Kathy Reichs’ “Virals”

Review by Richard-Thomas Gliozzi

“A gunshot is the loudest sound in the universe. Especially is the bullet is coming at you. Crack! Crack!  Bullets slashed the forest canopy. Overhead, monkeys screeched and scattered. Down Below, I ran. Heedless, legs hammering, I pounded through the undergrowth. Mind blank. Terrified” (1).

Virals is a science fiction

novel was created in 2010, about Tori Brennan, a typical 14 year old girl, and her adventures on Morris Island. With her friends Kit, Ben, and Hiram, they explore the island and come across strange things that lead to unsolved mysteries. But when they realize that one of thewolf dog pups is missing, they go and investigate to then find out that it is infected with a virus that will soon change everything for them. Missing people, unsolved murders, strange scientists, what will happen to Tori and her friends? Will they survive?

I found that this book was very entertaining and made you never want to put it down. The story was idealistically put together and the plot of the book was genius. I don't know how there could be so much action in one book. But Kathy Reichs made it possible. Even though the story was about a virus and what happens when you metal with life, but to me it was mostly about friendship and never giving up on what you want to achieve. Just like how Tori never gave up on finding out the truth and saving an innocent man of something he has not done.

Virals was very well written. This story is very stimulating and inspiring, strengthened by captivating characters and appealing and expressive scenes. Describing something like imagery is being spun like thread, “Cool air oozed from the darkness, bringing with it the smell of soft grass and the sound of  fresh rolling fields” (79). As Tori Brennan is having dreams about this field, she is exerting emotions about her, her friends, and the wolf dogs. She does not know what this dream means but she wants to find out. This makes the reader really think about what this dream will bring for Tori and how it will effect the story.

There are parts of this book that we can not relate to. Like for the fact that we are not solving a murder and that we are not following wolf dogs around. Either way, in this story, you can feel the love that Tori has for these dogs and how she wants to save them. And all of the question she has about the strange dog tag she finds and how it ties her and her friends into a dangerous adventure. To the people who are reading this book, it is almost like Tori is making you apart of her life.

This book was very captivating and I would rate it a 10! I loved it and would really recommend it. It is one, in a series of three. I have not read the other two but I bet they are just as great a the first! Kathy Reich is an author that really wants kids to read more. So her main audience is children and wanting them to explore more and that reading can take you far!

Reich, Kathy. Virals. SCHOLASTIC INC. 2010