Stung

Stung is a 2013 work of young adult fiction by Bethany Wiggins. The setting is a near-future dystopia in which honeybees are extinct, resulting in famine and a breakdown of societal infrastructures. As 17-year-old Fiona Tarsis battles both beasts and humans in an effort to stay alive and learn the truth, the novel explores themes of humanity and violence through the lens of gender dynamics. Stung earned a Starred Review from Kirkus; a sequel, Cured, was published in 2014. This guide references the 2013 edition of the novel published by Bloomsbury. Bethany Wiggins is also the author of the Transference series and the novel Shifting (2011).

Content Warning: Instances of rape and sexual assault are strongly implied throughout the novel as inherent dangers for Fiona and all women living outside “the wall” (safe zone).

Plot Summary

Sometime in the near future, teenager Fiona “Fo” Tarsis awakens in her bedroom in the Denver suburbs, but everything about her home is changed. The house is decrepit and abandoned. Her parents, older sister Lissa, and twin brother Jonah are missing. When she looks in the mirror, she is shocked to see that she is not 13 as she remembers but a much older teen. Instinct tells her to cover the mark she finds on her hand: a tattooed oval with 10 lines that resembles a spider. An enraged and violent man who appears to be Jonah suddenly rushes up the stairs and tries to get to Fo; she jumps out the window and runs.

Fo’s neighborhood streets are strewn with trash and abandoned vehicles. She passes the home of a school acquaintance; the girl, Jacqui, looks much older and is disguised as a boy. She frantically tells Fiona to cut her hair and get to safety but does not offer any shelter. Fiona wanders on; shots fired in the distance make her desperately afraid, so when a young girl tells her to hide in the sewers, she does. The girl, Arrin, stinks of raw sewage and insists that Fo owes her for saving her life. Arrin threatens to kill Fo if Fo does not comply. Arrin chops off Fo’s hair with a knife and leads her through the dark tunnels to a militia camp. Unable to piece together the reasons for the changes to her world, Fo feels she must go along with Arrin’s demands.

Up on the street, Fo rushes the militia camp as a diversion to allow Arrin to rescue the boy she calls her brother. The plot fails; the boy is shot, and Fo is captured. A militia member uses electromagnetic arm and leg cuffs to immobilize Fo. A sensor reads Fiona’s oval tattoo beneath the concealer. The men, who believe Fo is male, react with interest and fear in seeing her “Level Ten” tattoo and keep guns drawn on her. Soon Fiona recognizes the young man who is her guardian. He is Dreyden Bowen, a former neighbor her age. When a beast breaks into the camp, Fo accompanies Bowen as he tries to cuff the attacker. Fo’s clothing becomes torn and he sees the fabric binding her breasts. Realizing she is female, he also recognizes her as his former neighbor on whom he had a lasting crush.

Bowen resolves to protect Fo. He explains that they are both 17 now and that Fiona’s tattoo indicates that she received 10 doses of the bee flu vaccine four years before. The vaccine was later discovered to cause uncontrollable rage and superhuman strength in those who received it; people transformed by these side effects are called “beasts.” Being a Level Ten, Fiona is expected to turn into the most violent kind of beast. Bowen tells Fo that her sister Lissa lives within the wall, where those who are wealthy, educated, or able to marry and have children live in relative safety. Bowen’s brother Duncan also lives within the wall. Bowen tells Fo that her mother is likely dead since even those within the wall must leave its confines or accept euthanasia when they turn 55. Fo’s father, a military veteran who used a wheelchair, is almost certainly dead, as only those in excellent physical condition can live inside the wall. Bowen hopes to keep Fo safe until Sunday, when the gate in the wall will open and he can deliver her to the lab, where doctors test cures on unturned vaccinated people.

When a militia man, Len, attempts to kidnap Fo in order to sell her and pay his way into the wall, Bowen decides the camp is too dangerous, as all the men will now discover that Fo is female. He takes Fo to an abandoned factory where he has accumulated canned food and survival supplies. The next day the militia arrives at the factory to roust them from hiding, but Bowen and Fo stay safe in a secret room. They kiss in the dark while the militia scour the building. As Fo and Bowen search for shelter, Arrin, who has been looking for Fo, shows Fo a flyer offering a reward for Fo’s capture; then Arrin flees. Fo and Bowen spy on a meeting between Governor Soneschen (the local authority who rules inside the wall) and the raiders, a group of rough, lustful men who keep beasts captive and drink their blood to gain their strength. The raiders eagerly accept the Governor’s offer to let them have Fo if they can find her.

In an abandoned hotel room, Bowen decides they should leave for a potentially safer settlement in Wyoming. He gives Fo his rifle and goes to fetch supplies. Arrin sneaks in the next morning to show Fo that Bowen is surrounded by raiders on the street below. They go to the stairwell to wait for attack. A man comes racing up the stairs and Fo fires the rifle not realizing the man is Bowen. Bowen’s militia friend Tommy helps to carry the wounded Bowen down the elevator shaft into the sewers. Arrin promises to lead them via the sewer tunnels to the wall. While at the hotel, Fiona recalls several important memories: Four years before, the bee flu came from genetically modified honeybees designed by government scientists to stabilize the dwindling bee population; the vaccine for the flu was discovered to cause violent tendencies; bees are now extinct, necessitating pollination of crops by human hand; doctors placed Fo and Jonah in medically-induced comas to await a cure after Jonah inadvertently killed their father. Jonah got free but was unable to rescue Fo.

In the sewer tunnels, Arrin betrays Fo, leading her directly into the hands of the black market. These men purchase vaccine victims for the pits, arena-style battles between beasts. The leader of the black-market men double crosses Arrin, taking her to await the pits as well. Fo finds herself in a line of cages with Jonah, a Level Five female, and Arrin. The four are released to the pit, an abandoned swimming pool covered in plexiglass with spectators watching from above. They are to fight to the death as spectators make wagers. Fo tries to speak, but the Governor cuts the sound to hide that she is not a vicious beast. Arrin and the Level Five female attack Fo but Jonah attempts to protect her. Bowen uses a grenade to destroy the plexiglass. Jonah kills the Level Five female; Arrin lies lifeless.

A Dr. Grayson arrives to help Fo. He discovers Bowen’s terrible gunshot wound and says Fo’s kisses helped Bowen stay alive, as she carries trace amounts of the vaccine’s strength-giving properties. The Governor threatens to kill Bowen, Fo, Dr. Grayson, and Jonah to hide how Dr. Grayson’s cure worked on Fo. The Governor lunges at Fo to kill her, but Bowen shoots him. The militia arrests the Governor. Fo wakes up at the medical facility where her sister Lissa is now a nurse and Dr. Grayson’s wife. Lissa explains that Dr. Grayson discovered a cure but that Governor Soneschen murdered each healed child because he wanted to maintain his powerful position within the walled society. Soneschen is now safely imprisoned; Fo and Bowen will recover and Jonah might recover as well. Bowen climbs the wall to communicate to those outside that a cure will soon help those afflicted by the vaccine.

The last chapter indicates that Soneschen has escaped from custody.