The Grey Zone
ISBN 9798365896512
ASIN B0BN57GYTT
ASIN B0BNGNW127
My 18 year old daughter recommended this volume to me, because one of her friends had written it. I had picked it up 2 years ago, but it came back to mind recently and I have it a read. As a debut novel it is well written. The description of the book states:
“Anna didn’t know she could feel so alone. Born with strange grey patches all over her body, she knew the feeling well, but not to such a degree.
Just as she begins to settle in to living away from her brother, Trey, and with a roommate, a deadly virus breaks out across the world. It marks its victims with the same grey patches. What follows is a slow and gruesome death for all who are touched by it.
The government has no choice but to confiscate everyone with a trace of the virus, putting both Anna and her brother, who shares the same grey markings, at risk.
She knows immediately she must do whatever possible to keep her brother safe.
But stress forces emotions to the surface and a fight grows out of control, leading Trey to walk straight into the threat Anna so desperately wanted to protect him from.
Both he and her roommate, Quinn, get captured by mistake.
To Anna, rescuing her brother isn't optional. She needs him.
Her mission to bring Trey back leads her on a journey of reckless decisions, hopeless odds and revealing discoveries. Perhaps he isn’t the only person she can allow herself to get close to?
But will her unrelenting efforts to rescue her brother be enough? Will she be able to save him before the virus claims his life?”
The story follows both siblings as they deal with an outbreak of a disease that the first symptom matches grey spots they have had since birth. The come from a very abusive home, and have both experience extreme trauma. Right at the beginnings of lockdowns and isolation they are separated. Anna is desperate to find a way to get her brother back, and is even volunteering in a study because of her spots. She starts a relationship with another girl who’s one brother has the disease.
Trey and Anna’s new roommate Quinn are apprehended and sent to a detention facility. And they experience extreme horrors while there. Anna is working to free them, and things do not go as planned.
The author in her note at the end of the volume states:
“12 year old me would never believe you are holding my book in your hands right now. 12 year old me, who started writing out of nothing but boredom, couldn’t have imagined this.
15 year old me, however, has been working towards this for 3 years. It has been perhaps one of the most difficult journeys of my life, and yet here I am; a published novelist.
3 years of writing, rewriting, planning, cutting, editing, and overall hard work have gotten me here today. Hours upon of hours of locking myself in my closet to reach a daily word goal, days upon days of non-stop rewriting, months upon months of struggling with editing motivation have all lead me to this moment. I could not be more grateful.”
The story is a good read and a strong first effort. However the story does not feel complete. It really feels like a beginning, and that there will be at least a volume or two needed to finish the story.
Many of my reviews are of Catholic books, and because of some of the content in this volume, many Catholic parents would not want their tweens or teens reading it. That being said there is some kissing and light making out, but nothing extreme.
A good read for mature readers and I hope not the last we will receive from Kirkup’s pen.
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