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Quarantine #1
The Loners
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.
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.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 10, 2012
450 people are currently reading
11594 people want to read
About the author
Lex Thomas
10 books362 followersLex Thomas is the pen name for the writing team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies. Their first novel, QUARANTINE: THE LONERS, earned a starred review from Booklist, and Huffington Post Books praised it, saying, "You will not be able to put this book down."
Lex received a BA in Drama and English from the University of Virginia and has worked as an actor, director and writer. Thomas graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and now writes, and exhibits his realist oil paintings in Los Angeles.
Lex and Thomas met in a writers' group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other's minds with clips from bizarre movies. In 2005, they became a screenwriting team, and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. Visit them at www.lex-thomas.com.
Lex received a BA in Drama and English from the University of Virginia and has worked as an actor, director and writer. Thomas graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and now writes, and exhibits his realist oil paintings in Los Angeles.
Lex and Thomas met in a writers' group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other's minds with clips from bizarre movies. In 2005, they became a screenwriting team, and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. Visit them at www.lex-thomas.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,243 reviews
October 29, 2019
i was very prepared to dislike this book. this is not the same as expecting to dislike it, mind you, i was hoping to like it, but i was bracing myself for it to be bad, because i am a realist. because as much as i love these kinds of books, plenty of them are lackluster and very samey: Trapped, The Way We Fall, No Safety In Numbers, etc.
and this one is not without flaws, but they are the kind of flaws where the sheer fun of the book dwarfs the flaws.
that is the only time i will use a kitten to demonstrate a "flaw."
did you like Divergent? were you able to enjoy the pacing, the action, the characters, the rainbow of violence, without falling into the "wait, but why..." intellectual knee-jerk mode that is so natural, but detrimental to the enjoyment of dystopian YA lit? if you did, you will have no problems enjoying this one.
quick breakdown - so there is a virus, yeah? and it turns teens into weapons. and every adult that goes near them will start to twitch and then BLOODILY VOMIT OUT THEIR ORGANS.
well, shit.
so this high school (somehow) gets quarantined. i understand the mechanics of the quarantine - tent, guards with rifles, etc, but not how quickly the response was carried out. all of a sudden, a teacher was puking out his insides, and then - bam! - helly-copters and quarantine. but who cares - this is pretty cool. and so a year passes...
...and the kids have arranged themselves into factions. the virus has made their hair fall out and then grow back white, and in order to differentiate themselves, they dye this white hair into different colors, with available materials, signifying their gang affiliations: yellow for the pretty girls, red for the sluts, black for the nerds, blue for the freaks, etc etc. and these gangs protect their own, fiercely, and compete for the food and supplies that are air-lifted into the courtyard by helicopters. and the competition is brutal. varsity gets the most of the food - all the asshole jocks shoving the freaks and the skaters and the geeks and the nerds out of the way, and claiming lovers from the pretty girls. it's pretty gross.
but apart from all these groups, there are the outcasts. the scraps. and that is where we meet our hero david, and his younger brother will.
and there is an incident that catapults david into the center of awareness, and makes him a hero. and most of the scraps come out of the shadows and stand with him, and they form their own gang, the loners.
and then stuff really starts to happen.
as an added complication, the virus seems to only affect teens until they turn 18. and if they turn 18 while in the proximity of a younger teen, they too will start vomiting up their organs, so a booth is established which tests an individual for the virus, and once they have aged out, they are allowed passage to the outside world. you know, so they can keep their organs inside where they belong.
please do not spend one hot second thinking about the "science" behind this. it will just make your head angry.
this book is strong because of its depiction of high school, amplified. the cliques are there, only more apparent and more vicious. its sibling rivalry is also perfect, and throw in the obligatory love-triangle, and you got yourself a book!
this one is on the higher-end of the teen scale for content. if you are a delicate flower, torn to shreds by naughty language, and human sexuality and serious violence , then you best step back and read something else. this one is full of gross realities. and gross unrealities. and a ton of loopholes and unexplained stuff and overlooked stuff, but it is such a fun ride, unless you are the most critical reader without a heart built for fun, it shouldn't matter.
also, today is my birthday, and you don't need to wrap votes!
come to my blog!
and this one is not without flaws, but they are the kind of flaws where the sheer fun of the book dwarfs the flaws.
that is the only time i will use a kitten to demonstrate a "flaw."
