Infected: An AFK Book

Piggy #1

by Terrance Crawford

Mystery, mayhem -- try to survive the terrifying world of PIGGY in this original novel based on the fan-favorite videogame! There is a mystery to be solved, keys to be found, and an evil pig to escape! When an infection threatens to turn everyone into mindless, dangerous monsters, it is up to a few desparate survivors to get survive long enough to find a cure. But can they hold on long enough to get to the bottom of this mysterious illness, or will PIGGY and her new minons find them first? Welcome to the bone chilling, pulse-pounding world of PIGGY, the survival-horror game that will keep you up at night. Explore a frightening maze full of secrets to unearth and monsters that are out for blood! Can anyone make it out alive?

Genres: Middle Grade, Horror, Childrens, Video Games

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[Emma Skapetis]

My little brother wanted me to read this and I felt myself getting slumpy so I did. This is a very easy read that is based around the popular Piggy game on Roblox (which I have played, mainly with my brothers). If you're a Piggy fan you will clearly see the references.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister for this for me for Christmas because we used to play Piggy a lot together. This book is fun. If you’re familiar with the game, the settings in the book will be familiar. I did have a great time and that’s what matters. I doubt I’ll continue, but you never know.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never played the game. This was my first time interacting with the franchise. It...was okay.

The main character, Ben, heads to his friend's house to see if Ollie and his family were okay due to the island they live on suffering from an infection that turns the infected into hate-fueled maniacs. There, he is jumped by an Infected and must escape, starting his journey to find Ollie and survive the infection.

Now, the book starts strong. The encounter with the first infected was tense and a good showing of how to do horror aimed at a younger audience. However, as the story goes on and more characters and infected are added, it loses this tension, especially when the narration makes meta-comments that refer back to aspects of the game.

Also, it doesn't help that Ben is a bland protagonist. I would be hard-pressed to describe Ben, both from a physical and skill-based perspective. He comes off as a blank slate to allow the young readers to insert themselves as they read.

Furthermore, there seems to be a miscommunication between the writer and the interior illustrations at times. For example, the first illustration depicts the first infected as a wolf person. The prose states it is a pig person. At first, I thought maybe Pig is another term for the infected. After all, the franchise is named Piggy. However, when the story introduced the second infected, the prose refers to it as a Wolf Creature, making it clear that the prose is referring to the type of animal the person was before they were infected.

During and finishing the novel, I looked up more information on the game. I initially thought the book was an original story set in the world of Piggy. However, as I continued reading and researching, I figured out that is not true. The novel is an abridged retelling of the game. Each place the characters go to and the order they go to them is taken directly from the game. There are scenes taken directly from the game and even some lines of dialogue are included.

Of course, not everything thing is directly taken from the game. In the game, the player is a police officer sent to search for a missing kid named George Pig. In the book, Ben, a tween/young teenager replaces them and George is now Ollie, Ben's friend. Some of these changes I believe were done to separate the copyright aspects the game borrowed from when it was a Peppa Pig parody mixed with the game Granny. So George became Ollie, for example. Other changes were probably done to streamline the story and make the protagonist more relatable to the readers.

Overall, the story had a strong beginning that diminishes as the story advances. I would say it is stronger than the Goosebumps series when it comes to horror for children, especially as it doesn't use fake-outs. There is a sense of urgency and threat. It's just hampered by a bland protagonist and some weird writing choices.

[☣ EMᕈRESS SERΔ ☣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so impressive. I came into it with very low hopes and was impressed by the language and the story progression. Would definitely recommend.

[Joshua Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at Walmart!

So having minimal knowledge on the game that “piggy” is from, I was open to seeing what this creature can do and what I got out of it was a YA resident evil type hybrid that was both fun and engaging and had a surprisingly wholesome message about accepting your differences. It is marketed towards young readers but I would say this would be great for middle schoolers rather than young (8 year olds). It’s also super short so if you’re looking for a quick survival horror / thriller more innocently written this will definitely suffice.

[Holden H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It basically tells the story of Book 1 of the Piggy game on ROBLOX. I would enjoy it a lot more if the characters weren’t switched around. For example, Willow is an enemy for most of the game, but in the book she’s a friend. That bothered me but other than that I really loved it and will be buying the sequel(s)

[Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are the parts I liked:

“Look, kid. You’re a good person. Even in desperate times, you hold on to your morals. It’s people like you who succeed. As long as you stay true to who you are, you’ll get to where you need to be.”

“Ben couldn’t let this situation make him lose sight of who he was, or why he was here.”

“It’s only a flesh wound.” (Monty Python line used here).

“The air was crisper out here, each breath felt like a lungful of hope, and it was a nice change of pace.”

“… but for the first time he could remember in a long time, he could actually breathe”.

