Alive

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By Scott Sigler

Publisher Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • For fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising comes a gripping sci-fi adventure in which a group of teenagers wake up in a mysterious corridor with no knowledge of who they are or how they got trapped. Their only hope lies with an indomitable young woman who must lead them not only to answers but to survival.

“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.

Praise for Alive

“Suspenseful . . . [Alive] lives up to its hype, packing plenty of thrills.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Fascinating and intriguing . . . a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Maze Runner and yet . . . so much more.”—Fresh Fiction

“A ripping, claustrophobic thunderbolt of a novel, Scott Sigler’s Alive gives us an unforgettable young hero who must find the inner strength to lead without knowing where she is, who she is, and how bitterly the odds are stacked against her.”—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising

“Sigler has created a wonderful and engrossing character in M. Savage. Strong and smart, but with the naïveté and misgivings of any teenage girl, she’s someone you’ll definitely want on your side when s*** hits the fan, which it most certainly does.”—Veronica Belmont, host of Sword & Laser

“A tense, unsettling page-turner of a story—both deeply strange and wildly compelling.”—Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker and Maplecroft

“From the first page I was hooked. The puzzle unfolds masterfully, right down to the last page.”—Dr. Phil Plait, author of Bad Astronomy

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446 Reviews

3.5

Ashley Fleischfresser

Created 1 day ago

“Scott Sigler’s “Alive” was a solid execution of a suspenseful and thrilling story reminiscent of other 2010s dystopian sci-fi plots such as Maze Runner or Divergent. As a YA novel, the ‘underlying’ themes were a bit in your face, however I suppose if I had read this at 14 instead of 28, I would probably need them to be. Overall, I still pleasantly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to diving into the next in the trilogy!”

Change and grow Diverse representation Clever plotting Twisty Dystopian Easy to read

Minniewhop

Rigel

Jennifer A

Rebekah

“I enjoyed Alive, I liked the characters and the story was quite fresh and new. I've never read anything like this before. We follow Em, the leader of a small group of teenagers who woke up in coffins on their 12th birthday, or at least that's all they can remember. We're inside Em's head as she and the other birthday children venture out into the strange place they're occupying and find other kids, find out where they are, and how exactly they might be able to get out. I really liked the story. There were a couple of twists, the first I was kind of unimpressed with but by the end of the novel I did come to appreciate it and I saw the reason it was included. I absolutely loved Matilda and the story behind the birthday children, I thought it was a really interesting idea and I'd love to know more about how that all works, hopefully we'll get to see more of it in the next couple of books. Scott Sigler's writing style is perfectly suited to this type of story. I know he usually writes adult books, but the only reason this is categorised as young adult is because there's no (or only a tiny amount) of swearing. There's a lot of blood and fighting, a fair amount of death, and the whole feel of it was more mature than most YA books I've read, which I really enjoyed. I often feel like YA books are slightly patronising but I didn't feel that at all about Alive. I listened to the serialised audio book through Scott Sigler's free podcast, which meant that I ended up spending a little over 10 weeks listening to this (I was late to the party, the story was released over 20 weeks) so I do feel like I wasn't fully invested in the story. I'll probably reread this when the next book comes out and I imagine my rating will most likely increase because I'll be able to fully invest myself and have the whole novel there in front of me instead of having to dip in and out constantly. Initially, when I finished listening to this, I wasn't sure whether I'd continue on with the series or not, but after a day or so of mulling over it, I definitely will be because I did really enjoy it and I didn't really have any problems with the story. I think the podcast is definitely worth listening to, if only for Sigler's little tidbits at the end about the different chapters because at one point when I was angry about the sexism, he clarified a while later what he intended that to mean and what points he was trying to make with it. So in that way it was a better experience to have than just reading it. Overall this was a fun, original novel and I definitely recommend this to anyone.”

About Scott Sigler

Scott Sigler is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels—including Alive and Alight—six novellas, and dozens of short stories. He is also the co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which publishes his YA Galactic Football League series. He lives in San Diego.