In a midweek reading slump? Here are two top pick YA dystopians for your enjoyment!
Eighteen-year-old Oli cannot remember life outside the barrier, a life before the oil spill that poisoned human kind, killing half the population and infecting the other half until they deteriorated from the inside out, forced to walk the earth as Screamers. It’s a dangerous new world in which barely anyone makes it past the age of twenty, and Oli’s time is running out.
Studying the Bible, Oli searches for words to help restore faith in a lost world, and when she receives a message from God telling her to leave the barrier, she knows what she must do. There’s only one problem: Her best friend, Coi, doesn’t believe her, and he’s showing the first signs of infection. But before she can convince him to leave with her, the Governor quarantines Coi and orders his execution.
Oli risks it all to rescue Coi, and they set out to find sanctuary away from the safety of the compound, not knowing who or what will get to them first: the Governor, the illness, or the Screamers. When they stumble upon a group of uninfected humans hidden among the rubble of an apartment building, they think they’ve found their salvation. But not everything is as it seems, and their enemies are closer than they thought.
Oli left the safety of her home to spread God’s word to a world that’s forgotten He exists. She never expected to become a pawn between a mother she thought was dead and two competing sanctuaries, all of whom see her as nothing more than a tool to gain more power. But when the Governor shows up to take Oli back to the barrier, she discovers a horrible truth: her mother used Oli as a bartering chip to save herself, and she’s about to do it again.
Oli finds an ally in a scarred boy named Matty—and now he’s her only hope of survival. Unfortunately, the only way to safety is to head into a city full of Screamers. Along the way, they encounter Luca, a man who realizes Oli’s true potential, and he’s going to use her to cement his position as a powerful leader.
Forced to go The Station, a true house of horrors that might hold the answer to the illness, Oli must save her friends and get out before she becomes the next test subject.
Anaiah Press 