New Book Release – TAINTED (YA Dystopian Thriller)
I did it again! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be publishing two novels less than one year after setting aside the trilogy I was working on. But when the story started to fall flat and I realized it needed more intrigue for even me to stay interested, I set it aside and I haven’t looked back since.
I went on to write SHATTERED after Marris Sheffield showed up as a dead girl in one of my dreams. After six and a half months of writing and editing, I published my first young adult novel.
And last summer, not willing to write just one novel at a time, I started writing TAINTED, my second YA thriller. It’s a story of love in the midst of death and destruction in a dystopian world, and it’s perfect for YA dystopian thriller fans!
Here is a short excerpt from TAINTED…
***
When everyone died around me, it seemed the world had crumbled. What had been was gone, and most of what remained was little more than rubble, knocked down by the bombs that had torn our city apart and left to disintegrate in the scorching sun.
A little over a week ago, the city’s thick stone walls were breached, and one hundred wolves, which were merely a scientist’s pet project, flooded into the city. When the city officials heard the news, they abandoned their post, fled, and blockaded the breach in the wall, trapping us inside the city as the wolves roamed free.
One would think there was nothing to worry about. What could one hundred wolves accomplish in one night? But these weren’t just any wolves. They could regenerate.
Yes, this brilliant scientist had discovered a way to mutate a wolf’s DNA so that its body could regenerate damaged flesh. Like when a starfish regenerates a severed limb. They were impossible to kill. And as far as I knew, none had died in the attack.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the people. Since it was a Saturday night when the wall was breached, a large amount of the population was at the heart of the city for weekly entertainment. Generally, only a handful of people ever stayed home on Saturdays.
When I heard the announcement on the ten o’clock news, the death toll had already reached an estimated 40,000 which was almost half our city’s population.
That was the last news report.
Five minutes later, our electricity went out and never came back on. And by then, it was too late to evacuate.
Then I heard the howls. And then the screams. And then the gunfire.
***
Want to read more?
TAINTED is available in Kindle and paperback versions on Amazon. Go here to check it out! – https://www.amazon.com/author/jodycalkins
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