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A Plague Year (2011)

by Edward Bloor(Favorite Author)

3 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0375856811 (ISBN13: 9780375856815)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Knopf Books for Young Readers

review 1: Written in diary form from a ninth grader,Tom Coleman, the book has some good parts and some parts that made me laugh with his really cool cousin, Arthur and his voice is believable for his age. However, I felt all the trouble with the methamphetamine in this Pennsylvania town should have given the author's tone a little more passion. It was somewhat dispassionate but maybe he was trying to see through the eyes of a clueless town and more clueless ninth grade boy? I really liked the metaphor of meth to walking death and how his teacher, Mr. Proctor compares this Meth plague to the bubonic plague of London in 1666. It's here (2001) -and we just can't see it for what it truly is. I think high school would also get another lesson on the events of 9/11 as this is the exact ti... moreme period the book is set in. The ending was disappointing. It just sort of petered out...... like WHAT? That's it? You can't wrap up a meth plague with..everything is okeydokey now!!!! come on..The author should have given us a killer-no pun intended- cliffhanger..to be continued with good old Tom struggling on to the next thing.OR a really depressing horrible ending -because that IS the reality of this meth. He blew that one.
review 2: I just don't really get Edward Bloor. His books are so hit-or-miss with me. I loved loved "Tangerine" and Crusader", found "Story Time" amusing but not as good, was kinda disappointed by "London Calling", and thought "Taken" was pretty cool, and altogether was really puzzled by this book. It purported to be about a year in which meth took over a community, but that remained in the background as the protagonist dealt with 9/11 fallout, crushed on a egotistical and elitist girl, and attended a variety of drug prevention meetings despite having no drug problem himself. The "plague year" theme was hovering in the background the whole time, but the fact that it wasn't in the forefront was quite confusing to me. Also despite being a liberal English teacher, I was disappointed that so many of the moral issues in the book were being worked out in the classroom of a Liberal English Teacher. I just feel like that's such a cliche at this point. I also thought the people from the university near the protagonist's coal mining community were treated as such insensitive jerks. (I had a similar issue with Veronica Roth's "Divergent", although it wasn't so bad as this book.) I know some intellectuals are elitist a-holes and that teenagers in many poor communities that border universities experience their a-holery, but I am wary of stereotyping smart people as something "other" and discouraging kids from a life of the mind more than they already are discouraged. I realize that's much more of a personal gripe, though, and probably has nothing to do with anything but me. less

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