REVIEW: Risk Your Life Upon Entering SPILL ZONE

We do all we can for the people we love, even risk our lives facing things we have never seen before.

The protagonist in Scott Westerfeld’s The Spill Zone, Addison, lost her parents at the spill zone three years ago, and now risks her life taking photographs of the zone’s aftermath every night to support herself and her sister Lexa, who for some reason has not spoken a word since the tragedy. No one knows what the spill really was and how it started. The government closed down the now desolate and very distorted city of Poughkeepsie, and had the military guard it as strange things are happening inside. Due to its secrecy, the illegal photos Addison takes sell quite high to art collectors. She goes by seven simple rules when entering the spill zone, but she breaks all of those when given the chance to earn more than what she expects and have a chance on not entering the zone ever again. Unfortunately, what she thought to be her last entry to the spill zone may have caused more problems than she realized.

Westerfeld has created a world where color and creativity meet creepiness with a little bit of sci-fi. The story is quite captivating while also keeping you on the edge of the seat with its mysteries. How did the spill happen? What happened to Lexa before she and her classmates escaped the zone? What really did happento their parents? And what’s with the rag doll Vespertine? Each information revealed just gives us another question to uncover. It keeps you intrigue and makes you want to know more about this world. When you think you know what would happen next, it would turn out to be a bit different.

But despite of all the weirdness and creepiness, reality is still there. We still see how two the sisters who is struggle after their parents die. We see greedy and opportunist characters, how another country deals with the same problem, and how it affects the only survivor. It’s not a one way story where it’s all about just the Spill Zone. It’s layered with interesting characters and secrets that we all can easily get into. It’s a quick paced story but doesn’t leave anything behind but mysteries, suspense and adventure. There’s a lot going on and we still don’t have any of the answers we need as the volume ends.

The art can be described as animation ready which is expected from the artist Alex Puvilland who has animated quite a few known films. Each panel upon entering the zone gives you a colorful yet mysterious vibe to it. Even with all the colors splashed on every page by Hilary Sycamore, you can still have that eerie feeling upon looking at the illustrations. The Spill Zone monsters, the meat puppets and the backgrounds seems very much alive. Despite how colorful and fun the area seems, seeing the meat puppets floating would give everyone the creeps. Outside the zone, normal tones and color are used. It gives us a depth on how different both sides are. The art is simple and wonky at times yet very thought out. It’s not too complicated that readers would be bored at it, but also not too simple to get a childish vibe through it all. The color and art, though one would not expect to blend actually works really well in the Spill Zone.

Overall, it’s one story readers would expect from Scott Westerfeld who is known for his YA series Uglies and the Leviathan. A one of a kind adventure in another world with a dash of reality mixed in.