This Mortal Coil

September 18, 2017
For two years, 17-year-old Catarina Agatta, a talented hacker, has survived on her own in the Black Hills: her scientist father, Lachlan, was taken by the powerful Cartaxus organization after the Hydra plague brought humanity to its knees. It’s dangerous outside: mindless, cannibalistic humans called Lurkers roam, and those infected with the virus explode at the final stage of the disease, spreading it through the air. Only eating a victim’s flesh provides temporary immunity (“This is the Hydra virus’s cruelest side: It forces the healthy to eat the sick”). When Cole Franklin, a Cartaxus soldier, brings news that Lachlan is dead and Cat must decrypt a Hydra vaccine that he developed, she agrees to help. Suvada’s scary, action-packed debut novel barely takes a breath, and its exploration of what makes us human goes well below the surface. Despite some familiar elements in the novel—such as Cat’s struggles with her father’s motives, a love triangle, and her own identity—Suvada’s vibrantly imagined technology will spark readers’ imaginations. A genuinely shocking twist sets up a planned sequel. Ages 14–up. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary.

September 6, 2017
Catarina has survived a genetic apocalypse, a disease that has ravaged humanity, turning some into the walking dead, doomed to explode in a toxic, highly contagious cloud. The daughter of a brilliant genetic scientist, Caterina lives in a world dictated by gene-hacking technology, but is only able to use the most basic technology herself. Her father is long gone, forcibly taken by Cartaxus, a powerful gene-tech corporation keeping survivors ‘safe’ in underground bunkers to work on a cure. But it is Cat who holds the key, and they’re coming for her … This is a powerful thriller that easily holds its own against its YA predecessors of the dystopian, post-apocalyptic survival genre, such as The Hunger Games and the ‘Gone’ series. It is clever, sharply observed and—as with the big successes of its genre—plays out a scenario that doesn’t stretch credulity, particularly given the current climate of fear and society’s ever-increasing dependence on technology. This Mortal Coil is more than just a fun, pacy thriller. It asks the reader to face their fears of the future and imagine how they would survive if confronted with such a fate. Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and reviewer. She is the manager of the Stella Schools Program