Imagine a story about a plague outbreak, where you’ve got nothing you can do about it but move and salvage destroyed items. Well, that sounds like The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch. In this dystopian book, Stephan, a 15-year-old boy, has to explore and survive the wilderness in an old-futuristic world while looking out for his dad and fending off possible threats such as slavers, and people who try to take people, hostage. When Stephan is found by a group of scouts, he quickly befriends them, and they take him back to Settler’s Landing where he meets Jenny, a shy girl who misbehaves a lot, and doesn’t accept anything the way it is.  Soon, they become inseparable, but when slavers threaten the village everyone’s life is at risk.

The Eleventh Plague is a dystopian book and a fun read. I like The Eleventh Plague because it had a protagonist who is a very dynamic character with many thoughts and feelings getting deeper and more intense as the story progresses. The author, Jeff Hirsch, also makes a very diverse plot with many conflicts and themes throughout the book that lead to an interesting story. I love Hirsch’s writing style and the amount of dialogue in the book because it adds suspense and makes the book feel more real.  This book reminds me of Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen; both of these books are based around surviving in the wild and making changes to how they are living and making self-improvement. I would recommend this book to people of all ages and Lexile levels since it is action packed and is relatable to life during the pandemic.