Silver by Chris Wooding (review)

The discovery of a strange beetle leads to a horrifying infection that spreads across the grounds of a secluded boarding school in the English countryside, transforming its inhabitants into zombie-like creatures with a craving for flesh. Since the headmaster is one of the first to turn vicious, followed by most of the other adults, it’s up to fifteen-year-old Paul, the new kid who’s well aware of just how terrible the world can be, to take charge as students barricade themselves in the science building. Meanwhile, Adam, the class bully, finds that the anger he has struggled to control is actually an asset in this new scenario; Erika, the golden girl, discovers that perfection doesn’t earn you much with monsters; and Caitlyn, always the runner up, initially basks in Erika’s failure but is eventually brought down by her own pettiness. The focalization through four very different characters gives this end-of-the-world tale broad accessibility, but it’s really the monsters, the Infected, that drive the plot forward; though they start out as mindless, shuffling creatures, they eventually transform into cunning predators with the ability to strategize and (literally) smoke the survivors out into a full-on confrontation. Though Wooding’s direct storytelling makes the most of the action sequences, it unfortunately stumbles when it comes to the emotional elements of the story, too often telling rather than showing what the characters are feeling, and the teens themselves are fairly predictable stereotypes. Summers’ This Is Not A Test (BCCB 7/12) is still the school-overrun-by-monsters book to beat, but for fans of the horror genre, this fast-paced, occasionally gory tale may well satisfy.