Changes

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Kerryl Shaw lives far away from the urban twenty-first century on a remote Yorkshire farm – a somewhat idealised one that survives . The farm is high up on a few hens and two or three cows hill and it's a few sheepfamily endeavour - grandparents, mother, Kerryl. The kind of farm that might have been profitable in the 1950s There's a market town below but by the time Kerryl has arrived should have been struggling. A teenage boy not pulling his weight, now that 's family is concentrated on the grandparents are old farm and the father is dead, would not be met hard but beautiful living associated with exasperated indulgence. There are no stock-hands, no farm managers, no applications for subsidies, or worries about the tax return. Maybe the unwelcome wind turbine covers the costs of the rest of it. AlreadyKerryl, in settingthough, itis a fiercely bright girl - she's feeling won a little unrealplace at Cambridge University and is looking forward to going. But maybe we can forgive that… Or notShe loves poetry. What is really good about Paradise Girl But this ambition is put on a very back burner when a new and deadly virus sweeps the plotworld. It is plausibleWith a ten-day incubation period, it begins in Africa, holds tight to the farm makes its way into Europe and then, finally, hops the market town below it and focusses entirely on Channel to Britain. Suddenly Kerryl, the eponymous our ''Paradise Girl''. Only she's is no longer living in paradise. A new Barely anyone survives the virus has erupted in Africaand, with when a 10-day incubation period with no symptomsstranger finds his way to Kerryl's farm, transmissible by close proximityhe infects the family and soon, and deadly within a few daysKerryl is the only one left alive. It mutates from host  She tries to host and spreads too rapidly for any kind of containment or vaccinationkeep up the farm. Africa is devastatedAnd she deals with her isolation by writing a diary, then Europe, and so addressing it makes its way to England and to "Adam", an isolated Yorkshire farmimaginary figure representing her ideal boyfriend. It's a modern variant But the isolation preys on Kerryl and it blurs the black death – only worsedistinction between fact and fiction. This timeSoon, Adam becomes real to her and, virtually no-one recovers. This could be as communications with the plague to end all plagues. Exceptoutside world break down, Kerryl comes to believe that the texts she is still alivereceiving really do come from Adam. And she believes that her twin brother is still out there somewhere tooarranges a meeting... Thinking her own end cannot be far away she starts to write  I like a good dystopian YA novel - a couple young person living through the breakdown of journalssociety always makes for a good story. And we're all worried about a deadly virus that defeats science, one aren't we? Think of which is about Before…how this came our reactions to beavian flu scares and the like. The other is 'now': the day to day story of the few days she has leftParadise Girl'' captures this existential threat exceptionally well and it pits one, rather romantic but also determined, young girl against it.Who wouldn't root for Kerryl? As a plot – the spread of the virusA dedicated romantic with no boys left to crush on, what else is Kerryl to do but channel her adolescent emotions into an imaginary boy? And left all alone in the politicking that goes on around itworld, why wouldn't she come to think of him as real? But what ''is'' the web-chatter of truth about Adam and those who mysterious, impossible texts? I don't believe what they're being told. All of that rings true. The underlying thread of what happens next on the farm as the family become infected. That do spoilers so I can also buy into. 't tell you, but I struggle with the idea will say that the virus is so infectious that ending of ''Paradise Girl'' has an element of ambiguity about it can be spread . A clever choice by birds, Featherstone because it really makes you think. Perhaps a little too romantic for some and by humans in close contactthere are one or two plot holes, but that no other animals are affected. It's also uncertain as to whether the disease 'Paradise Girl'' is infectious or contagiousa gripping read and will find an appreciative audience. But again we can set all of that aside. The tension of the first half holds out well; the second section becomes less and less believable sadly…