Wormwood, Nevada by David Oppengaard

Tyler and Anna Mayfield are newlyweds who have moved out of their hometown in order to make enough money to properly settle down. Tyler, an English teacher has been offered a job in Wormwood, Nevada, a small city in the middle of a desert with blistering heat and lonely conditions. They are given shelter by Tyler's aunt Bernie. At first the move seems normal with Tyler spending time at the bar with friends and Anna chatting with Bernie and others, but then suddenly everything changes when a meteorite lands in the middle of the town. The whole town begins to panic and turn itself upside down with insane men predicting the end of the world and stupid teenagers sacrificing animals to "please the gods." Tyler begins to teach summer school classes and starts to go on adventures with buddies and joins an alien visitation club after seeing "alien" heads. Things take a turn for the worse as tragedy strikes with loss of a life. As the town begins to settle down the most shocking event happens: an earthquake strikes. What will happen now? Is it the end of Wormwood as they know or will the tragic events keep plummeting down?

My favorite component to this story is its setting; the author vividly describes a desolate, dry and burning hot town. This description was so complete that I felt as though I experienced the climate in Nevada. The characters in this story have different and interesting personalities such Clyde the obsessive drinker with a carefree personality that adds adventure to the novel. Throughout the book the plot really drags, details upon details end up explaining the same ideas. Although it is a fairly large book the plot is not complex at all, it is mainly just going through the typical life of someone who has just moved to a new town. The author tries to include flashback in reference to both of their high school days, but the flashbacks used don't provide much useful information about personalities of characters. The beginning of the book it was fairly interesting but as it neared a close the quality of writing declined. It went from talking about Tyler's adventures in the start, to aliens coming down to take over the world in the end. Compared to many other science fiction books I have read, this is far, far down due to its lack of action and unrealistic feel. Throughout the book no reference to science fiction is made besides the occasional statement about the world ending, until the end when you are thrown into a world of aliens. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who does not enjoy extreme science fiction due to amount of fantasy involved.

Reviewer Age:12

Reviewer City, State and Country: Kansas City, Kansas United States of America