It's Not the Most Original Dystopian in the World, But Still ...

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Kaelyn Weber's lived most of her 16 years on a small island in Canada and she's never had any real desire to leave.  Until now.  With a mysterious virus sweeping through the coastal community, felling everyone in its path, her home no longer feels safe or comforting.  It's become not just dangerous, but deadly.  Especially when the government decides to quarantine the island, blocking all residents—sick or healthy—from leaving.  Anyone who tries, the people soon find out, will be shot.  

As the crisis rages on, food supplies dwindle, medication runs out, and tempers blaze as hot as wildfire.  Before long, the island—once an idyllic vacation spot—looks like a war zone.  It's so bad that Kaelyn doesn't dare go outside without a face mask and a weapon.  The safest thing, she knows, would be to stay inside and pray for a miracle, but Kaelyn's desperate to do something.  She can't just stand by while everyone she loves dies.  She has to help her microbiologist father find a way to stop the epidemic from killing everyone on the island.  But how?  What can she do, especially when something as simple as leaving her house can mean instant death?  When the virus hits too close to home, she must risk everything to save the people she loves.

Told in letters Kaelyn writes to a friend in New York City, The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe tells a tense, harrowing tale.  The story's nothing we haven't seen before, but the setting's a little different and the characters are vivid enough to make the novel compelling.  Although it's not the most original book in the world, I enjoyed The Way We Fall and am definitely looking forward to the sequels (it's the first in a planned trilogy).     

(Readalikes:  Reminds me a lot of The Last Survivors series [Life As We Knew It; The Dead and the Gone; This World We Live In] by Susan Beth Pfeffer; the Gone series [Gone; Hunger; Lies; Plague; Fear; Light] by Michael Grant; and Empty by Suzanne Weyn)

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for strong language (a handful of F-bombs, plus milder invectives), violence and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of The Way We Fall from the generous folks at Disney/Hyperion.  Thank you!