“Another lightning flash and I caught a glimpse of something large in the water, moving fast downstream. I tugged off my pack, stripped down to my shorts and T-shirt, and dove in.” This is a fantastic quote from The Eleventh Plague, written by Jeff Hirsch. The Eleventh Plague is a scientific fiction novel. With many exciting points. Stephen is salvaging the now post-apocalyptic America with his father and grandfather when thing take a turn for the worst. That is until he finds Settler’s Landing and meets Jenny. But yet again, things take another nasty twist and Stephen finds himself in deep trouble.

The way that this book forces you to keep reading is incredible, and the lines that Hirsch uses to keep you hooked are fantastic. This is one of the best books of his career. Hirsch earned three awards for this book which is the most he has ever won for a book. He won the 2013 Keystone to Reading Book Award -- High School (Nominee), the 2013 Truman Readers Award -- Grades 6-8 (Nominee), and the 2016 Iowa Teen Award -- Young Adult (Nominee). The author’s style is unique because he always has something better than the part before planned. Hirsch wrote this book in first person point-of-view which is perfect for this book because there is a lot of emotion to it which you can see in Stephen’s head. This book is mostly for the preteen to teen audience, but surely adults would love it, too. This is a very different and unique book that anybody with the time to do so, should read. The Eleventh Plague.