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Summary
Summary
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. When it happens, Alex was hiking in the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom--a young soldier--and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-Ilsa Bick sets the stage for an evocative, chilling, and brutal trilogy with her apocalyptic tale (EgmontUSA, 2011). Alex, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, has retreated into the wilderness when an electromagnetic pulse flashes through the sky, destroying all electronic devices and computer systems and killing many people. Even worse is the fact that some of the kids that remain have been "changed." They are now brainwashed and have an appetite for human flesh. Alex bands together with two other survivors-Ellie, and eight-year-old girl, and a soldier named Tom. Adventure ensues as this makeshift family tries to survive the harsh winter and avoid running into any of the "changed." After arriving in a town of organized survivors, Alex finds herself torn between choosing her own destiny and taking the safety offered to her. Characters are well drawn and believable as they try to theorize what has happened. Fans of Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" and Michael Grant's "Gone" series will appreciate the eerie feel of this novel and the vivid, gruesome imagery. Katherine Kellgren's stellar performance brings energy and intensity to the narration, giving all the characters distinct voices. A must-have for all young adult collections.-Rebecca Flannery, Lyman Memorial High School, Lebanon, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bick delivers an action-packed tale of an apocalypse unfolding, launching a trilogy with flair. While camping in a national park in Michigan, 17-year-old Alex, a girl coping with a brain tumor and the side effects of its treatment, survives a series of electromagnetic pulses that may have taken out the entire world. Miles from nowhere, she hikes with new companions-an obstinate eight-year-old orphan named Ellie and a young soldier named Tom-as they try to make sense of things. Aside from wrecking their equipment, the pulse has killed most adults and morphed young people into psychotic flesh-eating monsters that are soon dubbed the Changed. Alex is different, too (her formerly dead sense of smell is now nearly supernaturally strong), and the companions worry about their own potential to "Change" as they attempt to find other survivors. Bick (Draw the Dark) doesn't shy away from gore-one woman's guts "boiled out in a dusky, desiccated tangle, like limp spaghetti"-but it doesn't derail the story's progress. If readers have any complaint, it will be with the ending, which only sets up the next book. Ages 14-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
An electromagnetic pulse kills most of the country's population instantly; many of those left become zombielike, "brain-zapped" cannibals. Survivor Alex teams up with eight-year-old Ellie and soldier Tom to search for other people. The trio's deepening bond adds to the already high tension. This horror/survival story (with extremely graphic violence) presents an intriguing take on zombie fiction. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When civilization ends and you're faced with an army of face-eating, nuclear-mutant zombies, having a brain tumor doesn't seem so bad.Alex, orphaned, 17 and dying, decides she's sick of pointless chemo. She bugs out of school for a backpacking trip in the wilderness, determined to make her own end. Just a few days into her trip something terrible happens: A horrible, screeching pain knocks her senseless, kills an elderly backpacker and sends scores of dead birds falling from the sky. Wild dogs in the area seem to have run mad, and did Alex actually see two teenagerseatingan old woman? Along with two fellow survivorsbratty middle schooler Ellie and Tom, a young soldier on leaveAlex seeks safety. Alex and Tom are both outdoorsy, but for every cache of weapons and MREs they find, another horrible event takes place. Their gun-toting survivalism only keeps them safe for so long in a post-apocalyptic America in which most of the other young people have been Changed to cannibals. The requisite creepy cultist village raises excellent questions of trust and society. Alex can't survive on her Glock alone; she needs supplies, knowledge, allies and affection.Splendidly paced apocalyptic zombie horror ends with a thrilling, terrifying cliffhanger and a number of unresolved mysteries.(Horror. 12-15)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Seventeen-year-old Alex is alone on a Michigan mountainside when electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) released into the atmosphere above Earth shut down power and communications grids, trigger nuclear devices, and turn most adolescents into flesh-eating zombies. She eventually finds herself safe or so she thinks in Rule, where a council of church elders holds sway. But Rule is a town of factions and unease, and what Alex discovers about its undercurrents may kill her. This is an affecting postapocalyptic tale that divides its time between survival story and horror, as when readers encounter the vividly described results of the EMPs and zombie attacks. Bick understands the effects (and affect) she produces, though, and offsets such moments with ordinary things like falling in love, feeling safe, and even fishing. The consequence of the focus on action and incident is limited characterization, but an open ending reassures fans that there will be other opportunities to know Alex and to unravel the mystery of Rule.--Welch, Cindy Copyright 2010 Booklist
