Words on Sylo by D.J. MacHale (The Sylo Chronicles #1)

Diease and military
Feb 11, 2015
2 min read

Life is good for Tucker at his home on quiet Pemberwick Island, Maine. His biggest problems are doing well on the school football team and trying to catch the eye of Olivia, a mainland girl spending some time on the island.

Everything changes when Marty, the high school's star football player, drops dead in the middle of the game. On moment, he's having the game on his life. The next, he's lying on the ground with no heartbeat and a stunned crowd. Nobody has any idea what could have happened to the beloved boy.

Later, Tucker is asked by a strange boy if he wants to sample a strange drug called the Ruby that, if he can believe anything the man says, will improve his athletic preformance. Sampling the Ruby, Tucker finds himself stronger and faster than he could imagine. However, he is convinced that Marty's death had something to to with the Ruby and turns it down.

Next thing he knows, his unassuming home is quarentined by the military, and a secret branch of the Navy called SYLO has the entire island on lockdown. If the government can be trusted, there's a virus going around that needs to be contained. But Tucker isn't so sure. After snooping around with Tori, a local girl, the two realize that the government - and Tucker's parents - aren't telling the islanders the truth.

With the combination of music and lights from the sky and the strange nighttime battles the teen witness, it's possible that the real threat is something very different than a disease. But no matter how bad SYLO might be, there's a growing possibility that whatever the real danger is could be much, much worse.

Tucker is a really relatable character, faced with the silly everyday problems of other kids his age. His best friend, Quinn, offers us some comedic relief. Tori isn't someone you get right away, but underneath her spikey shell, she's ac aring girl. Olivia might seem shallow, but part of it is that she's playing some of the characters, using that image to her advantage. Granger, SYLO's leader, is considered the bad guy, but as you learn more towards the end of the story, you have to question that. It's possible that he's trying to do what's best for the islanders.

The plot was fast-paced with lots of action and we kept learning new information about the story that would make me stop and really think. You can't be sure about what everyone's up to, and I loved that! As I said, the characters were very relatable. The book also had tons of suspense that had me reacting kind of like with Lauren Oliver books - dropped jaw, holding my breath, the whole deal. The ending was a semi-cliffhanger that left me wanting to read more! I enjoy D.J. MacHale books, and this one didn't let me down. 4/5.