“It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in. And then you’re dead.”

My summer reading book is the first book in the Fallen World trilogy called The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe. It’s a dramatic science fiction about a girl’s bravery and strong heart as she fights the challenges life throws at her. Kaelyn is a 17 year old girl who lives with her parents and her older brother. On a sunny, misty morning Kaelyn was walking through the halls at school. She sat down at her desk when her friend Mackenzie came and asked, “Did you hear about Rachel’s dad?” Kaelyn replies, “No, what happened?” “Well, he was screaming and yelling in his yard, in the middle of the night, waking up the whole neighborhood. He was taken to the hospital were they said he had a very high fever and a sickness they did not know of,” she answered. Kaelyn became very concerned. A couple days later she learned that Rachel was in the hospital too, with the same symptoms as her father. A few more days went by and Kaelyn heard some dreadful news. Whatever Rachel and her dad had, really ate up there immune system because they both passed away from some kind of virus. Kaelyn was so devastated. After their deaths, the doctors were trying to figure out what this unknown virus was.

With the more and more people getting sick from the virus, the hospital filled up in a flash. The government quarantined the island because they couldn’t find a vaccine nor the cause. Kaelyn’s dad is a doctor who was trying to find the common cause among the sick. The virus soon spread throughout the whole island. People stopped coming out of their homes and stopped sending their children to school. The hospital had no room for more patients. People began to die daily because no known medication was available.

Kaelyn had been going to the store to get food and household supplies but not protecting herself from the deadly virus. A few days later she and her mom got the virus. They were taken to the hospital where Kaelyn was treated with a lot of medicines and vitamins. Three weeks in the hospital and she survived, along with four other people. She was very ecstatic for a short while, then was heartbroken when her mom didn’t survive the virus, and her brother, Drew, ran away to try and get off the island. Kaelyn soon was healthy enough to go home. She got home and her boyfriend, Gavin, had some very bad news. He told Kaelyn that the people who were unhappy with her dad’s progress, shot and killed him. No one knew who shot him, but it’s safer unknowing who did. Her heart ached so badly, she had to lie down to cope.

While Kaelyn and her friend, Tessa, were making breakfast one morning, they heard a loud horn which sounded like a big boat or a ferry. They look out there window and there it was. A big ferry docking at the harbor. So many questions raced through her head. She and Tessa began running to the harbor in search of answers. She couldn’t believe it. As the passengers were exiting the ferry, Kaelyn caught a glimpse of her friend Leo who just came home from vacation. He had some upsetting news for the people on the island. “There is no help coming, there is no vaccine and there is very little food. The virus has spread throughout the whole world,” Leo said. No one was safe. Or were they?.....

I enjoyed reading this exciting story. To be honest I don’t like reading long books, but The Way We Fall kept me reading and eager to read the second book of the trilogy, The Lives We Lost. Its specific details and dramatic events left me in suspense. I absolutely loved this book. The author is a great writer and I am looking forward to reading another one her books.