Pale by Chris Wooding

Title: Pale
Author: Chris Wooding
ISBN: 9781781120910
Publisher: Stoke Books
Released: September 28, 2012
Series: N/A
Page #: 67
Source: eARC from NetGalley

Summary:
"The Lazurus Serum can bring you back from the dead - but when you come back you've changed. You're a pale, an outcast. It's the last thing Jed wants, but an accident changes everything and Jed's forced to discover the true cost of living forever."
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First Lines:

"We got the Pale on his way to school.
'Where do you think you're going?' asked Kyle. The way he said it, it wasn't a question. It was a threat." 
Page 1
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Review:

This is a very short book, so the review will be as well.  I'm always on the lookout for great hi-lo books for students. I know they go over like gangbusters for many kids, so I'm excited to find a new one. Especially when this one is in a different sort of genre than most of them are.

Jed lives in a time when death isn't necessarily the end of life. There is a serum that can keep people alive - but it changes the pigment in their skin. And the world looks at you like an outcast. He never wants that to happen to him or his friends.

I have been a fan of just about everything Chris Wooding has written. This short story is no exception. I think it's really well done and fully thought out within a few pages. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so rich, quite frankly. It's nice to see a hi-lo sci-fi/fantasy story. Especially because it covers some issues about differences in people and how people treat each other.

If you know readers who need those short stories, then I definitely recommend this one. It's a good one and it has plenty of possibility for discussion. So I think this one will go over well.
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