The Boy on the Bridge

What is the sound of the world nearing its end? In this riveting audiobook, it's the sound of hope against hope, as narrated by Finty Williams. She deftly gives voice to the crew of Rosie, a retrofitted tank carrying a group of soldiers and scientists who are seeking a cure for a plague as they traverse a ravaged Great Britain. The contagion has turned much of its population into mindless creatures who seek only to feed. The expedition ends up fighting not only the "Hungries," but also each other. With a blend of accents drawn from across the UK, Williams skillfully animates the 12 people struggling against long odds. The result is a chilling but ultimately uplifting story of a humanity that must evolve to survive, of humans overcoming obstacles despite themselves. D.E.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

March 27, 2017
Plausible science and solid prose and characterization elevate this dystopian thriller above similar works. In the same alternate future as Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts, a fungus, Cordyceps, which began as an insect parasite, has infected people, repurposing their brains and turning them into “hungries,” mindless creatures with an appetite for human flesh. Carey moves quickly to engage readers’ sympathies for epidemiologist Samrina Khan, one of a group of scientists and soldiers on a research mission. They travel through the U.K. in a motor home, on a desperate quest for an inhibitor that could make people resistant to the fungus. In the midst of the devastating horror the world has become, Samrina learns that she is pregnant, news she considers “a high tide of wonder and dismay and disbelief and misery in which hope bobs like a lifeboat cut adrift.” This development radically complicates things for her, and her colleagues, as the plot builds to a satisfying conclusion.