From School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-The pesticide developed to kill genetically modified bees that caused a bee flu epidemic killed almost everything else as well, leaving a world in which women are scarce, honey is more valuable than gold, and survival is tenuous. Fiona Tarsis wakes in the ruin of her Colorado home with no memory of how she got there. Lack of recall, however, does not keep her from recognizing a feral attacker as her twin brother, Jonah, and her flight from him through a window is just the beginning of her narrow escapes. Fo is captured by the militia, guardians of the gates to a walled city. Bowen, a handsome neighbor from Fo's old life, fills in the gaps in her memory. She learns that parents, desperate to save their children, voluntarily put them into comas hoping to keep them stable until a cure for the epidemic was found. The plot relies on coincidence and cannot fully hide weaknesses in characterization with its breakneck speed. Fo was 13 when she went into the coma, and 17 when she awakens with a more mature body and a mind that seemingly continued to develop while she was comatose. The inevitable love story is handled with some heat. Fo reacts instead of acts in the simplistic role of girl in peril. Sent to fight to the death, she is protected in the arena by Jonah until Bowen rescues her in the nick of time. The conclusion is anticlimactic, but the roaring pace keeps world-building to a minimum and makes this a crashing dystopic roller-coaster ride.-Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, ILα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
The last thing Fiona remembers is being 13 and hearing about the dangerous domino effect that could result from the extinction of bees. When she wakes up, she is 17, sporting a strange tattoo, and the world outside is in postapocalyptic chaos. A sewer urchin gives Fiona the short version: Colorado has become a lawless country where bands of marauders attempt to earn their way into the safer walled city. Though Fiona succeeds in concealing herself as a boy (hard to believe, given the manhandling she undergoes), she is captured and identified as a “Ten”—a person infected with a flawed vaccine that will turn her into a zombielike beast unless killed. Thankfully, this group is headed by a protective, hunky former neighbor of Fiona’s. As with many teen dystopias, the rushed backstory exists primarily to provide opportunity to squeeze our romantic leads into tight quarters, and the Colosseum-inspired finale feels airlifted from another plot. Wiggins is skilled, however, at dropping bits of Fiona’s returning memories at dramatic moments. Finished with Veronica Roth’s Divergent (2011) et al? Try this. Grades 8-11. --Daniel Kraus
Review
KIRKUS (STARRED) REVIEWFiona Tarsis wakes up to a world of nightmares in this fast-paced, fever-bright post-apocalyptic adventure.
Wiggins (Shifting 2011) muses on the dangers of science and medicine and deftly maps out the chain of events that has led to catastrophe, creating a violent world vastly different from ours but still recognizable. With a stirring conclusion and space for a sequel, it's an altogether captivating story.
Readers will gladly be bitten by this bug. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
From the Author
STUNG is the winner of Florida' Sunshine State Young Reader's Award (2016).STUNG is the winner of Nebraska's Golden Sower Award (2016).
About the Author
BETHANY WIGGINS is the author of The Transference Trilogy, Stung, Cured, and Shifting. She started writing on a dare and dove headfirst into the world of writerly madness. She lives in the desert with her husband, four quirky kids, and two very fluffy cats.
www.bethanywiggins.com
