Stung (Stung Series #1)

by Bethany Wiggins

Overview

Fiona doesn't remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered-her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right wrist-a black oval with five marks on either side-that she doesn't remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. And she's right. When the honeybee population collapsed, a worldwide pandemic occurred and the government tried to bio-engineer a cure. Only the solution was deadlier than the original problem-the vaccination turned people into ferocious, deadly beasts who were branded as a warning to un-vaccinated survivors. Key people needed to rebuild society are protected from disease and beasts inside a fortress-like wall. But Fiona has awakened branded, alone-and on the wrong side of the wall . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802735898
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/18/2014
Series:	World of Nightwalkers #05 , #1
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	32,311
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

BETHANY WIGGINS is the author of Shifting. She started writing on a dare and dove headfirst into the world of writerly madness. She lives in the desert with her husband, four quirky kids, and two very fluffy cats.
www.bethanywiggins.com

Editorial Reviews

Seventeen-year-old Fiona Tarsis is missing the past four years of her life. She finds herself in a post-apocalyptic world brought about by a flu, caused by genetically-modified bees, that causes infected patients to become feral beasts. Fiona is different because she is not generating any symptoms, so she might just be the last hope for mankind. Too bad she is on the run, finding begrudging help in a scowling street urchin named Arrin and soldier, Dreyden Bowen, the younger brother of a boy she had a crush on growing up. Highly sought after by all sides, Fiona and Bowen go on the run, but quickly grow close amongst the ruins. The romance between Fiona and Bowen is the most engrossing thing about the plot, played with just the right amount of innocence, tension, and heat. The rest of Stung, unfortunately, feels like a reheated version of other, better dystopian adventures. Fiona does not make a root-able heroine in her rush to play catch-up on the details of the end of the world; she seems more along-for-the ride, leaving her heroes battered and nearly broken in the quest to keep her safe. Much of the backstory and conspiracy feel tacked on at the end, rather than woven throughout. There is a grand love story at the center of Stung—rare and sweet, like the luxury honey has become in the world Wiggins creates—but it is trapped beneath efforts to mimic The Hunger Games. Reviewer: Matthew Weaver

VOYA - Matthew Weaver

When Fiona wakes up, she looks around in confusion. Everything is filthy, broken, and faded. How could this have happened? She went to sleep at age thirteen on a clean bed with clean sheets just a few nights previously. She looks in the mirror, only to see her college-age sister Lissa. But when she turns around, there is no one there. She realizes that the girl she saw was her reflection. A tattoo—an oval with ten legs—mars the back of her hand. She does not know why or how she knows this, but it must be covered. And, with her wild-eyed brother in hot pursuit, she abandons her house. Fiona's on the run. What she does not know as yet is that the honeybee population collapsed with disastrous results; and when the government tries to bio-engineer a cure, the cure becomes far worse than the original problem. Stung is an action-packed dystopian novel with strange twists and turns unfolding at every turn. Fans of The Hunger Games will love this thought-provoking novel as well. Reviewer: Bonita Herold

Children's Literature - Bonita Herold

Gr 8 Up—The pesticide developed to kill genetically modified bees that caused a bee flu epidemic killed almost everything else as well, leaving a world in which women are scarce, honey is more valuable than gold, and survival is tenuous. Fiona Tarsis wakes in the ruin of her Colorado home with no memory of how she got there. Lack of recall, however, does not keep her from recognizing a feral attacker as her twin brother, Jonah, and her flight from him through a window is just the beginning of her narrow escapes. Fo is captured by the militia, guardians of the gates to a walled city. Bowen, a handsome neighbor from Fo's old life, fills in the gaps in her memory. She learns that parents, desperate to save their children, voluntarily put them into comas hoping to keep them stable until a cure for the epidemic was found. The plot relies on coincidence and cannot fully hide weaknesses in characterization with its breakneck speed. Fo was 13 when she went into the coma, and 17 when she awakens with a more mature body and a mind that seemingly continued to develop while she was comatose. The inevitable love story is handled with some heat. Fo reacts instead of acts in the simplistic role of girl in peril. Sent to fight to the death, she is protected in the arena by Jonah until Bowen rescues her in the nick of time. The conclusion is anticlimactic, but the roaring pace keeps world-building to a minimum and makes this a crashing dystopic roller-coaster ride.—Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL

School Library Journal

Fiona Tarsis wakes up to a world of nightmares in this fast-paced, fever-bright post-apocalyptic adventure. Her brother's a monster, her Denver suburb's a wasteland, and she doesn't even recognize herself or the 10-legged tattoo on her hand. Fiona has no memory of the last four years or how the world changed, but she quickly learns how dangerous life is outside the wall. After seeking assistance from Arrin--a Fec, or sewer-dweller, of indeterminate gender and murky motives--Fiona is captured by the militia and seems destined for a short and painful life in a laboratory. Or worse--like all vaccinated children, Fiona bears the mark, and she could turn into a ravening beast at any moment--but she is also a female in a barren and depopulated world. Fiona loses her innocence but not her hope as she dives into chase scenes, gun battles, gladiatorial fights and a tentative romance with her rescuer/captor Dreyden Bowen. Wiggins (Shifting 2011) muses on the dangers of science and medicine and deftly maps out the chain of events that has led to catastrophe, creating a violent world vastly different from ours but still recognizable. With a stirring conclusion and space for a sequel, it's an altogether captivating story. Readers will gladly be bitten by this bug. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews