Spill Zone Book 1 - by Scott Westerfeld (Paperback)

About the Book

The "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Uglies series launches a new graphic novel series. Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone.

Book Synopsis

Do you dare enter the Spill Zone? The first volume of this dystopian graphic novel duology by science fiction visionary Scott Westerfeld and artist Alex Puvilland is now in paperback!

Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone.

The Spill claimed Addison's parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who hasn't spoken since. Addison provides for her sister by photographing the Zone's twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. Art collectors pay top dollar for these bizarre images, but getting close enough for the perfect shot can mean death--or worse.

When an eccentric collector makes a million-dollar offer, Addison breaks her own hard-learned rules of survival and ventures farther than she has ever dared. Within the Spill Zone, Hell awaits--and it seems to be calling Addison's name.

Find out what happens in Spill Zone. And don't miss the sequel, Spill Zone: The Broken Vow.

This is a stunning graphic novel written by the author of the Uglies series, the Leviathan and Midnighters trilogies, as well as So Yesterday, Peeps, and The Last Days. This book is printed in stunning full color, with art by Alex Puvilland and colors by Hilary Sycamore. The trade paperback edition includes a 21-page bonus comic.

Praise for Spill Zone:

"Addison is particularly complex: though she is sympathetic, her decisions are intentionally presented as morally questionable. Harsh profanity and violence make this a more appropriate choice for mature readers. This unnerving, gripping title--Westerfeld's first original graphic novel--is bound to entice older comics fans, especially those interested in darker sci-fi and nuanced characterization. . . . A must-have for teen and graphic novel collections." --Kirkus Reviews

"Fascinating and hard to forget." --Publishers Weekly

"A little dark, a little twisted, and completely enthralling." --Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles and Heartless

"Amazing." --io9

"Expect some stunning sci-fi spectacle when Addison ventures into the Spill Zone." --A.V. Club

"Readers will have no problem rooting for Addison--and fearing for her. . . . As frightening as Spill Zone can be, though, its greatest asset is its muscle tensing suspense. Reading it feels like binge-watching a great cable series, complete with the same feeling of despair you get when you finish the final episode and realize you've got . . . to wait for the next season." --The New York Times

"Puvilland, an animator for DreamWorks, has a rough, kinetic style that brings to life the rough, kinetic world of Spill Zone. . . . Westerfeld does not overburden the story with unnecessary dialogue or narration. He deftly joins the ranks of other established YA authors like M. T. Anderson and Marissa Meyer who, as of late, have taken a break from prose to produce comics." --The New York Review of Books

"If Katniss Everdeen's your gal, you're going to want to meet Addison Merrit, another teen trying to make the best of her dystopic surroundings." --Entertainment Weekly

"Spill Zone is an absolute must read. It's a brilliant work of art that is easily one of this year's best comics. Engaging, exciting, and mysterious, this comic will consume you." --Nerdist

"YA superstar Scott 'Uglies' Westerfeld and artist Alex Puvilland tell the spooky, action-packed tale of Addison, one of the few survivors of the mysterious events that destroyed Poughkeepsie, New York, turning it into a spooky, Night-Vale-ish place where mutant animals, floating living corpses, and people trapped in two-dimensional planes live amid strange permanent winds that create funnels of old electronics and medical waste." --Boing Boing

Review Quotes

"A little dark, a little twisted, and completely enthralling." --Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles and Heartless

"As frightening as Spill Zone can be, though, its greatest asset is its muscle-tensing suspense. Reading it feels like binge-watching a great cable series, complete with the same feeling of despair you get when you finish the final episode and realize you've got a long time to wait for the next season." --The New York Times

"Puvilland, an animator for DreamWorks, has a rough, kinetic style that brings to life the rough, kinetic world of Spill Zone." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"If Katniss Everdeen's your gal, you're going to want to meet Addison Merritt." --Entertainment Weekly

"Amazing." --io9

"Expect some stunning sci-fi spectacle when Addison ventures into the Spill Zone." --A.V. Club

"Westerfeld...establishes several compelling mysteries in this series opener, and Puvilland captures the haunting surreality of the Spill Zonethrough an unearthly pastel/neon palette that oozes a sense of wrongness every moment Addison spends there." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This unnerving, gripping title--Westerfeld's first original graphic novel--is bound to entice older comics fans, especially those interested in darker sci-fi and nuanced characterization." --School Library Journal, starred review

"Westerfeld handles the spooky business of the infected town magnificently, spiking the eerie and inexplicable with moments of genuine horror, while always keeping the emotional tensions of his highly accessible teenage protagonist at the center." --Booklist, starred review

"Full-color illustrations are appropriately wild, jagged, and threatening. Readers will be demanding the next installment as they close this one." --Kirkus

"It's clear from the movie-ready visual images that the illustrator is primarily an anima- tor, and the panels are a worthy match for the clever, memorable text."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This first entry in a creepy, addictively suspenseful graphic novel series makes for compulsive reading." --Horn Book

About the Author

Scott Westerfeld is the author of the worldwide bestselling Uglies series and the Locus Award-winning Leviathan series, and is co-author of the Zeroes trilogy. His other novels include the New York Times bestseller Afterworlds, The Last Days, Peeps, So Yesterday, and the Midnighters trilogy.

Alex Puvilland was born in France where he grew up reading his father's comic books. He now lives in Los Angeles with his ridiculously talented wife and two extraordinary children, Leo and Adrien. He works for Dreamworks Animation, and does comics whenever he has a moment. Alex co-illustrated Prince of Persia and Templar.