Interview with author Edward Bloor

Hi guys! Y'all know how much I enjoyed A Plague Year read my review here, so today I am super excited because I got the chance to interview the author Edward Bloor! Woohoo!

Benji: As a teen how was your life different or the same as Tom's?
Edward: Tom and I were both determined to avoid getting beaten up. We both had fathers with drinking problems. We both liked learning big words.

Benji: Describe A Plague Year in three words?
Edward: Fight for whatsyours.

Benji: How do you want A Plague Year to influence teens who are tempted to use drugs?
Edward: Jimmy Giles breaks it down for them very clearly: After a few fun times, your life devolves into a flat, joyless, pointless mess, and it never gets any better. Learn from the mistakes of others and just stay away. NEO!

Benji: In A Plague Year, the events of 9/11 play a major role, where were you and what do you remember when 9/11 struck?
Edward: I was at work in Orlando, watching it on TV. I kept thinking about the month before, when my family and I were in New York. We were actually in the World Trade Center, at the Broadway TKTS Booth.

Benji: What character in A Plague Year do you relate to the most?
Edward: Tom. I couldn’t wait to go away to college and never come back.

Benji: What should readers expect when reading A Plague Year?
Edward: I always try to create a world for readers to enter and to live in for awhile. In this case, it’s the world of small-town Pennsylvania during a time of tumultuous events. I should add here that my mother’s family came from Minersville, PA, which is the model for the fictional Blackwater.

Benji: If A Plague Year had a sequel, what would the title be?
Edward: I wouldn’t write a sequel to A Plague Year, or to any novel, unless it was part of an overall plan. For example, I am planning a prequel to the novel I am at work on now; I’m outlining them simultaneously. To answer your question, though, I guess I’d go with New Moon.

Benji: Why should we read A Plague Year?
Edward: You should read it out of an unfounded yet palpable fear that if you do not, you and everyone you know will be stricken by the horrible disease of the title. That and the fact that there are zombies in it.

Thank you Edward!

Author bio: Edward Bloor is the author of Tangerine (1997), Crusader (1999), Story Time (2004) and London Calling (2006). Tangerine was an ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, a Horn Book Fanfare Selection, and a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book. Formerly, an English teacher in Florida public high schools, he became a senior editor at Harcourt Brace School Publishers in 1986. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1950, educated at Fordham University and is married to Pamela Dixon, a teacher. They have a daughter and son, and live in Winter Garden, Florida.

A Plague Year (ARC)

I just got back from a fun weekend of kayaking and while I was there I finished this book! The best part, it's an ARC of a book by Edward Bloor, oh my!

Summary: It's 2001 and zombies have taken over Tom's town. Meth zombies. The drug rips through Blackwater, PA, with a ferocity and a velocity that overwhelms everyone.

It starts small, with petty thefts of cleaning supplies and Sudafed from the supermarket where Tom works. But by year's end there will be ruined, hollow people on every street corner. Meth will unmake the lives of friends and teachers and parents. It will fill the prisons, and the morgues.

Tom's always been focused on getting out of his depressing coal mining town, on planning his escape to a college somewhere sunny and far away. But as bits of his childhood erode around him, he finds it's not so easy to let go. With the selfless heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed nearby fresh in his mind and in his heart, Tom begins to see some reasons to stay, to see that even lost causes can be worth fighting for.

This book was not what I expected. I thought that meth had powers that would turn people into zombies. Instead this book deals with what happens when an entire town gets addicted to meth and many of its citizens start acting like zombies. If you're a zombie lover I hate to disappoint you but there is no brain eating, graveyard stalking, or women (and sometimes men) terrifying in this book. Instead there is a very real drug, meth, ruining the lives of countless members of this coal mining town. and Tom, our hero just wants everything to go back to normal, the way it was before the meth plague started.

I think the best aspect of the book is the characters; they all wind together perfectly. Tom's a great narrator because he's never really the center of attention, he always off to the side which allows him to see what's going on more clearly and analyze the situation, quite humorously I might add. My absolute favorite character in this book is Arthur, the very funny, older cousin of Tom. He's been affected by his friends abusing alcohol and drugs all his life and makes the perfect driving force against the use of drugs and becomes a key member in Tom's drug counseling group, I love the way he just comes out and says NEO (Not Even Once) is a crappy slogan and has a much more straight-forward one, I HATE DRUGS! Yeah, he's awesome alright! He also pees on someone's computer to get revenge, anyone who does that is hands-down the best character in any book! If you asked me who you'd rather meet in real life, Harry Potter or Arthur, my answer would be: Sorry Harry! Arthur rules!

The settings are another big part of this book. Blackwater is a very depressing, coal mining town and it's a prime example of how boring can turn into "Ahh! Run for your life!" Bloor painted a very lifelike picture of what was happening.

I loved this book. Bloor had a great writing style from beginning to end and I'm eagerly awaiting more from this wonderful author. I wish I could give it six out of five stars!

5/5

Book Battle Update: This is my 18th book read in the Book Battle, Maddz has read 17 so we're neck and neck! Team Benji, right?

A Plague Year is out September 13st, preorder it on Amazon.