“To be moving in this world without the people and things that gave you joy wasn’t moving through this world at all. If this Infection was going to teach him any lesson, it’s that life was only worth living when people were living for one another.” ❤️

“Of course he was going to try to help. It was what he would have wanted someone else to do for him.”

“The good thing about skills was that it was never too late to learn new ones.”

[Matt V · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main plot is simple enough, but there are parts that could have been clearer. Plus there is an infected described as a pig. However, the illustration is clearly a different animal. So there are a few things that take the book down a bit.

Now to the good. While I won't say the characters are perfect, they are all likable. Ben's main purpose is to find his friend which adds heart to it. The story has a great tone. It takes itself seriously but isn't depressing. Overall, it's closer to The Walking Dead than Resident Evil. Like The Walking Dead, many characters have their own trademark weapon. The police station part did make me think of Resident Evil 2 though.

It has a good variety of settings. The illustrations are nice, especially of the animal characters. Because of it's minor issues this might be closer to a 7/10 but I'm rating it up because I enjoyed it.

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piggy book 1. This novel reads like a video game, a lot may be lost in the fact that I listened to this on audio so could not gather info from the illustrations. There is plenty of action running and fighting the infected creatures of the island. A lot is held back and I wonder if those familiar with the series are able to fill in blanks that I am hoping will be revealed soon. The writing is decent and the violence is kept to a level that would be appropriate for a Goosebumps ​fan to enjoy without being too frightened. I will admit that I am excited to see where this goes and am holding out hope that I enjoy the next book more.

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[Kimyona Dietter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid's version of Resident Evil, 5 stars. As a recommended book for under 12 year olds. That is a big fat NOPE. It's a survival story that requires violence and maybe some sacrifices to survive. Unless you want to explain some serious life sustaining subjects with your young ones, pass on this. But for young adults ready to delve into some mild violence go ahead. It's written for a very intermediate reader, but the situations suggest slightly older.

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible! As an old fan of this video game series, this book stinks! It tries to re-write the lore and legends of the series and demolishes it! There are multiple plot holes and author-artist disconnections, even more story mistakes (They called a character billy, and then pony for one sentence, which confused me), and its just a story re-skin! It's VERY short, i regret buying this because its about 100 pages of nauseating bad writing. *sigh*

[Ruth Best · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will say I am a fast reader so I finished this quick but it is pretty short. It was pretty accurate to the game but not completely accurate. It was the same thing over and over again though. The same things happened with little variation. It was a little Corning but if you okay the game it might be fun.

[Brantley Towns · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is good but also kind of meh, its a good story with good characters but the story is kind of bland. I liked the characters and the little drawings but the story was kind of like any other horror book I would get it but it is not in the top 10 or even top 50 id say its god if Ur a big fan of piggy the game but if Ur not I wouldn't recommend it.

[Owen Grunnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning I thought "well why did the monster not infect Ben when he whacked him on the head with whatever weapon he had?" Other than that I loved the book. My favorite character was Officer Doggy because I love dogs. I hope he is not infected.

[Florence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this along for my kids it’s ok nothing special. The writer will have better books in the future. It did keep them engaged and I must admit was not bad. It’s safe book if your worried what they are getting into.

[Liz Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with Sage. Sage (10) said he liked it because it had all his favorite characters. It was a good story and it was exciting, according to Sage. We're excited for the next book.

[Amber Keeling · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids loved it, but as an adult I wasn't as into it, 3 stars from me, 5 from my kids.

[Lisa Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars bc they left it on a cliff hanger-Kohen age 8.

[MiffyxReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s very cutesy horror story about zombie animals. i felt there were too many side quests but not bad. if i was in grade school i would think it’s good.

[Mary Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this series with my son. Entertaining for his grade level and especially those whose kids are into Roblox.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't care for it, but my kids liked it.

[Maddi · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

I thought this was all a bad dream :(

[Camilah Zazueta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good can not wait to get the second book

[Summer Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was exceptionally, tremendously, and extraordinarily amazing,breathtaking, dazzling, spectacular and grand to the point that I would just sit on the toilet with it, flipping the pages speedily with the impenetrable desire to find out what enthralling event would occur next. However, when I read the first page, I knew it had a chance of being about as accurate to the game it was based on as the chance of Taylor Swift and the guy she’s dating right now staying together. There is no squirrel named Sally in the game, a pig named Georgie is a cat named Ollie for some reason, and I don’t think the piggies are 7 feet tall, thank you. Also, Willow is not good from the beginning, Badgy and Billy are not our friends and are infected, and the piggies don’t match the place. Setting aside these inaccuracies, the book was magnificent and well written, although sometimes I wanted to hurl it out the window because the main character was rather dense.