So… you’re sent to a planet with a history of death - carrying the only known survivor on your ship from the first and last drilling party sent 50 years earlier - to rescue the current drilling party. Why the company decided to try again, you have no idea. No one is alive when you arrive; throats slit and bodies scattered around. Only a cryptic message, written in blood, is left for you. “Don’t trust the kid.” Who’s the kid and what happened? Will you make it off the planet alive?
*cue music*
“Duh… Duh… Duuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh
I cannot do scary, people. My husband let me start The Haunting of Hill House, such a bad idea. It’s ruined my safe space. When halloween rolls around, I always feel left out, never able to read the spooky books or watch the movies. If you’re like me, then this is the perfect book. A balance of scary and thrilling, the story takes place on an alien planet. Essentially, this could never happen to us. Or so I convince myself in order to sleep every night.
Contagion is your typical sci-fi horror but without focusing on all the blood and guts. You go to an alien planet, people die, and you race to get off the planet alive. But there are a few things that made the book take you a little further. One being for a YA audience. Growing up, anything sci-fi, or I should say hardcore sci-fi, could only be found in that intimidating sci-fi/fantasy section. Maybe you were brave, but I always took one look at all the strange covers and backed out slowly. Here is a chance for younger readers to enjoy the thrill without the fear of adult content or long story lines with complex world systems.
“Toby’ eyes felt like they were burning. He wanted to claw them from his skull. Something warm and metallic dripped into his mouth. He wanted to claw at that too.”
Which is one of my top pros for the book. Bowman, right out of the gate, sets up the rules. We know how space travel works, how the planets get their energy, and even some of the political structures - which is delved into deeper later on. And I found it all believable. There will always be some suspended disbelief in sci-fi. You have to go along with the idea that light speed travel is possible. But Bowman makes the rest believable… no Star Trek hyperdrive here.
Bowman wanted to check all of her boxes off at the starting line. She immediately lays down the characters’ wants. Some of them do change as the story progresses but, as the reader, we get a clear look into who these characters are. And unlike One of Us is Lying, each person felt real and believable with unique back stories. Bowman walked as close to the edge of world dumping and back story as you can get. Contagion provides a great example though. I, personally, never felt that it slowed the story down.
She also made the concept of teenagers running around an alien planet believable. Many times I feel authors throw in the younger characters, but never think if those teenagers saving the world is believable. Bowman, also, doesn’t stick with an entire young cast. She throws in a few older and early twenty characters to play the parts.
