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    Contagion
    Contagion
    Contagion
    Audiobook9 hours

    Contagion

    Written by Erin Bowman

    Narrated by Amy McFadden

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Mystery

    Perfect for fans of Madeleine Roux, Jonathan Maberry, and horror films like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil, this pulse-pounding, hair-raising, utterly terrifying novel is the first in a duology from the critically acclaimed author of the Taken trilogy.

    After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

    When they arrive, they find the planet littered with the remains of the project—including its members’ dead bodies. As they try to piece together what could have possibly decimated an entire project, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.

    ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CONTAGION:

    “Gripping, thrilling and terrifying in equal measures, Contagion is the perfect intersection of science fiction and horror—I couldn’t look away.”—Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of Illuminae and Unearthed

    “Few understand the true horror that lies in the empty unknown of space, but Erin Bowman nails it in Contagion. Read this one with the lights on!”—Beth Revis, New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe series and Star Wars: Rebel Rising

    “Erin Bowman’s Contagion is everything I want in my science fiction: a cast of smart characters on a desperate rescue mission forced to confront an elusive and unstoppable enemy. I absolutely loved this layered and thrilling adventure and can’t wait to dive back into this world again.”—Veronica Rossi, New York Times bestselling author of the Under the Never Sky series

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 24, 2018
    ISBN9780062894038
    Author

    Erin Bowman

      Erin Bowman is the critically acclaimed author of numerous books for children and teens, including the Taken Trilogy, Vengeance Road, Retribution Rails, the Edgar Award-nominated Contagion duology, The Girl and the Witch’s Garden, and the forthcoming Dustborn. A web designer turned author, Erin has always been invested in telling stories–both visually and with words. Erin lives in New Hampshire with her husband and children.

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    Reviews for Contagion

    4/5

    161 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      CONTAGION is a fast-paced, frightening science fiction story. Foster kid, high school student Thea Sadik has won a coveted internship working for Hevetz Corporation assisting Doctor Lisbeth Tarlow. They are at an isolated, cold weather base when a distress call comes in. The Captain - Dylan Lowe - assembles a skeleton crew of rather unprepared people to go for search and rescue. Among that crew are Thea, Dr. Tarlow, computer tech Toby, mechanic Sullivan, and pilot Nova. There are already conflicts among the crew before they find out that they are on their way to Achlys - a planet like Mercury that might have a resource Hevetz wants to extract. Dr. Tarlow knows the planet because she was the sole survivor or an earlier disaster on that planet. She was a child at the time. Sullivan is concerned about Dylan's competency. Toby is an agitator who likes arguments and who favors their trio of planets leaving the Union. Nova and Sullivan are cousins. He got her her job after she washed out of the military academy because of a vision problem that has since been corrected. Dylan is single-minded about trying for a rescue since her father is at that base. When they arrive, they find some corpses, blood trails, and a note written in blood telling them not to trust the kid. When Thea is separated from the searchers, she is rescued by Coen Lashley who is the only survivor of those they came to rescue and the kid they were warned against.They soon discover that the victims they came to rescue weren't nearly as dead as they had believed. The rescue crew is soon being pursued by the zombie-like victims who are determined to add their rescuers to their number. There were chases all around the research ship as our heroes try to elude the new creatures as they try to get off the planet to safety. Along the way, more and more of the rescuers are lost. Secrets are also uncovered regarding the source of the contagion and what is trying to be accomplished. The only negative that I have about the story is that there is a cliffhanger ending leaving me aching for the next book to find out what happens next. "I have a plan" is a horrible ending because I want to know what the plan is NOW.
    • 4/5
      Fast, creepy read! Keep me enticed and guessing what was going to happen next. This would be great to see on the silver screen.
    • 4/5
      I chose Contagion because it seemed like such a cut and dry zombie/horror book. A crew stubbles into a situation they don't understand only to get picked off by the things that go bump in the night. But I actually really liked it.

      I liked Erin Bowman's characters. Even though most of them are your typical horror characters (the jock, the jerk, ex.), the characters we did follow were interesting. They were all stubborn, which made the book annoying at times. But I liked it all the same. Boman's writing style was great too. She went into detail about the kind of ruthlessness one would go through if they were facing a hopeless situation. Bowman didn't hold back on the gore, blood, and ruthlessness. Despite my disdain for watching gory movies, I really appreciated that she didn't hold back.

      I liked the audiobook as well. The audio was clear and I loved the narrator's voice. There were no distractions like loud music or noise. It's was the perfect audiobook to have on when you clean or when you follow along in the physical book. Like me.
    • 4/5
      3,9 stars

      I ended up liking this book a lot more than I expected! I went in to it with pretty low expectations, as I only realized this is YA when I picked it up, and have pretty poor experiences with YA sci-fi from past explorations.

