
Published by Harper Collins on April 30, 2013
Source: ARC Trade
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Action & Adventure / General, Young Adult Fiction / Dystopian, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / General, Young Adult Fiction / Science & Nature / Environment
Pages: 496
Find the Author: Website, Blog, Goodreads, Amazon
Format: ARC
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
Jordana Frankel’s thrilling and imaginative YA dystopian novel The Ward is set in a near-future New York City. A catastrophic flood has washed out Manhattan, leaving the rivers polluted, and entire neighborhoods underwater. Some areas are quarantined because of an outbreak of a deadly disease.
The illness, known as the Blight, is killing sixteen-year-old Ren’s sister. Desperate to save her sister’s life, Ren agrees to lead a secret mission from the government to search for a cure. But her quest leads to a confounding mystery beneath the water and an unlikely friendship with a passionate scientist.
Readers who love speculative fiction and crave action-packed stories similar to Veronica Roth’s Divergent will find The Ward absolutely unputdownable.
Review
The Ward is a dystopian novel in a world that has been ravaged by a plague called The Blight. This novel was published in 2013, and I closed my eyes and picked it up one night to read. It is emotional because, in 2022, we are dealing with issues of a disease that has caused quite an uproar in our lives, and the information is confusing. Anyway, back to the novel, The Blight has caused sections of the world to be left in poorer conditions. It is illegal to be infected and not notify the popular authorities. For some unknown reason, our main character Ren is immune and works with the government searching for freshwater to gain money to take of her “sister.” Ren is a street racer, so there are many tense action scenes where her life is on the line. There is a whole conspiracy brewing under the surface, and once you get to the heart of this book, you won’t want to put it down. The ending leaves you reeling with a bit of a cliffhanger. An exciting novel, an emotional one at times, and well thought out.