[[megan-crewe-sm]]Having always been an outsider on her small island resort-town, Kaelyn is heartbroken when she lets her ex-best friend sail away to New York without fixing what’s broken between them.

To keep herself grounded, she pours her heart into a journal of everything she wants to tell him when he returns.

But when a mysterious virus mutation sweeps through her home, attacking young and old alike, her journal is transformed into an historical record, chronicling the horror that unfolds.

Kaelyn’s story is gripping, dragging the reader down into the throws of infection and the pain of losing everything and everyone, and then pulling them up to the tenuous highs of finding love and unexpected friendship amidst death and destruction.

I’ve read nearly every zombie-virus story there is and found this book to be fascinating and different. It portrays the societal collapse of an isolated area, rather than the whole world. As townspeople drop left and right, Megan Crewe describes the gradual stages of panic, from the rival gangs of thieves that form, to the heroic attitude of well-meaning teens, and the reaction of the Canadian Government. Crewe’s portrayal is so realistic you might think she’d been in a virus-quarantine herself!

This book is recommended for both boys and girls from 13 years and up, particularly those who like reading about deadly viruses and the collapse of the rule of law.

Review by Miranda Stewart, age 15