Code Orange Book Review

What would you do if you knew that you had possibly caught one of the most fatal diseases known to man? This is exactly what Mitty Blake encounters in the book, Code Orange. Mitty has a seemingly perfect life; a rich family, a private school education, and great friends. He normally avoids work at all costs, but decides to do a little research after getting assigned a paper in biology.

Mitty comes across the variola major, or smallpox, scabs one day in the library of his family’s Connecticut home. He unknowingly breathes in some of the disease particles from the scabs. After figuring out his situation, Mitty starts to avoid everyone he loves to keep them away from the disease; his parents, and his friends, Derek and Olivia. Not knowing what to do, Mitty sends messages out to several different websites online, seeking answers. What happens next would catch anyone by surprise.

Code Orange, by Caroline B. Cooney, is a science-fiction book written in 2005. Cooney writes several different kinds of books, including romance, suspense, horror and mystery. She has written several other stories, like Burning Up, Diamonds in the Shadow, and The Face on the Milk Carton. Caroline was born on May 10, 1947 and raised in Greenwich Connecticut. She took up writing as her hobby when she was 27, having a little extra time on her hands while taking care of her child.

When I first started reading Code Orange, I didn’t think it was the book for me. As I continued to read though, the plot was building up more and becoming more suspenseful. I found myself wanting to know what would happen in the next chapter each time another one ended. If mystery/suspense novels are your type of book, then Code Orange would probably be a good read for you.