Reviews

The story rattles along at breakneck speed, which suits the tale is tells. Mostly terrifying, occasionally poignant, ultimately a morality tale. Very enjoyable.

theartolater's review against another edition

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3.0

I don't really know what to say about a book that is literally a horror movie that puts aside much of the way of character development and setting in favor of dropping a bunch of kids into a major scientific disaster. I have plenty of respect for books or movies that do this skillfully - after all, there is plenty of room in the literary/theatrical diet for candy.

Silver succeeds at being a fast-paced big-budget horror piece, but doesn't do much else. The plot involves nanotechnology and infections, so it's sort of a futuristic zombie tale, and it follows up with plenty of action and okay pacing. The problem is that, if you're going to abandon other storytelling tropes in favor of this sort of thing, you either need to kick it into very high gear or go over the top, neither of which this book achieves, or even appears to strive for.

I can see this being good for reluctant readers, but if you're well-versed in this sort of sci-fi, you might have more fun elsewhere.

crookedfern's review against another edition

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2.0

**Actual rating: 2.5. Read during the Bout a Books reading marathon.

Wasn't really my cup of tea. It was a post apocalyptic boarding school. Eh. The characters were bland, my favorites being the two "bad" people, Caitlyn and Adam. And Mr. Sutton. The thing that saved it from being 2 stars was the twist in the end. Overall, pretty bad.

~ GabbyG

breadworm's review against another edition

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3.0

This book was an intriguing read. It is told by 6 different perspectives and very fast-paced. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I enjoyed that it is a standalone but it ended very openly. I do not think that a sequel would be wise but it made me want to know what would happen in the world.

library_brandy's review against another edition

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3.0

The discovery of shiny, silvery beetles near school seems like a huge scientific find--but these beetles bite. Hours later, the bitten boys fall ill. When the headmaster is attacked by a similarly-silvery dog, he falls ill right away. With phone and internet lines chewed through (most likely by those silvery rats), the normally-isolated boarding school is completely cut off. Within hours, the Infection spreads, with the majority of students changing into metallic zombie-like monsters. A handful of remaining students barricade themselves inside one building, but the Infected are getting smarter.

There's a little too much action here--once the infection takes hold, the book doesn't slow down; it's nonstop Motion and Battle and Chaos just about through to the end. The omniscience rotates among a half-dozen or so characters (sometimes within one chapter) and it can be a little confusing in a who are we following now? way.

Those are the complaints of an adult reader, though. I'd happily hand this to zombie fans looking for something a little different, or teens who WOULD be fans of zombies if they weren't so gross all the time.

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