Series Pick: The Burnouts (Quarantine, book 3)

The Burnouts
Quarantine, book 3
by Lex Thomas
Egmont
2014
272 pages
ISBN: 9781606843383

Available July 22, 2014 (date from publisher's website)

The Burnouts takes readers out with a flash, bang, boom! Lightning paced, reeking of madness, sadness, grittiness, and dirt, The Burnouts delivers a TKO.

Brothers Will and David are reunited on the outside of McKinley, but both of them feel the  need to save Lucy who remains inside. There is talk that the government has finally found a cure for the infected and David wants to travel to Minnesota and check it out. Meanwhile, things have deteriorated beyond control inside the high school.

Gangs of kids roam the school looking for food, fights, and drugs. Some will do anything for a quick high: sniff gasoline, markers, paint or whatever they can "cook" up. There is no medicine and no clean water. Kids are dying every day waiting to be evacuated. Only the lucky will survive; only the sly will live to see another day.

Lucy is all alone--she's smart and  savage when she needs to be. Having survived a few battles of her own, she is not ready to face any more strife. When she realizes that both Will and David have entered the school, she is afraid for them all. How will the three of them escape the madness? And how will they remain human?

Book 3 is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Recommended for high school readers and fans of the trilogy. This book is much edgier than The Hunger Games trilogy. The Burnouts is intended for mature readers--I do NOT recommend it  for middle school readers. Blood, gore, sex, deviant acts, and drug use abound. Although The Burnouts depicts a world gone mad, it is certainly a world that humans can imagine--in our darkest nightmares.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the arc from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Thriller Pick: Quarantine

Quarantine (book 1)
by Lex Thomas
Egmont
2012
404 pages

Chilling, terrifying, spooky, and grotesque, Quarantine is this summer's must-read! For fans of The Hunger Games and The Forest of Hands and Teeth, this novel will satisfy their appetite for all the things in life worth fighting for.

After an infected student runs into their high school, Mckinley High is quarantined by the government and the military. This is no ordinary quarantine either. The kids are on their own. No one is coming in to study their disease, no one is giving them a vaccine, no one is trying to save them, no one is feeding them, no one is communicating with them, no one is in control--no adult anyway.

It is every student for himself. The only way to survive is alone and hiding out or joining a violent rogue gang. Joining isn't all that easy, either. You have to be chosen to join. If you were a nobody before the quarantine, chances are that no popular group will ask you to join them. The jocks are a close-knit group, and the "Pretties" are the popular pretty girls who are now "safe" as well. Choose the wrong alliance and you're dead.

Food drops are havoc. Students become animals and tear into each other in order to eat. Those who are lucky enough to come away with the spoils have to protect their spoils from marauding gangs who will beat them or kill them for food.

There is no end in sight and no one is coming to save them. Brothers are pitted against brothers in this all out warfare. Alliances are made to be broken, and even the mighty shall fall.

The publisher likens this novel to "Lord of the Flies"--a good comparison--but Quarantine is way grittier and uber-fascinating--it's a study of what might happen if true anarchy entered high school. I read this book in one sitting and couldn't put it down. Co-authors Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies hit the right pitch with this fascinating character study--book one leaves the reader wanting more....MUCH more! I can't wait for book two, and teenagers will be grabbing this series up.


Highly, highly recommended grades 9-up.This is a must-read. Violence, language, sexual references, skinny dipping, sex. NOT suitable for middle school.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Guy Pick: Aristotole and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Simon & Schuster
2012
368 pages

Blogger's Note: (Although I live in El Paso and the author is a local writer and professor, that is not the reason I read and reviewed the book. It sat on my shelf for about a month before I picked it up. The first chapter drew me in with its palpable teen angst and well-depicted teen characters Dante and Ari).

Poignant, deeply touching, and sensitive, this tender coming of age story centers around two fifteen year old boys: Dante and Ari. It's not easy being fifteen and it's not easy being different. Ari says, "I was fifteen. I was bored. I was miserable." Sounds familiar, right?

Dante and Ari share their dreams and fears, beautiful poetry, good books, and deep conversations. They know they're not like other boys. They are intellectual, thoughtful, and quiet; they are the "good" boys. They cry over a wounded bird. They don't run in a gang, or do drugs, or cause trouble.

Ari wrestles with his family's demons, too. His father is a Vietnam vet who never quite came home--at least not mentally. He's hard to get to know and doesn't talk about Vietnam--ever. Ari's older brother Bernardo is in prison, but it's another topic the family never discusses. Ari feels that his family has too many secrets and wishes someone--his mother or his father--would tell him about Bernardo or about why his dad is so broken.

Dante's father accepts a position in Chicago and the two friends are separated for a year but stay in touch through letters (it's 1987--pre-email era). Ari is happy to see Dante when he returns but a little wary, too.

When Dante gets jumped by a group of neighborhood thugs, Ari makes things right. Dante's parents confront (nicely confront) Ari about the boys' "relationship."

The secrets of the universe aptly describes the struggle both boys face with their questions: Who am I? Why am I the way I am? Am I normal? What is normal?

Their questions are answered and the family secrets are spilled. Love is not necessarily gender specific; love wears many faces and blossoms sometimes in unexpected ways.

Highly, highly recommended for grades 9-up. Mature situations, discussion of sexual topics, language, LGBT

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

YA Pick

Lockdown: Escape From Furnace I

by Alexander Gordon Smith

Faber and Faber, 2009

273 pages.

In this gritty and disturbing YA novel, Smith creates Furnace Penitentiary, the "toughest maximum security prison in the world for young offenders." Furnace makes the U.S. prison system--even maximum security lockdowns like Rikers Island--look like a child's tea party. Framed for his best friend's murder, Alex gets a life sentence in this hellhole. Even though Alex is guilty of breaking and entering and bullying and fighting, readers will like him. He shows his true colors once he enters the Furnace. Championing underdogs and saving lives, Alex fights for the rights of the little guys. He stands toe to toe with the most brutal of the prison gangs, the Skulls.

The prison itself is wedged in a massive gorge beneath the Earth. Rock surrounds them on all sides. There is no escape, only death. There are no safeguards for prisoners' rights. In fact, the guards would rather see the prisoners dead than alive. The sadistic warden welcomes new boys by saying, "Beneath heaven is hell, boys, and beneath hell is Furnace. I hope you enjoy your stay."

Sometimes "they" come for you in the middle of the night. Sometimes you come back and most of the time, you don't. Alex is determined to find a way out. He enlists the help of his cellmate and two other boys who came in with him. They come up with a risky plan to blow a hole through solid rock using gas from the kitchen's stoves. If it works, they will probably die in the explosion. If caught, they will die. If they stay in Furnace, they are guarenteed death. This is a no-brainer for Alex. Readers will not be able to put this book down.

Exciting and ferocious. Action-packed. Reluctant readers will enjoy this thrill-ride. Highly recommended for YA collections, grade 7-high school.