did you like Divergent? were you able to enjoy the pacing, the action, the characters, the rainbow of violence, without falling into the "wait, but why..." intellectual knee-jerk mode that is so natural, but detrimental to the enjoyment of dystopian YA lit? if you did, you will have no problems enjoying this one.
quick breakdown - so there is a virus, yeah? and it turns teens into weapons. and every adult that goes near them will start to twitch and then BLOODILY VOMIT OUT THEIR ORGANS.
well, shit.
so this high school (somehow) gets quarantined. i understand the mechanics of the quarantine - tent, guards with rifles, etc, but not how quickly the response was carried out. all of a sudden, a teacher was puking out his insides, and then - bam! - helly-copters and quarantine. but who cares - this is pretty cool. and so a year passes...
...and the kids have arranged themselves into factions. the virus has made their hair fall out and then grow back white, and in order to differentiate themselves, they dye this white hair into different colors, with available materials, signifying their gang affiliations: yellow for the pretty girls, red for the sluts, black for the nerds, blue for the freaks, etc etc. and these gangs protect their own, fiercely, and compete for the food and supplies that are air-lifted into the courtyard by helicopters. and the competition is brutal. varsity gets the most of the food - all the asshole jocks shoving the freaks and the skaters and the geeks and the nerds out of the way, and claiming lovers from the pretty girls. it's pretty gross.
but apart from all these groups, there are the outcasts. the scraps. and that is where we meet our hero david, and his younger brother will.
and there is an incident that catapults david into the center of awareness, and makes him a hero. and most of the scraps come out of the shadows and stand with him, and they form their own gang, the loners.
and then stuff really starts to happen.
as an added complication, the virus seems to only affect teens until they turn 18. and if they turn 18 while in the proximity of a younger teen, they too will start vomiting up their organs, so a booth is established which tests an individual for the virus, and once they have aged out, they are allowed passage to the outside world. you know, so they can keep their organs inside where they belong.
please do not spend one hot second thinking about the "science" behind this. it will just make your head angry.
this book is strong because of its depiction of high school, amplified. the cliques are there, only more apparent and more vicious. its sibling rivalry is also perfect, and throw in the obligatory love-triangle, and you got yourself a book!
this one is on the higher-end of the teen scale for content. if you are a delicate flower, torn to shreds by naughty language, and human sexuality and serious violence , then you best step back and read something else. this one is full of gross realities. and gross unrealities. and a ton of loopholes and unexplained stuff and overlooked stuff, but it is such a fun ride, unless you are the most critical reader without a heart built for fun, it shouldn't matter.
also, today is my birthday, and you don't need to wrap votes!
come to my blog!
August 11, 2016
Read-along with the awesome Cas!
------------------------------------
I can't remember the last time a book made me so angry. I've had my fair share of disappointingly bad books, but one that left such a bad taste on my mouth and my blood boiling with how offended I was by it? If I ever did read one that had the same effect, I've forgotten about it and I do hope Quarantine: The Loners suffers the same fate. If I could give zero stars to this book, I would. But I refuse to leave this book without a rating because my indignation with it deserves to make an impact and if I can achieve it by giving it 1 star, I will do just that.
Objectively speaking, this book is action-packed, fast-paced and slightly addictive. At the parts when the action was taking place, it was hard to tear my eyes from the page because if there is one thing I can commend the authors of this book on is that they can certainly built an atmosphere. But I'm afraid that's all the nice things I can say about this book.
The writing was stilted, relied way too much in telling instead of showing, when it tried to be poetic it all just came across as cheesy and amateurish and it tended to follow the disjointed, robotic pattern of 'he did this, then this. he did that. he said that.' There is basically not plot to this novel, because just stringing a bunch of violent acts together does not make a plot. There is blood and gore in abundance in this novel, which I usually like, but in this novel that is the norm and half-way through it was nothing more than a cheap trick to keep you entertained. It also asks for a lot of suspension of disbelief from the readers, because when it comes down to it, this novel makes no sense and everything, from the conflict to the setting, is just a flimsy excuse to rehash the whole teens-killing-each-other Hunger Games style-thing. There is very little substance to the novel and even the concept can be summarized as a mix of The Way We Fall, No Safety in Numbers and Monument 14. I'm not a fan of any of those books, but they were by far better executed and more original than this novel. The worst part about this novel though, is that, in spite of all that, this could've been a 3-star/average book if it wasn't for the truly awful characterization in the story.
