Summer Book Giveaway: YA Thriller: Quarantine

I have 5 FREE copies of this cool and gritty new ya read: Quarantine. If you loved  BZRK and ASHES, this new uber-cool ya novel is a great pick. It got a starred review in Booklist and was an Indie Next Pick. Kami Garcia, the author of Beautiful Creatures trilogy, says, “As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” It’s super gritty and intense!

From the publisher:




"It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.



A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.



In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive."

Post a comment to the blog and include your first name, city, and state. Please include your email. I need your email to notify you in case your win! Winners chosen at random by Randomizer.

Deadline for posts is 12:00 noon on July 18. Winners will be notified by email on July 19 and have 24 hours to respond. Books will ship to winners from New York.

Good luck and start posting! Pamela

High School Pick

Num8ers
by Rachel Ward
Chicken House/Scholastic, 2010.
325 pages.

In this gritty debut novel, Ward leads readers into the underbelly of the London slums. These are the mean streets, and the author doesn't sugar coat anything. Jem is 15 and being raised in foster care. When she was 8, Jem discovered her mother's lifeless body, a needle nearby. Since then, Jem has avoided people. She doesn't want to get close to anyone because one thing she knows for sure--all people die. Her mother's death is not the worst thing that has ever happened to Jem. The living nightmare that is her every waking hour happens when Jem looks at a person's face and sees a number--the number of their death date.

Jem soon finds a friend in loner Spider. A dysfunctional childhood causes Spider to seek out trouble, and he usually finds it. When Jem and Spider have to flee London, they are forced into terrible perils. Teen readers will like Jem and root for Spider. This novel is not a "feel good" read. It is gritty and grimy and ugly. Ward paints London in harsh colors--not the pretty, well-maintained streets with a "bobby" on every corner, but a dark London with alleys full of trash and drug dealers and creeps. Readers who like a story that is compelling and rough will probably like this novel.


Some sex, though not graphic, langauge, adult situations. Recommended for YA collections grade 8 and up.