Alive by Scott Sigler
(The Generations Trilogy, Book 1)
Released: July 14, 2015 | Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
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I open my eyes to darkness. Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head…it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board…a lid.
A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people…and no answers.
She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.
Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there's a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.
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Scott Sigler considers everyone expendable in his books, even major characters. When asked why he kills characters, he explained that knowing a protagonist is guaranteed to survive because there are sequels destroys some of the suspense. His philosophy is essentially: if you’re reading a Sigler novel, nobody is safe.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆
First book of 2019 is BRUTAL. ☠️
Alive is beautifully brutal and unapologetically graphic. We’re talking blood, murder, gore, rotted corpses, bones used as weapons, and then there’s that scene:
“Babies.
Hundreds of little corpses dangle from the ceiling, so thick I almost can’t see the ceiling itself. They hang from chains that end in metal hooks slid through their rib cages. Cracked, dry skin has peeled away from their bodies, showing the bones beneath. Clumps of fallen flesh cover the floor like some horrid scattering of snow.”
(Yeah… so that happened.) The scene on its own might not be that shocking, but come on, did they have to be babies?
The real strength here is suspense. The tension barely lets up as you keep asking: Where are these characters? How did they end up in this nightmare? And the best part is Sigler doesn’t rely on the overused “start at the end, flashback to the beginning, then bounce around in time” formula. (Not that I hate it, but it’s definitely overpraised.)
Instead, this story starts at the end…and just keeps moving forward. No flashbacks, no convenient exposition dumps. You uncover the truth right alongside the characters, piece by bloody piece, as they explore, stumble on clues, and meet other survivors who may or may not know more than they do.
And that’s what makes Alive work: you, the reader, never know more than the characters. It’s an old-school storytelling trick that instantly locks you in, making every revelation hit harder because you’re discovering it with them.
