The End Games
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
John Green meets Stephen King in this original take on the zombie apocalypse by author T. Michael Martin, which ALA Booklist called "the best of the undead bunch" in a starred review.
Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, have been battling monsters in the Game for weeks. In the rural mountains of West Virginia—armed with only their rifle and their love for each other—the brothers follow Instructions from the mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their nights fighting endless hordes of "Bellows"—creatures that roam the dark, roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good. But the Game is changing. The Bellows are evolving. The Game Master is leading Michael and Patrick to other survivors—survivors who don't play by the rules. And the brothers will never be the same.
T. Michael Martin's debut novel is a transcendent thriller filled with electrifying action, searing emotional insight, and unexpected romance.
A Desperate Game of Survival: To protect his little brother from the terrifying new reality, seventeen-year-old Michael pretends it’s all a game. But as the "Bellows" evolve and the rules change, keeping up the lie might be the deadliest challenge of all.A Brother’s Keeper Tale: With only a rifle and their love for each other, Michael and Patrick face down a world of monsters. Michael will do anything to protect his brother, but the greatest threat may not be the undead—it may be other people.Survival Horror with a Heart: Praised as "John Green meets Stephen King," this novel combines pulse-pounding action with the raw, emotional story of two brothers holding on to each other at the end of the world.A Terrifying New Kind of Undead: Forget shambling zombies. The "Bellows" are fast, they hunt in the dark, and they can mimic your voice to lure you into the open. In the mountains of West Virginia, their screams are the last thing you’ll ever hear.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Martin covers familiar territory zombies, conspiracies, post-apocalyptic romance but does so with style in this exciting debut novel. In the West Virginia mountains, 17-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, fight the "Bellows," light-fearing zombies that mimic the sounds of the living as they attack them. To help Patrick cope, Michael keeps up the pretense that the entire nightmare is a game, something he started when they ran away from their abusive stepfather the night the Bellows first attacked. The challenges they face (beyond the Bellows themselves) range from religious zealots and megalomaniacal soldiers to Patrick's dwindling supply of anti-anxiety medication. Martin sometimes lets set pieces stand in the way of common sense such as an early scene in which Michael calmly ignores a Bellow because he's certain the sun will rise before it gets to him and some of the threats can be clich , but the West Virginia setting, tense action, devoted fraternal relationship, and Michael's lovers-in-dangerous-times romance with a girl named Holly will keep teens hooked. Ages 14 up.
