The Young World – Booktalking #kidlit

The Young World
by Chris Weitz (Author)

Booktalk: Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens.

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he’s secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park…and discovers truths they could never have imagined.

Snippet:
We did a whole lot of corpse-burning back in the day. Cleansing by fire, Wash called it. Said some dudes called the Zoroastrians used to do it. Yes, I spelled that right. I may not be all SAT-wordy like Wash and Jeff, but no way are they gonna lord it over me, knowing bonus words and shit.

Cleansing by fire! Those were some good times. Douse a bandanna in Chanel No. 5, put on some sassy pink North Face gloves, and heave ho! Make a big pile of bodies and try not to use too much gasoline and try not to lose the lunch you didn’t have enough of.

Not enough hands or time to get rid of all the bodies, though. And they’re still out there, millions of them, slowly turning to mulch, pulsing with maggots. It has been a banner year for carrion eaters.