Book Review: The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

The Eleventh Plague
Author: Jeff Hirsch
Reading Level: YA
Pages: 288 Hardcover
Published: August 1st 2011
Review Source: Teen Book Con
Available: Amazon

Summary:(from goodreads) The wars that followed The Collapse nearly destroyed civilization. Now, twenty years later, the world is faced with a choice—rebuild what was or make something new.

Stephen Quinn, a quiet and dutiful fifteen-year-old scavenger, travels Post-Collapse America with his Dad and stern ex-Marine Grandfather. They travel light. They keep to themselves. Nothing ever changes. But when his Grandfather passes suddenly and Stephen and his Dad decide to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. With his father terribly injured, Stephen is left alone to make his own choices for the first time.

Stephen’s choices lead him to Settler's Landing, a lost slice of the Pre-Collapse world where he encounters a seemingly benign world of barbecues, baseball games and days spent in a one-room schoolhouse. Distrustful of such tranquility, Stephen quickly falls in with Jenny Tan, the beautiful town outcast. As his relationship with Jenny grows it brings him into violent conflict with the leaders of Settler's Landing who are determined to remake the world they grew up in, no matter what the cost.

When I first saw the cover of this book I thought “wow this is going to be a great action packed book!” Well, unfortunately the story fell short. There was no real action. The author did do a great job describing the world after the P11 eradicated most of North America. I read more than half the book and I just couldn’t continue reading anymore. It just wasn’t what I had expected it to be.

The world is not what it is today. The Chinese have wiped out most of North American’s population with a biological weapon called P11. Many people have died but a few have survived the war. These people are desperate and gathering anything they have and anything they find to sell to the trading posts for food, clothes and water. The Story starts off with Stephen, the main character and his father burying his grandfather. Pretty creepy I might add. His grandfather was a former Marine and was always with the mentality of “it’s either my way, or the highway.” Luckily for his

grandfather, they have stayed alive. Then after a freak accident, his father falls into a coma and Stephen and his father are found by a group of people that take him and his father into their little town. Stephen wants to stay by his father’s side but also wants to go and explore a world he has never known. A world where kids go to school, play baseball and have cookouts. Could this be too good to be true?