Legend by Marie Lu

Legend by Marie Lu is about two teens from two different worlds.  June is wealthy and on her way to being one of the best police officers/military officials in the area.  Day, the most notorious criminal in the country, was born in the ghetto and lives his life to protect those he loves.  He is almost like a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and helping the poor.  June is convinced Day was responsible for the death of her brother - her only family left - and has vowed to hunt him down.  Day has learned his mother is sick with a mysterious illness that keeps plaguing the land and is desperate to obtain the extremely expensive medicine that will cure her.  Their two paths cross when June goes undercover.  What she doesn't realize right away is the boy she's befriended on the streets is actually the criminal she's been hunting!  Will she betray their friendship and turn him in?  Can she get over her feelings about the death of her brother once she learns the truth?  Will Day's mother receive the medicine she needs to survive?

This was an awesome book!  The story was told through the alternating perspectives of June and Day.  There was science fiction, adventure, action, even a little romance!... qualities any reader will enjoy.

The Dead by Charlie Higson

The Dead by Charlie Higson takes place just over a year prior to his first novel, The Enemy.  This is when the dangerous disease that turns anyone over the age of 16 into a decaying, flesh eating zombie is just taking over all of the adults.  This story follows a group of boys from a private school as they fight to escape their teachers, and make their way through the streets of London, trying to find safety.  Along the way, they pick up several other kids who have had their own struggles dealing with losing their parents and friends to this terrible disease.  Whether they're called zombies, strangers, sickos or mothers and fathers, the diseased adults are the walking dead - covered in pus filled boils and oozing blood.  The only thing they seem to want is children... for dinner!  For the children, survival seems bleak and some simple give up.  Others create their own religion to give them solace, and still others just take everything one step at a time, becoming leaders despite believing they never could.

This was just as awesome as the first book!  It is filled with excitement, suspense, horror, adventure - everything you could want in a good sci fi action thriller!  I really liked the way the author took a closer look at the disease and developed theories for the driving force behind the sickos' need for human flesh.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has a strong stomach (definitely for more mature readers who can handle the violence) and who enjoys a good thriller.  Fans of The Hunger Games Series and The Maze Runner Series will enjoy this!

Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci

Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci is the sequel to Streams of Babel and picks up immediately where the first book ends.  In this story the Trinity Four (brothers Owen and Scott, Rain, and Cora) are sent to an historical house in New Jersey to continue their recovery after having been poisoned by terrorists.  Recovery is difficult due to the amount of medication each takes and because of the continuing symptoms like painful headaches, sore throats, and fatigue.  The teenage v-spies (hackers), Tyler and Shahzad, who constantly search for chatter among the terrorists stumble upon a new plot by the same group of extremists.  This time, it has to do with a terrible strain of the very same disease the hackers were infected with when they crashed the terrorists meeting.  Except, this new strain actually burns the victim from the inside leaving nothing but a pile of goo and bones.  The race is on trying to find the terrorists before they can infect an entire aeronautics convention and hundreds of innocent bystanders with this awful WMD while trying to keep the Trinity Four healthy and safe - from both the terrorists and from themselves.

This was a great sequel!  I really liked the way everything was wrapped up with the Trinity Four and with the hackers.  All of the problems were resolved nicely and all of the questions were answered.  I would recommend this book to older and more mature readers due to language, innuendo, and violence.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Enemy by Charlie Higson takes place in London about a year and a half after a terrible disease has sickened all of the adults over the age of 14. This disease rots the brain, leaving the adults unable to talk or really even think. Their skin is covered in infected boils and sores. Worse yet... they eat children. The children of London have banded together in different areas to try to continue living and hiding from the grown-ups. One group lives in an old grocery store. They have a pretty good system for scavenging food and supplies, and keeping everyone relatively safe. One afternoon, a strange boy shows up at the store, followed by a vicious band of grown-ups. Jester tells the Holloway kids about a new colony of kids who are living at Buckingham Palace. They are growing food, raising animals, and are really making a good life for themselves. Jester's job was to travel around London, searching for other groups of kids to join the Palace group. (Unfortunately, Jester left with a party of 5 and was the only one who made it alive.) Arran, the Holloway group leader and Blue, another group's leader confer and decide to band together and head to Buckingham Palace, following Jester. On the way, they meet many groups of grown-ups who seem to be behaving differently - they are "hunting" and grouping together, almost as if they are communicating and following some sort of plan. They also meet up with a group of kids who have been living on the streets. In a skirmish, one of the girls accidentally shoots Arran and he dies. This leaves Maxie, Arran's second in command the leader of the Holloway kids. Things seem too good to be true once the group finally makes it to the Palace. After a few days, however, Maxie and Blue begin to see David's (the Palace kids' leader) true plan - to take over and rule all of the kids in London. They try to make a plan to escape, but David catches them and locks them up. Now it seems all the kids they were supposed to be protecting will fall under the dictatorship of David and his minions with no chance of escape.

WOW! What an amazing book! It reminded me a little of I am Legend combined with The Scorch Trials and Lord of the Flies. I read this one in a day because I just had to find out what happened. Now I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel - this one definitely has a cliffhanger ending!! There is some pretty gory violence, so I would recommend this to a more mature audience. Anyone who liked The Maze Runner/Scorch Trials, The Hunger Games Series, or just enjoys a good science fiction book will really get into this book!