GRAY

In this post-apocalyptic YA novel, an itinerant band of teenagers fight against the elements and their own unavoidable mutation.

In a world of incessant rain, 16-year-old Scout, known as the Firebrand of her group for her campfire-kindling abilities, ruminates on her future and that of her older brother, Lord. She knows that with the onset of adulthood—roughly the age of 20—comes an inevitable transformation into a zombielike Gray, a ravenous creature with a “sickly ashen color” to its skin who can sustain nearly any injury except for beheading. Kettlehake refrains from filling each chapter with gory scenes reminiscent of World War Z, instead showing Scout, Lord, and their cohorts in a distinctly human light. He renders Scout’s infatuation with fellow survivor Singer particularly convincingly: “His voice, like always, is soft….Toss in a background melody and I bet whatever he says could be put to song. He must have been something before the Storm.” The author’s choice to have Scout describe Singer’s speech in such pleasant terms shows her resilience in adversity without resorting to didacticism. Even when Lord begins to transform into a Gray—signified by a sudden appearance of white hair—and leaves the others, in accordance with group tradition, the novel’s focus remains on the bonds between the survivors. During an attack by Grays, Lord reappears as a deus ex machina to save Scout’s life; somehow, he never fully transforms into a Gray, retaining “a hint of awareness and intelligence.” His uniqueness is a pivotal mystery in the novel’s second half, but it’s inexplicably never resolved. Instead, the story turns to the group’s encounter with a survivor colony in an abandoned church—a choice that some readers may find bewildering.

A stylish and compassionate tale with a somewhat unsatisfying second half.