A Death-Struck Year

Book cover of A Death-Struck Year

Book description

Schools, churches, and theaters shut down. The entire city is thrust into survival mode-and into a panic. Headstrong and foolish, seventeen-year-old Cleo is determined to ride out the pandemic in the comfort of her own home, rather than in her quarantined boarding school dorms. But when the Red Cross pleads…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked A Death-Struck Year as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Shirley Vernick

Author

This vivid YA novel about the impact of the Spanish influenza pandemic in 1918 holds a special place in my heart. The uncle I never knew died in that pandemic at age nine, and my mother was the “replacement baby” three years later.

So, I guess you could say I owe my existence to that pandemic. Beyond this personal attachment to the subject, I loved the deft portrayal of the main character’s internal turmoil: she wants to help the sick, but she doesn’t want to get sick herself.

I think anyone who lived through the worst of the Covid-19…

From Shirley's list on MG/YA fiction books based on true events.

Yvonne Ventresca

Author

Set in Oregon during the 1918 influenza pandemic, this historical young adult novel features a teen girl separated from her family as the illness spreads from the east coast of the US to the west. Like Lil, the main character from my book, Cleo in A Death-Struck Year grapples with moral dilemmas. I was drawn to Cleo’s struggle of wanting to help others, which will put her life at risk, and of desperately wanting to survive.

From Yvonne's list on on pandemics published pre-COVID.