Title: SYLO
Author:  D J MacHale
Publisher/Year:  Razorbill  3/4/14
Length:  416 Pages
Series: The SYLO Chronicles series #1

Overview

THEY CAME FROM THE SKY
parachuting out of military helicopters to invade Tucker Pierce’s idyllic hometown on Pemberwick Island, Maine.

They call themselves SYLO and they are a secret branch of the U.S. Navy. SYLO’s commander, Captain Granger, informs Pemberwick residents that the island has been hit by a lethal virus and must be quarantined. Now Pemberwick is cut off from the outside world.

Tucker believes there’s more to SYLO’s story. He was on the sidelines when the high school running back dropped dead with no warning. He saw the bizarre midnight explosion over the ocean, and the mysterious singing aircraft that travel like shadows through the night sky. He tasted the Ruby—and experienced the powers it gave him—for himself.

What all this means, SYLO isn’t saying. Only Tucker holds the clues that can solve this deadly mystery.

LOOK TO THE SKY
because Pemberwick is only the first stop.

My Thoughts

So to be completely honest, i think that i was expecting this story to be a bit different, but still, it was good to get into something completely different than what i’ve been reading lately.  In this story, almost all of our mains are guys – so that means that there’s not really a twist or implication of a romance or triangle here that usually comes in dystopia type things.  Then again, this story really isn’t dystopia, so i don’t know what exactly to call it.

In this story – like the overview suggests, Tucker who is our lead, he is present for the first of many deaths to come – his teammate Marty Wiggins drops dead on the football field for reasons that no one knows.  It’s only after meeting a stranger to the island – Mr. Feit that he learns of this new substance called Ruby that gives people super human abilities.  It’s this that begins to turn the island on its tail.

This first installment takes us on the journey of Tucker, his friend Quinn and their friend (sort of) Tori as they are trying to figure out what’s going on since they were all present as well to see this ‘shadow’ like ship over the ocean that has this musical hum, and a laser light that shot out it, and no one seems to know what it is.  pair that with the SYLO team breaking all communication off of the island from the mainland – and you get some anxiety rising.

What makes this story interesting to me is that we begin to see that all is not what it seems.  Tucker’s parents have been making comments that lead us to believe that their move from CT to Pemberwick wasn’t just for the landscaping business, but we don’t know why.  they clearly know more than they are letting on, and i guess we’ll see what that is as the story continues.  Quinn’s parents as well must know more since they are the doctors who are treating everyone, and that’s going to make things even more interesting.

Where this story leaves us off is at a moment of discovery- although no one knows what they’ve found.  it’ll be interesting to see where the story goes since we’re left in the hands of a bunch of teenagers trying to save the world – but they don’t know what they are saving it from.