Erin Bowman

Responding to the distress call was supposed to be a straightforward mission. But when Thea Sadik and her crew land on the distant planet of Achlys, they find destruction and devastation . . . and no survivors. As they try to piece together the puzzle of who or what could have decimated an entire operation, they discover that some SOS messages should be ignored and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.

Contagion

Savannah Winchell

Contagion by Erin Bowman
4⭐️
- exhilarating and entertaining
- exactly what I needed
- finished in a day
- nothing overly original but some good twists and turns
- this disease has some plot holes 
- delightfully creepy cover

Laura

David Sheley

I listened to the audiobook in approximately 10 hours over the course of 41 listening sessions, some of which were as short as 5 minutes, because, well, I don’t have to drive far to get to work.

The short listening sessions might be partially to blame for my opinion of this book. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. The narrator did a good job of voicing each character, but I had a hard time keeping track of who was who and how old they were and what their role was in the story and ... You get the idea.

In this story, a group of young employees (most in their twenties, but at least one was a teen) go to investigate a distress call from a company drilling site on a planet just outside the normal reach of human society, which had grown to a handful of core planets (Cradle and the Trios) and a few colony planets (the Fringe). The group was led by a twenty-something young woman (the captain) who is brash and reckless. In an attempt to impress her father, who she hoped to find alive and well on the planet from which the distress call was coming, she led her team to the surface of the planet, against orders. The result is disastrous. Let’s just say there’s zombie chasing, and teeth-gnashing, and blood gushing from eyes, noses, and ears.

Oh, but there’s a twist at the end, and a clear lead into book two, “Immunity,” which appears to be coming out on July 2nd of this year. So, there’s hope for this story.

If you read/listen to this book, it might be a good idea to consume it more than 5 minutes at a time.
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Favorite quote from this book:
Never meet your idols. They rarely live up to your image of them.

Do you think this is true? Have you ever met a person whom you have looked up to or admired from afar?

I can’t say that I have. If I had to name a celebrity that I would want to meet, I’d say it would be Harrison Ford. I wonder what he’s like in “real life.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
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Here is a little insight into what you will find in this book.

Right away, I noticed that one of the main character’s favorite way to describe other characters was through the use of the word “ass” (i.e. “smart-ass” or “uptight ass”). Everybody was an “ass” in this one character’s opinion. I only noticed this in the first chapter, but I probably tuned it out after that. It’s used seven times after chapter one (I love technology and the power of the Search feature in Libby), but mostly as a noun instead of an adjective. However, there is other cursing in the book (such as “damn” (16x’s), “shit” (14x’s), and everybody’s favorite, the “F” word (3x’s)). I wouldn’t describe it as pervasive (Ok, well I didn’t until I searched a few “keywords” in Libby and counted them...), but it is present.

Aside from a brief mention (about a paragraph) of a kiss shared between two of the lead female characters, there was no other discussion of physical intimacy between characters.

I picked up on a few different themes in this story, such as women in business, nepotism, and age discrimination. Although the crew of the Odyssey consisted primarily of young women, there was little love between these characters. They always seemed to be at each other’s throats. Over and over throughout the story, the captain (Dylan Lowe) makes negative comments about the opinions of temps and interns. She makes it very clear that she will make the decisions. She disagrees with anything anyone said that wasn’t her idea to begin with.
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Is this book for you? Is this a good book for your teen or young adult? Only you can decide, but I hope that the information I have provided will help you determine whether to find and read this book immediately or to pass on to the next option.

Candyce Kirk

laura

I found this to be fun fast pace science fiction adventure. I really the various POV that we got, but I felt like that sometimes some of the POV were a tad confusing at the start of the novel. I really liked the mystery and science fiction aspect of this novel. I found all the characters various backgrounds to be interesting. I felt that the plot had some predictable elements towards the middle but overall it was fast pace read. I thought the ending was shocking but also a tad rushed. I will def be checking out book 2.

Jeni Enjaian

Bowman did a great job telling this story. I just struggled to get through it because the genre just creeps me out most of the time. This virus/bacteria spreading on a distant planet picking off crew members left and right kept me from watching the Doctor Who episode "Water of Mars." That's the only episode of the rebooted series that I haven't watched and will never watch.
I think some may enjoy this book. I did not enjoy it but I think it was well written.

Geneviève Rouleau

WOW, this book was so good!

Incredibly fast paced, thrilling and creepy. Some of the characters were infuriating, but all the more human for it. I was kept of the edge on my seat the entire time.

ALSO. The author isn't scared of killing off the characters, which makes everything all the more realistic.

Ashlee

This book was so cool and is the sci-if thriller I hoped it would be!

If you loved the Illuminae files (particularly Gemina), Alien, Life and Even Horizon I highly recommend this!

RTC!

Casandra Sandu

This is definitely one of my favorite reads of this year. I finished it in one day and I was totally immersed in the journey. Sometimes, while reading sci-fi, it feels difficult to connect with the characters and truly care about their development, but that wasn’t the case at all with Contagion. Following different interesting points of view, it was difficult to know who to trust and that created an amazing mystery level to the story. I was on the edge of my seat for hours and I can’t wait for the sequel. The story was dark and intriguing and I felt like I was there with the crew on Achlys at every step of the way. I can’t believe I almost didn’t pick up this book when it first came out!

Lauren James

Full review on my blog, Storied Adventures

I LOVED this book! It was non-stop heart pounding action and it was right up my alley. I don't like super scary books or movies but I do love what I call Monster/ Creature books and movies. This fell into that category for me. It was so much fun and entertaining to read. There was a cast of well rounded characters, there was a mysterious "contagion", there was plenty of action, and a major cliff hanger that has me clamoring for the next book! I could not put this down!

Liz Griffin

Suspenseful, edge of your seat pacing to this sci-fi thriller with a zombie-like contagion. The sci-fi elements were a bit cookie-cutter, but that is pretty standard for YA. My main complaint is that the POV changed way too often, bordering on head-hopping. In the audiobook, it was often hard to tell who was supposed to be the POV character. But I liked it enough to add Book 2 to my TBR.

Contagion

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