Don't get me wrong, no character in this novel gets bragging rights for being deep or complex or developed. At best, only David, the protagonist, gets away with being a decent guy, even though he was way too perfect and often seemed like the type of guy others dream of being. His brother was not as likable but his rage was a nice attempt at complexity, even if it fell flat and he came out as irritating all throughout the novel. But everyone else is so pathetically static and flat that they would be laughable if they hadn't been so offensive.
To give you a hint of how the female characterization in this novel fares, I'll just tell you the names of the only two all-girl gangs in the novel: The Pretty Ones and The Sluts. Think calling a group the Sluts is far worse than being called the Pretty Ones? Well, the Pretty Ones are as shallow and superficial as you'd expect, but their group becomes a lot worse when you realize they are essentially prostitutes. They do not fight for their survival in that school, instead, their leader pimps the other girls out to the leading gang when they want. Every girl in this novel has to prostitute herself and sell their dignity to survive. Even the ones out of those two gangs participate in pornographic photo shoots within the walls of the school to be able to survive. Basically, in this novel, girls aren't capable of anything but being pieces of meats and selling themselves. The guys fight for their survival, the girls sell themselves and make freaking beauty products for the market of a disease-ridden school barely able to feed itself. You think that's bad enough? Well, when it comes to The Sluts, this book crosses the line from insulting to appallingly insensitive and disrespectful when it is revealed that that particular gang bears that name because the leader was raped. Yup, she calls herself a slut because she was raped when the disaster started and she could not avenge herself on the guy. Let that sink in.
Every single girl in this novel is an insulting and demeaning stereotype. The head cheerleader, token mean girl and hottest thing on two legs is the sadistic and psychotic ex-girlfriend of the protagonist, because of course, she has to be the worst trash on Earth to cheat on the protagonist, and is also the official school pimp and the toy of the evil guy, so weak that she is unable to defend herself of his abuse and wants the protagonist dead because he later rejects her. Every other girl in this novel is petty, shallow and ridiculous. They literally wait for the main guy to walk down an isle to throw themselves at his feet and get a touch of his godly body. Well, those are the pretty ones. The ugly ones in this novel are constantly reminded of their appearance, humiliated and they always happen to be 'weird'. Oh, but of course, there's a special one, one that has the guys fighting for her because she is just so sweet and special. Lucy is the biggest Mary Sue I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. Sweet, pure and innocent, but just oh so gorgeous. She cannot think of anything but just how much she loves the main guy, she goes crazy when a girl just looks at her love interest (because us women are just crazy jealous and fly into horrifying states of frenzy if someone even dares to think about our men) and she gets turned on by being saved by guys. But that's hardly the only thing that turns her on. No, the authors of this book graciously provided this pathetic excuse for a female lead, a coward that is unable to fight at that, by having her get turn on when she is sexually harassed by guys. I am not kidding you. She admits that, when the savage, violent, would-be murderers and rapists of the jock gang (because, if you are a football player it is required you are a brute with no conscience or functioning brain) would touch her and leer at her body, she would pretend to be offended, but truly, she was turned on. Ah, the old "girls really want to be sexually dominated and preyed upon". No. Fuck no.
I can't remember the last time I read something so openly and disgustingly misogynistic, sexist and objectifying. Each of the female characters reinforces a horrible stereotype of women men like to tell themselves in order to feel better about objectifying, sexualizing and getting their way with women against their will. I am not claiming the authors did this on purpose, but the message is there, whether it was unintended or not. I simply cannot believe all of this has gone unmentioned in the many other reviews about this book. Even worse, I cannot believe the high ratings this book has, most of them at the hands of other women! I don't care if this is just a work of fiction. You put this in the hands of a younger audience and you let them think that it is okay because is not real and you ignore the fact that, book or not, this gives ideas to people, it gets ingrained into the fabric of who they are and they can grow up to believe this appalling, horrible vision of women. We are not sexual objects. We can fight for our lives and we can survive and we can do it without sacrificing our dignity! And we do NOT enjoy being objectified and sexualized and harrassed! It is not okay to treat us like we are blow-up dolls you can satisfy yourself with as you please and we do not enjoy that. Even worse, it is not okay to use one of the most traumatizing events that could happen for a woman and then make a fucking joke out of that experience.
