The Plague Land Trilogy by Alex Scarrow

The Plague Land Trilogy by Alex Scarrow is a science fiction horror series published by Sourcebooks Fire, 2017-2019.

Publisher's summary:

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

This series consists of three books:

1.  Plague Land, 2017
2.  Plague Land: Reborn, 2018
3.  Plague Land: No Escape, 2019

While the series is marketed as post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, it is actually science fiction horror.  That's an important distinction, because it lets readers know that this series will not conclude like typical post-apocalyptic fiction.  Readers should know for sure where the plot is heading by the beginning of the second book.  

While I enjoyed reading all three books, the plot is grim, much more so than the typical dystopian fiction.  Seriously.  These books are not for the faint-hearted and might be a bit disturbing even for many people who enjoy dystopian fiction.

Since the books are young adult, the grimness of the plot is bearable.  If these books were adult novels with the kind of graphic descriptions found in adult novels, I would not have been able to read them.  Since the graphic scenes are described minimally, I was okay with it.  A vague description of a character's horrific death is sufficient.  I prefer to avoid the gore.

Overall, this series is excellent, but it is tough to read due to the grim content.

The Warning and The Fallout by Kristy Acevedo

A two-book series by Kristy Acevedo was published by Jolly Fish Press in 2016 and 2017.

1.  Consider, 2016
2.  Contribute, 2017

The books were republished in 2023 by Sourcebooks Fire under new titles.

1.  The Warning, 2023
2.  The Fallout, 2023

The books are no longer available under their original titles.  The books must have been revised at least slightly when they were republished.  From The Warning, page 110:

I really hope I don't pass out and some custodian finds me naked on the gross tile floor.  Probably crawling with foot fungus.  E. coli.  COVID.  Ebola.

The term "COVID" originated in early 2020, so it would not have been present in a book published in 2016.  It must have been added to the new version in 2023.

Publisher's summary of The Warning:

The end is coming.  What would you do?  The first in a fast-paced and gripping YA dystopian series for anyone who's ever felt like their life—their world—is on the brink of destruction.

Like most high school seniors, Alexandra Lucas is caught between living in the moment and an unknown future.  Her anxiety disorder doesn't make that any easier.  But she's coping—until her train stops on the way home from a concert with her boyfriend.  At first, she's worried about breaking curfew.  Then terror echoes through their train car.

A mysterious doorway has appeared beside the tracks, and a hologram claiming to be a human from the future shares a sinister warning.  A comet is on a collision course with earth.  All life there will end in six months' time.  To survive, people must step through one of the many portals that have opened around the world.

The holograms claim to offer safety.  But how can anyone be sure?  Stay or go—everyone must make their own choice.  Alex's family, her friends, her boyfriend all have different ideas.  Alex is only sure of one thing: she wants to decide for herself. But every decision comes at a price.

These books fall under both the dystopian fiction and science fiction categories. 

Alex has generalized anxiety disorder and suffers from panic attacks.  Even minor stress causes her to have paranoid thoughts.  Significant stress makes her spiral out of control to where she can end up in the fetal position, shaking uncontrollably.  Some readers might find this aspect of the books to be either disturbing or annoying.  Those who suffer from anxiety will likely be able to relate to it. 

Here is one example from the first book.

Page 74:

You would think that remembering I forgot something would make me feel better, but instead it justifies my anxiety, which starts a loop in my brain thinking that I must be forgetting something else.

What else am I forgetting?  There's something else.  I know there's something.  Something.  Something.  If I forget it, something bad will happen.  Something really bad.  And I won't be able to fix it.

STOP IT.

The loop continues.

I dig through my dirty laundry, then open and close every drawer in my room, searching and double-checking for something to remind me what I could be forgetting.  My body sweats as I spin in circles. 

STOP IT.  Everything's fine.

But what if it's not fine?  What if I left an iron plugged in?  What if I start a fire?  What if I go fishing and then come back and the house is burned down?  What if my parents and Benji are burnt to a crisp and they have to use their dental records to identify the bodies?  What if the police think I did it on purpose?  What if—

I take a pill and wait for it to rescue me.

For me, Alexa's anxiety added to the suspense and even caused me some anxiety.    At one point in the second book, I quickly swiped through over 50 pages to verify what would happen with a certain character.  I just had to know in order to reassure myself.

I also worried that Kristy Acevedo was going to pull a Veronica Roth with her ending.  If you've read the Divergent Trilogy, then you know what I mean.  [Upon rereading this review prior to publication, I realized that I indirectly spoil the ending of the third book in the Divergent Trilogy, so if you care, then skip the rest of this paragraph.]  I will never read the Divergent books again because of how the third book ended.  I decided to have faith that Alex would make it out of the second book alive.  That calmed me down. 

The countdown in each book fuels the reader's anxiety.  Each chapter begins with how many hours remain before humans must make an important decision.  For instance: 

Chapter 7

Day 24: August—3,854 hours to decide

Each time I started a chapter, I took the number of hours and divided it by 24 to see how many days remained before the decision would be final.  For 3,854 hours, 160.6 days were left.

These books have some very unexpected twists.  I truly didn't know what was going to happen.

These are excellent books.  It took me just 4 1/2 days to read both books, and the books are moderate in length.  How fast I read is a good measure of how much I enjoy a book.  These books make for great reading.

The 5th Wave Trilogy by Rick Yancey

Alien books are not my thing.  However, last year, Amazon had a free chapter sampler of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, so I tried it out.  Even though the plot has to do with an alien takeover, what I read was enough like the typical zombie-driven young adult dystopian novel that I ended up purchasing the book.

In The 5th Wave, an alien mothership has arrived and is orbiting the Earth.  After 10 days, the mothership sends an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out all electronic devices.  Later, the ebola virus is used to wipe out most of the human population.  The aliens want the planet for themselves, so they must wipe out the entire human population.  The book follows the story of several humans who try to stay alive in the midst of the chaos.

The 5th Wave contains this great quote about books.

"Books? They're heavy and take up room in my already bulging backpack. But I have a thing about books. So did my father. Our house was stacked floor to ceiling with every book he could find after the 3rd Wave took out more than 3.5 billion people. While the rest of us scrounged for potable water and food and stocked up on the weaponry for the last stand we were sure was coming, Daddy was out with my little brother's Radio Flyer carting home the books."

I enjoyed The 5th Wave, but not quite as much as other dystopian novels.  Not surprisingly, it is because I don't like books about aliens very much.

The second book, The Infinite Sea, was published this month.  I found The Infinite Sea not to be as interesting as The 5th Wave, and I felt that the book was bogged down with too many details.  Throughout the entire book the question is posed as to why the aliens are not content with killing humans as quickly as possible so as to be finished with it.  Why are they killing humans in the cruelest way possible in order to inflict great emotional trauma?  Apparently, the aliens are killing people in a cruel fashion because they hate people—or something like that.  I'm not really sure that I completely understood.

Near the end of the book, there was a revelation about the aliens and what they were doing.  I think it was supposed to be shocking, but I had no reaction.  I didn't care.  I so very much didn't care and didn't see what it changed that I almost want to say what it is.  But since that might be a plot spoiler for people who might think it matters, I'll refrain.  My reaction was, "Whatever."  I don't see how it changed what had happened.  Maybe a little bit.  But I really don't care.

So this book lost me around halfway through.  I suppose I'll purchase the final book in the trilogy once it is released just to see what happens, but I'm rather ambivalent.