Plague Land (Plague Land Series #1)

by Alex Scarrow

Overview

A thrilling tale about one family's survival against a devastating virus that sweeps across the world and leaves the survivors touched by fire.

Leon and his younger sister, Grace, have recently moved to London from New York and are struggling to settle into their new school when rumors of an unidentified plague in Africa begin to fill the news. Within a week, the virus hits London. The siblings witness people turning to liquid before their eyes, and they run for their lives.

A month after touching Earth's atmosphere, the plague has wiped out most of the population. Desperate to stay alive, Leon and Grace are reluctantly taken in by a tight-knit group of survivors. But as they struggle to win their trust, the siblings realize that the virus isn't their only enemy, and survival is just the first step...

Perfect for those looking for:

• Pandemic fiction
• A thrilling plague book series
• Post-apocalyptic fiction
• Stories of survival in the wake of the apocalypse
• Books for teen boys

The complete Plague Land series:

• Plague Land
• Plague Land: Reborn
• Plague Land: No Escape

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492652106
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Series:	Plague Land Series , #1
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	221,736
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Award-winning author Alex Scarrow spent years as a video game designer before turning to writing. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed TimeRiders books for teens, as well as a number of adult thrillers. He lives in Norwich, England. Learn more at alexscarrow.com.

Editorial Reviews

"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... a thrilling family survival story, a clinical study of a fictional pathogen, body horror, and an action-packed dystopian narrative." - Booklist

"Terror, anxiety, and anticipation will flow rapidly through the veins of readers as they piece together clues...in this fast-paced horror." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The author does a nice job of providing readers with a vivid picture of how the people are affected by the virus, as well as suggestions on where it may have originated... fans of the sci-fi genre will enjoy this book." - School Library Connection

"A high-impact horrific thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seat and begging for the next installment." - School Library Journal

"Post-apocalyptic horror meets science lesson in this adrenaline-packed rocket ride of a novel...compelling and legitimately scary with an ending that teases the sequel perfectly. " - IndiePicks Magazine

"This dystopian novel will immediately engross and terrify readers with the gruesome details and hopeless plight of the main characters.


Despite the bleak situation, readers will be catapulted through the story, even if they are forced to wonder at nearly every chapter how the characters will get through the next grim challenge. This book is great for readers who enjoy apocalyptic and zombie reads.
" - VOYA Magazine

"Full of suspense, and lots of gore, this one will be a hit with teen fans of post-apocalyptic horror." - Brightly.com

From the Publisher

11/01/2017
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

School Library Journal

2017-09-26
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)

Kirkus Reviews

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