Overview
It's 2001 and zombies have taken over Tom's town. Meth zombies. The drug rips through Blackwater, PA, with a ferocity and a velocity that overwhelms everyone.
It starts small, with petty thefts of cleaning supplies and Sudafed from the supermarket where Tom works. But by year's end there will be ruined, hollow people on every street corner. Meth will unmake the lives of friends and teachers and parents. It will fill the prisons, and the morgues.
Tom's always been focused on getting out of his depressing coal mining town, on planning his escape to a college somewhere sunny and far away. But as bits of his childhood erode around him, he finds it's not so easy to let go. With the selfless heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed nearby fresh in his mind and in his heart, Tom begins to see some reasons to stay, to see that even lost causes can be worth fighting for.
Edward Bloor has created a searing portrait of a place and a family and a boy who survive a harrowing plague year, and become stronger than before.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Bloor (London Calling) revisits his days teaching high school English to find parallels between Daniel Defoe’s classic about the bubonic plague in 17th-century London and a (real) methamphetamine epidemic in Pennsylvania. In a crackerjack opening, readers meet ninth-grader Tom Coleman outside his father’s grocery store when he prevents the robbery of an ATM. Robberies—especially of cleaning supplies and Sudafed—have escalated as Blackwater, a coal-mining town, succumbs to addiction. At school, Tom and his sister, Lilly, attend drug counseling after she gets caught smoking pot. In these sessions, they reconnect with Arthur, a cousin whose family has already suffered the fallout of drug abuse. Bloor’s villains—a psychiatrist who specializes in rehab, but is a user himself, and a craven football coach—are cartoonish, but characters closer to Tom have more dimension, especially the Food Giant staff: Tom’s father, assistant manager Uno, and Bobby, who has Down syndrome. The plot is message-heavy but goes down easily because Bloor excels at writing vivid scenes. Tom is a thoroughly sympathetic narrator as he grows to realize there is value in “blooming where you are planted.” Ages 12–up. (Sept.)VOYA -
It is 2001, and an epidemic has hit rural Pennsylvania. But this plague is not spread by germs; it is caused by an illegal drug called crystal meth. Tom wants to escape his coal-mining town and go to college, but with his family and community disintegrating before his eyes, that dream seems far away. Petty thefts at the supermarket where he works have led to more brazen robbery attempts. People are losing their jobs and their homes. Terrorists attack, and an airplane crashes practically in his backyard. And then zombies appear. With a twist on Daniel DeFoe's classic about the London plague, A Plague Year offers a whole new take on zombies. Drug-addicted half-dead humans litter the streets and fill the prisons and morgues. But just like the heroes of United Flight 93 that crashed nearby, Tom and his friends see a future worth fighting for. Bloor has created a chilling story with an interesting premise. This cautionary tale of the dangers of substance abuse, however, serves as a drug awareness platform that teens may find heavy handed. Most readers would agree that drugs can lead to addiction, crime, and death, but the message is presented in a sermonizing way that weakens the story. A vivid setting, strong conflict, and well-drawn characters save the story and make it worth reading. Despite the moralizing, tension builds around this highly charged subject when the least likely teens rally to survive and save their town, leaving readers with a sense of hope. Reviewer: Ann McDuffieChildren's Literature -
Nothing ever happens in Blackwater, Pennsylvania. Each day, miners delve for coal, students trudge through school and freshman Tom Coleman dreams of moving away. Then the thefts start. Shoppers at the local Food Giant are caught stealing cold medicine and ammonia. From his teachers, Tom learns the name of the ?plague' that is sweeping through Blackwater, a drug known as "meth." Easy to manufacture at home, it spreads like wildfire, turning the residents of Tom's hometown into meth zombies, with rotting teeth, scabbed skin and shuffling steps. Tom no longer dreams of running away; his goal now is just to survive, especially when the plague hits close to home. Bloor's novel is loosely patterned after Daniel Defoe's A Journal of a Plague Year, which chronicles Defoe's year in a town infected with bubonic plague. Like that novel, this story emphasizes how even those who escape infection cannot avoid the scars the plague leaves behind. Bloor also addresses other common types of substance abuse—including marijuana, alcohol and prescription medication—that often are seen as less dangerous, but which can have similarly tragic consequences. In Blackwater, the reasons for turning to meth range from the tragedy of September 11, which is covered from a first-person perspective, to simple boredom, but the result is nearly always the same: death. Reviewer: Cara ChancellorSchool Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Set between September 2001, when Flight 93 crashed outside Somerset, PA, and July 2002, when the Quecreek Mine disaster and rescue took place, this novel follows Tom Coleman, a high school freshman who is watching his impoverished town of Blackwater and its residents fall apart. It has become home to methamphetamine addicts, crime at the supermarket where he works is rising, and the people around him are getting arrested or dying. Realizing that the only folks who will help their community are the members themselves, Tom and other students in the school's drug counseling group decide to take action. Bloor draws comparisons to the movie Night of the Living Dead and Daniel Defoe's A Journal of a Plague Year to show how crystal meth and the cycle of poverty, alcohol, and drug abuse can decimate an area just like zombies or a plague. He does an excellent job of creating this downtrodden locale and the people who live there. While the disastrous effect of drugs is the main plot, Tom's growth from a coward to someone who sticks up for himself and his town is equally compelling.—Erik Carlson, White Plains Public Library, NYKirkus Reviews
Freshman Tom Coleman studies for the PSAT, works for free at the Food Giant his dad runs and plays Nintendo in this rural Pennsylvania town in the fall of 2001, when terrorists and methamphetamine suddenly become big threats.
Bloor (Taken, 2007, etc.) opens with an attempted robbery, allowing Tom to show off his quick thinking.It is the first symptom Tom notices of the coming "plague." Tom will need more than academic smarts and a hearty work ethic as the town collectively succumbs to meth addiction. Key is a group counseling session about drugs and addiction led by a therapist from outside the community. Both this sophisticated therapist and her good-looking daughter hold an exotic, outsider appeal for Tom. Tom's family has struggled with addiction in the past, providing a layer of poignancy. As the town goes from a vague awareness of drugs to being overrun by zombie addicts, Tom and the town are challenged to respond. In other hands, the nearby downing of Flight 93 could overshadow the plague, but Bloor's insight into ordinary people provides a great prism through which to view the events. The language is not particularly elegant (some dialogue is realistically crude), but it carries the big ideas sturdily and with affection for the community and its people.
A likable teen successfully explores a significant social issue without preaching or becoming a symbol. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)