Sixteen year-old Shur is one of the first to see the creatures. While staring out the window in history class, she spots one floating over the soccer field. It looks like a monarch butterfly—but it's huge. Within minutes, her classmates' phones are buzzing with emergency alerts. These things are everywhere, and though nobody's exactly sure why the alerts are telling them to take cover, Shur knows it can't be good. It's only when she's left school and headed home that she learns what the creatures do: they attack.
By the time Shur, her two brothers, and their two best friends make it back to her house, it's clear the five of them must survive whatever comes next on their own.
As the "butterflies"—new hybrid creatures thought to be created by climate change—multiply and swarm outside, anxiety-prone Shur focuses on what she can control: boarding up windows, stocking food, and preparing a shelter in the basement. They lose internet and power while vigilantes create terror outside. Meanwhile the creatures begin to fulfill their ultimate purpose: multiplying via parasitic load, and before long, the butterflies aren't the only thing trying to get in. To protect her family and survive the invasions, Shur must find the strength to protect their sanctuary at any cost.
This is a really clever variation on a zombie attack! The giant butterflies, which may or may not be something prehistoric, are only the first wave...although they're terrifying enough. The real trouble comes when they start infecting people, turning them into mindless bags of rage who only want to spread the infection further...a little like The Last of Us in that way. Shur ends up with her twin brother, her toddler brother and a couple of friends, barricaded into their house (parts of which are lost and become available again at different times during the story due to various invasions.)
The claustrophobia this occasionally brought on surprised me - I didn't expect it to be that strong! It reminded me a little of Life as we Knew It, where the protagonist's world got steadily smaller as the novel went on. I also loved that there was no hanging around getting to know the characters and setting up the world when it was about to change so severely - the butterflies appear in the first sentence!
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