Silver

by Chris Wooding

Overview

In this “exciting, unpredictable and unsettling” sci-fi thriller, students struggle to survive a virus that turns humans into murderous machines (Publishers Weekly).

Paul is the new kid at Mortingham Boarding Academy, and he has a dark secret. Caitlyn admires Paul from afar and resents that he only has eyes for Erika. Erika thinks that she and Caitlyn are best friends, but she’s wrong. Adam is a bully with a major chip on his shoulder. Mark is outgrowing his old friends but doesn’t know how to make new ones.

In a few short hours, none of this will matter. Without warning, a horrifying infection will spread across the school grounds, and a group of students with little in common will find themselves barricaded in a classroom, fighting for their lives. Some will live. Some will die. And then it will get even worse.

Fast-paced and frightening, Silver is a tale set on the fringes of science and horror—a story about the struggle to survive in the face of impossible odds.

“Wooding has morphed a traditional English boarding-school story into a horror survival story that would make William Golding and Gary Paulsen envious.” —Booklist

“All kinds of white-knuckle fun.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545621915
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/17/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	325
Sales rank:	447,138
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Chris Wooding began writing at the age of 16, and his first novel, Crashing, was published when he was 19. Since that time, he's written dozens of novels in several genres, notably the award-winning The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, Poison, Storm Thief, the Malice series, the graphic novel Pandemonium, Silver, and Velocity.

Read an Excerpt

From SILVER:There was something about the way he moved. Something that reminded Caitlyn of the girl she'd just seen wandering in the storm, the girl who froze when the lightning flashed."Are you alright?" Erika said again, holding out her hand to him.The boy turned his head toward them, and Erika gasped. The face beneath the hood was a webwork of silver threads crawling across the boy's skin. His mouth was open, and his lips and tongue and teeth were veined in the same color. His irises were a bright electric blue, and the whites of his eyes were mottled with tiny, irregular silver plates.Caitlyn sensed the lunge an instant before it came.

Editorial Reviews

02/10/2014
In this atmospheric thriller, Wooding (Pandemonium) ushers in the end of the world, with the point of origination being a secluded English boarding school. The appearance of strange silver beetles on the grounds of Mortingham Academy are the spark for a terrifying biomechanical infestation that leaps from animals to humans, much like a zombie plague. As the few survivors who take refuge in the science building soon learn, the Infected are growing smarter and more aggressive, and are changing shape to take on new, deadlier functions. With the body count rising and time running out, a small group of students that include a conflicted leader, the school bully, and a technologically-proficient outcast must find a way to escape an increasingly hopeless situation. Wooding cleverly sets the mood with ghost stories and a creepy backdrop before turning the Infected hordes loose on his rapidly dwindling cast—blink and you may miss some deaths. While he plays with zombie tropes, his science-fiction twist allows for an exciting, unpredictable, and unsettling story. Ages 12–up. Agent: Carolyn Whitaker, London Independent Books. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray :*"An imaginative tour de force." — Publishers Weekly, starred review*"Eerie and exhilarating. — School Library Journal, starred review*"Readers will get finger cramps from rapidly turning the pages of Wooding's gripping tale." — Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewPraise for POISON:*"A compelling read. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Each scene of danger sings with tension. Lovers of adventure, horror, and suspense should keep an eye on this talented author." — Horn Book MagazinePraise for Storm Thief:*"This stunning work of speculative fiction will appeal to Wooding's fans and earn him new ones." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Booklist Starred Review
A couple of boys on a biology field trip uncover a silver creature with chitin markings eerily like a computer chip. But it is only the first of many horrible creatures whose scratches turn humans into silver insects—or the Infected. It’s a biological weapon experiment gone awry, a horrifying precursor to an evil world bent on destroying itself. The challenge for a lucky (?) few Mortingham Boarding Academy students: how to survive and perhaps, more importantly, what happens if they do? Wooding has morphed a traditional English boarding school story—bullies, evil headmaster, well-intentioned teacher, and boy/girl drama—into a horror/survival story that would make William Golding and Gary Paulsen envious. The ugly, morphing Infected are graphic, both awe-inspiring and terrifying, as they devour their comrades to become larger, more intelligent, and more vicious. The tension is palpable as a small group of teens gradually out-thinks its few remaining adult leaders, thus leading the scant remaining survivors in a quest to escape. Is “sometimes being nice being stupid” or can goodness actually prevail? Carve out enough time to read Silver in a single sitting. You’ll need it.

From the Publisher

05/01/2014
Gr 7 Up—Orphaned when his parents die in a plane crash, Paul Camber opts to go to Mortingham Academy, rather than live with his childless aunt and uncle. Arriving midyear, he keeps to himself, until the boarding school finds itself in a science-fiction nightmare that begins with an unusual find during a biology-lab outing. Andrew and Graham become ill after being bitten by two unusually large silvery beetles covered with circuitlike lines. The school nurse asks Paul to go for help when a storm causes a power outage, and he soon realizes that the beetles aren't the only creatures on campus morphing into aggressive, silver nano-machines. Under the direction of a favorite teacher, Paul and a loner named Mark herd healthy students into the science block, boarding up windows and doors to keep out the Infected. In a fast-paced series of battles, Mr. Sutton is killed and the students, who once disliked each other (fleshed out in separate point-of-view chapters at the start), must find common ground in order to survive. Individual strengths, such as leadership skills and science knowledge, are utilized to produce weapons, such as molotov cocktails, to stall off the rabid attackers. Tension is maintained to an uncertain end and the probability of a dystopian world in which Paul and his friends feel confident to navigate. The imaginative details of a virus that turns organic matter into circuitry will appeal to middle-grade science-fiction and horror fans as well as reluctant readers.—Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

School Library Journal

2013-12-07
When strange insects assault a remote boarding school in England, the kids try to save the day in this tense page-turner. As the new boy at school, Paul keeps a family tragedy a secret, but his experience in coping with it thrusts him into a leadership position when an unfamiliar, silver-colored beetle turns up on campus. Any creature bitten by the beetles, including humans, quickly grows a silver-colored outer shell and clearly loses thinking capacity, shuffling around and trying to scratch or bite others. As they proliferate, however, they develop a kind of collective intelligence and begin to work together to conquer the entire school. Barricaded in the science block, Paul and a few others fight a seeming losing battle against the creatures. While that fight provides enough suspense for the novel, Wooding deepens the narrative by developing highly distinctive characters. Caitlyn hates her supposed friend Erika, and that emotion will play a part in the later plot. Adam, the school bully, may finally find what he's really been looking for during his fight. Most importantly, however, Paul will learn that his leadership abilities trump even those of the adults on the scene. Skillfully managed subplots keep the pages flying. It looks like the end of the world is nigh.... It's just all kinds of white-knuckle fun. (Horror. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews