Infectious Reading: The Way We Fall Review

Although it often gets mentioned with dystopian or paranormal fiction, there is nothing speculative or sci-fi about this book other than the fact that the source of the disease is mysterious and there are 2 more books to come which may prove to be more dystopian. This is a “what if” story set firmly in reality.

Kaelyn lives on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia where a strange virus seems to have taken hold of the human population. Soon the entire island is under quarantine, communication with the mainland is down, and people start dying at an alarming rate. Kaelyn’s father, a microbiologist, spends every waking hour at the hospital, her brother is obsessed with finding a way off the island, and Kaelyn is left feeling helpless. Not one to sit around and wait, Kaelyn connects with Tessa, the aloof new girlfriend of her best friend, Leo, and Gav, a cute guy from school dedicated to delivering food safely to the residents. Among chaos and death, Kaelyn finds friendship, hope, maybe even love, but how long can it last?

Kaelyn is an excellent narrator, and I appreciated the glimpses into her past when  life was ‘normal’ which helped to shape my perception of her character and her relationships. My favourite character is Tessa, mostly because at the moment she is a bit of a closed book who just happens to have won the heart of Kaelyn’s best friend and crush Leo, who seems to be a stand-up guy (we haven’t met him…yet).

It seems like every book is part of a series (usually a trilogy) these days and there is nothing more frustrating than a first book that does nothing but set the scene and builds up to the real action which takes place in book two. Crewe avoids this nicely and yet leaves the reader with a very effective cliff hanger. The plot, like the virus, moves quickly and while there isn’t a culminating climactic moment there is a series of events- some plausible, some surprising- that make the reader feel like the events in the book COULD happen, which is almost more satisfying than a completely over-the-top fabricated storyline.

The diary/letter format works well. I never really believed that Kaelyn would end up sending the letter to Leo, but by imagining a particular listener it does focus the narrative nicely. Crewe has an intimate, breezy style that compelled me to finish the book in two sittings. Teens, especially slightly more grown-up fans of Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Moon Crash/The Last Survivors series, will eat this one up and clamor for The Lives We Lost, the next book in The Fallen World trilogy, due out next January.

The Way We Fall is available in hard cover from Disney Hyperion.

Plague is the New Dystopia: Trends in YA

Trend tracking is a delicate and tricky thing. The minute you stumble upon one, the trend seems to have passed. But I can’t ignore the number of YA plague novels that seem to be on the horizon. It can be argued (successfully) that plague books fall under the larger umbrella of dystopian fiction, but I find that in most cases, a plague is mentioned as the cause of the society’s current dystopian state, but the main action of the book takes place in the aftermath, not during the outbreak itself. There are also an awful lot of zombie novels that begin as plague novels, in which the zombies function as the plague, infecting the living.

I find outbreak stories genuinely terrifying, moreso than traditional dystopian novels. Plague books have an element of “this could really happen” because it HAS already happened, a number of times in history. Nothing is more leveling than disease.  I love scary books and I love trying to imagine what I would do if I was- god forbid- running around a plague-stricken city (currently knocking on all sorts of wood). Here are two of the most promising looking plague books on the market.

First up, Megan Crewe’s hotly anticipated THE WAY WE FALL (Disney/Hyperion), the first in a new trilogy. There’s been lots of pre-publication buzz for this book and I couldn’t be more thrilled for this young Canadian author. When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. Inspired by books like Stephen King’s The Stand, Doomsday Book (Connie Willis), The Plague (Albert Camus), and awesome middle grade title Life as We Knew It (Beth Pfieffer), this book promises to be like the movie Outbreak but with teenagers on the brink of adulthood. Honestly, what more do you want in a book?

Check out this GREAT trailer:

Bethany Griffin’s MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (Greenwillow), based loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, is due out in May. This creepy gothic novel takes place in a city that feels a little like Paris and a lot like New Orleans. A plague has decimated most of the world’s population and Araby’s father, a scientist, has discovered a mask that filters the air and provides protection. The only catch is that maniacal Prince Prospero controls who gets a mask and the masses can’t afford them.  Everything in the book oscillates between lavish and squalor- incredible gowns and balls and corpses rotting in the streets. I am not a love triangle girl (I maintain that Peeta and Gale exist to help Katniss fulfil her role and develop into the woman she will become, not as romantic polar opposites for her to agonize over. I will not comment on that *other* famous YA love triangle), but I admit to getting caught up in Araby’s struggle between manic genius and consummate bad boy with a cause Elliott, and works-all night-in-the-debauchery-district-wearing-sexy-eyeliner-in-order-to-support-his-orphaned-younger-siblings Will. If it’s not yet clear, I LOVED this book- full review to come later.

Both of these novels are by promising young authors who’ve taken a genre and made it their own. Plague books may be a close relative to dystopian novels, but there is something even more immediate and chilling about them. Let’s hope more authors get infected (sorry, I almost went an entire post without a bad plague pun) by this fledgling genre.