Half Lives - Hardcover

Grant, Sara

3.35

641 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031619493X ISBN 13: 9780316194938

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013

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I've learned that surviving isn't all it's cracked up to be.
NOW: Icie's parents gave her $10,000 in cash, a map of a top-secret bunker, and instructions to get there by any means necessary. They have news of an imminent viral attack and know that the bunker is Icie's only hope for survival. She and three other teens live locked away for months, not knowing what's happening in the outside world or who has survived. Then one day, Icie discovers a shocking secret deep in the bunker. Are they really safe there after all?
THEN: Generations in the future, the world has changed, and a mysterious cult worships the very mountain where Icie's secret bunker was built. The people never leave the mountain, they're ruled by Beckett, a teenager...and they have surprising ties to Icie.
Icie and Beckett must both fight to survive while protecting a secret that could destroy their civilizations.
This high-stakes, original, and thought-provoking adventure follows two unlikely heroes, hundreds of years apart.

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About the Author:

Sara Grant was born in a small town in Indiana. She graduated from Indiana University and has a master's degree in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. She lives in London with her British husband and is also the author of Dark Parties. Sara's website is www.sara-grant.com

From Booklist:

Postapocalyptic survival fiction gets a unique treatment in Grant’s thoughtful thriller. Seventeen-year-old Icie’s normal life ends with a 911 text from her parents, high-level government employees. Alerted to an imminent bioterrorist attack, the family heads for an abandoned bunker in the Nevada mountains, intended to be a nuclear waste repository before the project was cut—but they are split up along the way. With a backpack of supplies, $10,000, and a crude map, Icie and three teens she meets find the bunker, but survival at any cost quickly begins to take its toll. Icie’s story is only half the tale: generations later, a mountain community worship a deity called the I AM, and fear venomous terrorists, whom they believe have taken residence in a neighboring area. The two stories converge as both groups discover the mountain’s dangerous secret. The terror and pathos of Icie’s story is most immediately compelling, but discovering how her actions form the basis of this future society makes for a clever, intriguing look at how meaning evolves over generations. This is a smart, scary novel. Grades 9-12. --Krista Hutley

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