, and tries to stop them. When Finn gets a key that creates some kind of portal to the outside, and Claudia steals the identical key from her father's office, they find out Finn might actually be right: he might have been the prince Claudia was once betrothed to, who was supposed to have been killed in a riding accident.

If this story sounds complex, you are spot-on. This is no whimsical fantasy novel for the light-hearted. This is for kids who made it through Lord of the Rings or Abarat. This is a very complicated story, and I had a lot of trouble following it at first. It is confusing how a key can throw a hologram, yet the Warden's daughter is riding horses to her arranged marriage. The whole abandonment of technology is confusing at first, but it makes sense when one sees a fearful society that is willing to do anything to survive. In fact, this story almost seems like two entirely different stories that don't even belong together: a self-imposed dystopia and a whirlwind fantasy. But eventually, they come together and make sense.

I would not recommend this for most students, especially those who don't particularly enjoy reading, because it is very difficult to follow at first. This is a great book, however, for a kid or an adult who really enjoys hardcore fantasy. It is truly a creative masterpiece of Fisher's imagination. I cannot even imagine being able to come up with a story like this!

Scalene Love Triangle

Brian Katcher's Playing With Matches is the story of an offbeat love triangle that John Hughes might have written if he had been 30 in 2010. The award for Best Actor goes to 17 year-old Leon Sanders, who is just trying to get through high school. He's not attractive, he's not cool, he doesn't make waves, and he doesn't want to.  He has a few (strange) friends, but he just wants to be with someone who understands him. Who doesn't? It's a classic story of boy vs. what society expects of him vs. himself.

When the lockers are reassigned at school one day, Leon finds himself next to Melody, who is also not attractive and not cool. In fact, she is universally shunned. "Like at any school, some people at Montgomery Zummer were universally shunned. That girl in the wheelchair. The guy with leukemia who was obviously going to get his own page in the yearbook before graduation. The retarded kids from the resource room. And Melody." Melody had been in an accident during childhood that left her with no ears, little hair, and an extremely scarred face. Something about Melody's shyness leads Leon to chance telling her a bad joke, which she finds hysterical, and the two begin spending some time together.

Leon is happy to have someone in his life who appreciates him for who he is; however, he is just sensitive enough to the social order at school to worry about what people think of him. At first, he and Melody hang out in private, and later he chances introducing her to his rag-tag group of friends, who immediately take her under their wing. When Leon and Melody become more than friends, her confidence grows as does his self-consciousness as he increasingly worries about what people will think. And just when you think he will work it out, he and Melody will forever be high school sweethearts, and the story is just too neat and clean...

Amy Green, the hottest girl in the school, uncharacteristically invites Leon to the prom. Leon's ensuing struggle as he tries to reconcile doing what is right and doing what is right for him is the stuff adolescence is made of. He tries to find a way to please everyone, but of course, that is never possible. Hearts. Will. Break.

This is the kind of novel that will remind you just how painful it can be to be 17 and how dangerous life can be if you dare to care about people. I won't give away the ending except to assure you that both Leon and Melody come out of the experience with a much more solid sense of self, and that is what we hope for all our young adults.

Dead-Tossed Companion

When I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, I was astounded how she could write a zombie novel that flowed like poetry and was full of beautiful imagery. Aren't zombies supposed to be gross and scary? But this book wasn't- it was like a whole new genre. So naturally, I was very excited when the second book came out to continue Mary's story, but when it arrived, the cover said "A Companion Novel." Companion?! I wanted more of the last story! But The Dead-Tossed Waves doesn't disappoint, I assure you. A new story, perhaps, but the ties to the first book are interesting and very creative on Ryan's part.

The book starts in the small village by the ocean called Vista. The Forest's Mary keeps to herself and raises her daughter Gabry (named after Gabrielle from the first book) in the lighthouse that protects the town from Mudo (zombies) that wash ashore. But Gabry and a few of her friends jump the barrier wall to go to the amusement park ruins. While there, a Breaker (fast-moving zombies that form when there aren't any slow moving Mudo around- designed to infect quickly) comes at the group. Two kids are attacked and turned instantly, others are infected, and all are in trouble by the guards of Vista. When Gabry sees her boyfriend, Catcher, bitten, she follows his advice and runs over the barrier and to the town so she won't be caught by the guards. The town doesn't know she was at the amusement park, but Gabry can't live with the guilt of what happened to her friends. When she goes to see her best-friend, Catcher's sister Cira, she promises to find Catcher before he turns.

On her travels, Gabry is saved from dormant Mudo by a boy named Elias. Elias keeps her safe and gets her to Catcher and back home, but doesn't want her to return. When she does return, she learns something she never thought possible: Catcher is immune. The virus is still in him, and he can walk among the Mudo unnoticed, but he hasn't become one of them. Now Catcher, Gabry, and Elias must rescue Cira and escape into the Forest they always thought was abandoned in order to keep Catcher from falling into the hands of the Recruiters who would do anything to keep an Immune for their own uses.

