Like many Starters, or young people, her parents died during the Spore Wars, which were conflicts in the Pacific that led to the release of giant dandelion spores that polluted California with a biological weapon that wiped out most of the middle-aged population because unlike the elderly and youth, they were not vaccinated in time. The only problem is Callie is an unclaimed minor barely surviving on the streets and ducking the marshals at every turn as she and her makeshift family scrap for shelter and resources. She wrote Starters, Enders, and short stories set around the Spore Wars.Ĭallie Woodland is a 16-year-old Starter from Southern California who wants to live in a safe, stable environment with her younger brother, Tyler, and her friend, Michael. Lissa Price is an author based in Southern California. This guide refers to the first edition Ember paperback novel. The novel contains graphic violence, gore, fighting, mild sexual physicality, disturbing imagery, and dystopian environments. The book explores the complex nature of identity and many themes around survival and status. As a result, teens hide from the authorities and avoid the marshals by squatting in empty buildings and living life on the run, like Callie, her younger brother, Tyler, and her friend, Michael.

This led to teens being rounded up to do manual labor in institutions without pay or hope for a better future. Starters without grandparents were barred from essentially every type of work. As a result, many teens were left without families, and the elderly feared for their place in society.

Lissa Price’s Starters is a young adult science fiction novel set in the near future after the Spore Wars, during which biological weapons were used against the United States and wiped out much of the unvaccinated middle-aged population.

Lissa price starters series