      However, in my opinion, Contagion avoided some (though not all) of the most obvious pitfalls this genre usually falls victim to.

      While it never ceases to be a ridiculous concept that teenagers have anything to do with things like working full time in research (be it as interns or full fledged members of a team) I decided to look past it in this case. Mostly because the teenagers in questions weren't as obnoxious as usual. While the main character had to endure the usual derision for her status, she also didn't consider herself an adult or an expert. She did end up miraculously saving the day on a couple of occasions, but it wasn't completely fantastical or unbelievable.

      The thing I liked the most was the romance. To be more precise, that it didn't exist. I'll be very surprised if Thea and Cohen won't end up together in the next book, but to have an entire book to set up the premise for the relationship is so uncommon with YA that I'll allow it. (In that way, this book was so much better than the Illuminae Files trilogy, which was basically a series of romance novels set among space adventures with cool formatting and an AI system (that was also soiled in the end.))

      The plot wasn't anything too original, but the pacing of the book was good and the story was interesting enough to keep me interested enough to basically finish it in one sitting. The writing could have been more complex and I would have liked this a lot more if it was geared toward adults (a bit more grit, a bit less melodrama). The characters were interesting enough, even though a little caricature-y.

      Looking forward to reading the second part this summer.
    • 4/5
      Who is going to be the first to die?Althea Sadik... a teenage lab intern to Lisbeth TarlowDoctor Lisbeth Tarlow, Hevertz Industries' microbiologist whose wisdom and experience kept her in a job in spite of a benign tumour which gave her hand the shakesDylan Lowe - 23 year old forewoman for the Northwood Point crew Nova Singh, wanna be military pilot hired temporarily by Hevertz Industries to pilot the OdysseyToby - tech administratorCleaver - securitySullivan Hooper, Hevertz mechanic and Nova's cousinWhen the story begins, a severe storm is approaching Soter's ice caps, where a team of Hevertz, (a multi-million dollar drilling company) employees are conducting an environmental assessment of Northwood Point. All of the workers get evacuated onto the Muriela, except the seven mentioned above who are given company orders to fly to Achlys, a planet located in the Fringe, where a crew known as Black Quarry have lost contact with Hevertz. In spite of many misgivings by the crew, they set out for Achlys knowing nothing except that there is no known reason for the lost contact. When they arrive, it is soon evident that there are problems - they find a few dead bodies with their throats cut but no evidence of the majority of the crew. The most disturbing discovery is a note, written in blood on the floor, near one of the dead bodies which reads:It got in us and most are dead. Decklan flew for help. Don't trust the kid. The captain, determined to make a name for herself, insists that they investigate the drilling site, arguing that the remainder of the crew might have sought refuge there. As if Contagion were a movie, I immediately started thinking, "No, don't go! Get back on your ship and fly away while you still can!" But of course, they don't. As I was reading, there were always enough unanswered questions to make me want to keep reading. I quite enjoyed Contagion but I can't tell you all the things I liked without spoiling it for you so I won't. What I didn't like, and will warn you about now is that it is NOT a stand alone and you are left with an extreme cliff hanger so if you're not up for that... don't read Contagion. At least book two, Immunity, is out already.
    • 5/5
      Funtastic space horror, fun times, so many die, the bodies piled high. Intense action, mystery, and more dead bodies. Don't love any of them, they may be dead on the next page. You have been warned.Seriously, this was a good read for me. There was never an easy answer to their problems, only run like you're going to die, because you are. LOL I loved reading it, I even read it slow in bits because I needed to step back and reflect (relax) on what I just read. I ordered book 2 before I even finished this one.
    • 5/5
      Contagion by Erin Bowman is an audible book I picked up from the library. I fell in love with this intriguing take right away. I like a good mystery mixed with my science fiction, throw in a deadly unknown killing factor, people who may not be what or who they say they are, crooked business or governments, and lots of suspense and that is my mind of book! This is all that and more! The narration complements the book perfectly too! Really made the book that much better! Tremendous job one voices, emotions, timing, well..everything! Can't wait for the next book!
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars...

      I loved Bowan's other series so I was expecting to really like this one too. I tried several times though to listen to the audiobook and couldn't get into the narrator so I ended up just reading it. It was fairly entertaining once I finally got into it which actually happened when Coen came into the picture. He was definitely my favorite character of the bunch.

      Even though this book didn't produce any overwhelming emotions or anything from me, I'm dying to read the next book just to find out what's going to happen with the survivors.