Adam, Paul, Mark, Erika and Caitlyn….all of them attend Mooringham Boarding Academy. These students have a web of relationships from enemies to friends, love to hate. The one thing that binds them together is the solitude of the Academy. Cell phones don’t have signals, and the nearest town is a long walk no student is interested in. But the academy has more than enough to keep their students academically challenged, well-fed and healthy. Mr. Harrison, the headmaster, is not very pleased with Paul, the newest student to the Academy. Together, they possess a relationship of disdain and noncommittal acknowledgement of each other.
One day, Mr. Sutton, a mild-mannered science teacher, take his students out to the fields to find insects and it’s here where one of his students encounters a peculiar beetle. And that single small beetle is the beginning of the nightmare for those who survive the rampant horror and death at Mooringham Boarding Academy.
Those who are lucky aren’t bitten. Those who are begin a strange metamorphosis. Their skin begins to turn silver and their veins look more like tech cables. Slowly, the bitten are losing their humanity to become zombie-like cyborgs with one mission in mind – create new machines for the collective. Adam uses his brute strength to fight while Paul becomes a leader through quick thinking. Mark lets his intelligence protect him and the others while Erika’s physical traits gets her further along in the game. And then there’s Caitlyn….
If you have readers who need the next sci-fi for young adults, hand them this book. A page-turner from start to finish, Wooding comes back into the world of YA with another great story that will create even more followers to his other books. The imagery he writes about is one that I could easily picture in Technicolor in my mind. Wooding runs that gamut from horror to romance, nanotechnology to humanity in one thrill fest of a read. What is equally rewarding are the characters Wooding creates, which makes this a read for both genders. It left me with the question, “Will there be a sequel?” Recommended for JH-HS
Paired fiction: Variant by Robison Wells Being by Kevin Brooks
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-mQi9MlKVA
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