Author: Erin Bowman
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Source: HarperCollins
Goodreads
It got in usReview by Nara
After receiving an urgent SOS from a work detail on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is dispatched to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.
Most are dead.
But when the crew arrives, they find an abandoned site, littered with rotten food, discarded weapons…and dead bodies.
Don't set foot here again.
As they try to piece together who—or what—could have decimated an entire operation, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.
Contagion fits in that nice little YA scifi horror niche that I'm sure there are many fans of. I actually really love this type of story where the protagonists need to find the mystery of some sort of disease or a weird alien species and stop it before everyone in the crew dies.
I thought Bowman did an excellent job of pacing out the story so that you are kept on the edge of your seat throughout the entire novel. It does start of quite slowly, building up to that point where you know something horrible goes wrong.
If I had a criticism it would be that the characters are pretty bland. I broadly categorise novels as plot driven vs character driven, and this one is definitely a plot driven one. The characters are very typical science fiction stereotypes, and certainly not interesting enough to feel invested in- when certain characters died, I really didn't feel particularly strongly about what had happened.
The book ends on quite the cliffhanger, although I wasn't too mad about this one because I could see the build up leading to it. It was clear that the story couldn't possibly be wrapped up as the pages kept turning, so I felt like I knew where it was going to end. In any case, I'm definitely looking forward to book two and seeing where the author takes us.
Really liked it
RatingsOverall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Cover: 3/5