This is an amazing "companion" to the first to the first novel and picks up the story years after Mary with great ease. The transition gives the story the ability to grow with new characters without losing anyone who loved the first novel and its characters. Like in the first book, the zombies are not terribly scary or gory, but rather a backdrop to the real story that is full of hope and survival. Some criticize the ever-present romantic tangle Gabry finds herself in, but it didn't bother me much. Some of the descriptions could have been less flowery, but it wasn't overwhelming.

This is a great series for kids who are interested in post-apocalyptic literature or sci-fi but aren't ready for real gore or complexity. The language isn't overly complex, the plot-line is easy to follow, and the characters are interesting and easy to like or dislike. This is a good series for both boys and girls who are interested in this sub-genre. Give it a chance, but get ready to start building your barricade!

The Boy From the Basement

From Guest Author, E.K.

I usually don't like memoirs, but this specific one, The Boy From The Basement, got me interested. A boy named Charlie had a father who forced him to live in their basement. Charlie thinks he deserves to be in the basement because he did something wrong. The only time he comes up from the basement is at night when his father is asleep to sneak food and get a drink from the sink faucet. 

Charlie never saw things that were outside of the basement. He never had a chance to know what it felt like to go to school. He never had the family that he wanted, like the families that spend holidays with each other. He never got to see animals in wild. It must have been hard that he could not see things that other people can.

There’s a spider that Charlie imagines in the basement. When Charlie sees that spider in the corner he feels that it represents his father. When his father is on his mind the spider appears back in the corner. He feels that no matter what he’s doing his father is always watching him. Charlie thinks he’s not independent.

I can relate to the main character. The main character and I went through similar struggles when we were little. He didn't get enough food when he was living in the basement. The people in the orphanage did not provide enough food for me to eat. I feel that both of us were treated like homeless people. They did not give us the same respect as another family would give to their children. He would sleep on an old, moldy mattress that his father threw down the basement for him to use. What they did for me was put me in any ancient crib that would collapse any moment. 

As I read the book, I was curious about how the boy handled his problems. I wanted to know how he was treated by his father. I wanted to know if he eventually gained his freedom. This book answered those questions.

I would definitely recommend this book to young readers who might have had the same struggles as Charlie. If you like the Pelzer books about survival, this is in the same genre. This book can make you aware of the problems that some children are facing today.

How Far Would You Go to be Pretty?

I am a fan of post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels and often find myself searching for the next enthralling story. While searching through lists of PA books, I happened across the Uglies, a YA novel by Scott Westerfeld. I had seen this series before and was interested, but I had just never picked it up. Now that I knew it was about a dystopia, I was dying to read it!

Uglies starts in a city where a kid's 16th birthday is a big event- it is when a kid undergoes their surgery to become Pretty. Everyone wants to become Pretty so they can live in New Pretty Town, party all day, not worry about responsibilities and revel in their new Pretty selves. Well, maybe not everyone. Tally Youngblood misses her friend Peris who turned 16 and became Pretty months before she did. But now she has met a new friend, Shay, who teaches her to perfect her hoverboard riding, takes her to the Rusty Ruins (where they see our ancient cities as they deteriorate and mock our ravenous consumption of the world), and tells Tally of a place where kids go to escape the surgery- a place called the Smoke that is full of Uglies who fend for themselves and stay far away form the cities.

When Shay runs away, the Specials (Cruel Pretties) tell Tally she must find Shay and lead the Specials to the Smoke or she won't get her surgery. Desperate to become Pretty and join Peris, Tally goes to the Smoke, but she doesn't find what she expected. The Smoke is a place where everyone works for their fair share, people are free from the petty lives of Pretties, and the Specials aren't watching their every move. Tally must make up her mind: should she betray David and the Smoke or remain in the one place where she finally felt alive and free?

I have to say this novel was a little slow for me in the very beginning. All the descriptions of Tally and Pretty Town were interesting, but by no means gripping. The story didn't really pick up until half-way through when tally sets off for the Smoke. By this point, I was certainly hooked! The story does go quite quickly, and the premise is so interesting- a society where everyone is made to look the same in order to prevent racism and prejudice, but is really a ruse for the government to keep society "malleable". When the truth comes out, however, that the surgery changes their personality as much as their appearance, it is a fate worse than staying Ugly. I recommend this series for a kid who enjoyed Hunger Games. The language isn't overly mature or complex, the plot is very interesting, and it should grab a hold of any reader. Give it a chance and prepare to ask yourself which you'd rather be: a mindless Pretty or a Free-willed Ugly!