Colony by Ron Wolff: REVIEW

Synopsis

17-year-old Adam Flynn was the first human to be born on Mars. He’s grown up among only a handful of scientists, so when the first ship of colonists arrives, he’s thrilled and also terrified to meet other kids his age for the first time. But when one of the scientists mysteriously dies, Adam and his new friends are forced to face a difficult truth: there has been life on Mars all along, and it doesn’t want to co-exist.

My Review

I picked up this ARC from BookSirens.com on a whim. They invited me to join them as a reviewer, and I thought a quick YA sci-fi horror would be a good way to check out the site and see how they operate. I honestly wasn’t expecting to enjoy the book much.

To my surprise, I really loved this! Wolff’s writing is excellent, even though it’s geared at the low-to-mid-teen age range. The characters are well drawn and mostly avoid becoming caricatures or stereotypes. Some of the dialogue feels forced at times, but that often comes with the YA territory. The science aspects seem well-researched, or else Wolff does a good job of sounding knowledgeable. And once you get past the first couple of setup chapters, the plot moves at a good clip. Each chapter ends on a suspenseful note that makes you want to keep turning pages. So while this appears to be the author’s first sci-fi novel, that isn’t glaringly obvious.

It certainly isn’t obvious that this is the author’s first horror novel, too. The horror elements are extremely effective, especially if you have any level of aversion to bugs. If you plan to offer this book to a young teen (or if any young teens are reading this review), be aware that there are some pretty hardcore body-horror moments that would even make horror-loving adult readers squirm. Reader discretion is advised.

One quibble

I do have one criticism, though. I was sure this was heading for a 5-star rating, but towards the end, the plot started to fall apart just a little bit. Again, it’s aimed more at the 12 – 16 age range, so I’m not going to be as critical as I would for an adult book. And nothing happened that completely ruined my enjoyment of the rest of the book. It just gets a bit campy and tropey, and I wasn’t expecting that based on the strength of the first 3/4. I think readers just need to go into it understanding that it’s unapologetically YA. Don’t expect it to break any new ground, just sit back and enjoy the creepy sci-fi vibes.

Conclusion

This is a fun, skin-crawling, page-turning sci-fi horror. It’s written for a YA audience, but adults can also appreciate the strong writing and the creepy vibes.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Colony was published in April 2025.

You can buy Colony here on Bookshop.org*, or look for it wherever you get books.
*As an affiliate, I’ll receive a small commission from any purchase made through this link.