I don't think I'm overreacting or being oversensitive about this. In fact, books should not give me reason to have to write my indignation about these topics like this in a public forum! Books should not offend me and insult me as a woman with misogynistic garbage like this! YA freaking novels should not ask for me to give up my ideals, my beliefs, my self-respect and my dignity in order to enjoy it! I will NEVER agree with stuff like this and I don't care if this is fiction or if the authors never intended to send this message because the things I previously pointed out are not exactly the result of in-depth reading subject to opinion. I gave you nothing but facts about the story and things that any person that goes through this book can see plain as day. This book is offensive, insulting, disrespectful and an indignity to the worth of women. I will not support garbage like this and I will never continue the series nor will I ever recommend this book to anybody. I don't care that this is just escapist fiction with blood and brutality for entertainment. This book got personal and insulted everything I believe in, insulted me as a woman and reduced us to mere sexual objects with no dignity that enjoy being used by men how they please. I will NOT stand for this, not now, not ever.
------------------------------------
I can't remember the last time a book made me so angry. I've had my fair share of disappointingly bad books, but one that left such a bad taste on my mouth and my blood boiling with how offended I was by it? If I ever did read one that had the same effect, I've forgotten about it and I do hope Quarantine: The Loners suffers the same fate. If I could give zero stars to this book, I would. But I refuse to leave this book without a rating because my indignation with it deserves to make an impact and if I can achieve it by giving it 1 star, I will do just that.
Objectively speaking, this book is action-packed, fast-paced and slightly addictive. At the parts when the action was taking place, it was hard to tear my eyes from the page because if there is one thing I can commend the authors of this book on is that they can certainly built an atmosphere. But I'm afraid that's all the nice things I can say about this book.
The writing was stilted, relied way too much in telling instead of showing, when it tried to be poetic it all just came across as cheesy and amateurish and it tended to follow the disjointed, robotic pattern of 'he did this, then this. he did that. he said that.' There is basically not plot to this novel, because just stringing a bunch of violent acts together does not make a plot. There is blood and gore in abundance in this novel, which I usually like, but in this novel that is the norm and half-way through it was nothing more than a cheap trick to keep you entertained. It also asks for a lot of suspension of disbelief from the readers, because when it comes down to it, this novel makes no sense and everything, from the conflict to the setting, is just a flimsy excuse to rehash the whole teens-killing-each-other Hunger Games style-thing. There is very little substance to the novel and even the concept can be summarized as a mix of The Way We Fall, No Safety in Numbers and Monument 14. I'm not a fan of any of those books, but they were by far better executed and more original than this novel. The worst part about this novel though, is that, in spite of all that, this could've been a 3-star/average book if it wasn't for the truly awful characterization in the story.
Don't get me wrong, no character in this novel gets bragging rights for being deep or complex or developed. At best, only David, the protagonist, gets away with being a decent guy, even though he was way too perfect and often seemed like the type of guy others dream of being. His brother was not as likable but his rage was a nice attempt at complexity, even if it fell flat and he came out as irritating all throughout the novel. But everyone else is so pathetically static and flat that they would be laughable if they hadn't been so offensive.
To give you a hint of how the female characterization in this novel fares, I'll just tell you the names of the only two all-girl gangs in the novel: The Pretty Ones and The Sluts. Think calling a group the Sluts is far worse than being called the Pretty Ones? Well, the Pretty Ones are as shallow and superficial as you'd expect, but their group becomes a lot worse when you realize they are essentially prostitutes. They do not fight for their survival in that school, instead, their leader pimps the other girls out to the leading gang when they want. Every girl in this novel has to prostitute herself and sell their dignity to survive. Even the ones out of those two gangs participate in pornographic photo shoots within the walls of the school to be able to survive. Basically, in this novel, girls aren't capable of anything but being pieces of meats and selling themselves. The guys fight for their survival, the girls sell themselves and make freaking beauty products for the market of a disease-ridden school barely able to feed itself. You think that's bad enough? Well, when it comes to The Sluts, this book crosses the line from insulting to appallingly insensitive and disrespectful when it is revealed that that particular gang bears that name because the leader was raped. Yup, she calls herself a slut because she was raped when the disaster started and she could not avenge herself on the guy. Let that sink in.
Every single girl in this novel is an insulting and demeaning stereotype. The head cheerleader, token mean girl and hottest thing on two legs is the sadistic and psychotic ex-girlfriend of the protagonist, because of course, she has to be the worst trash on Earth to cheat on the protagonist, and is also the official school pimp and the toy of the evil guy, so weak that she is unable to defend herself of his abuse and wants the protagonist dead because he later rejects her. Every other girl in this novel is petty, shallow and ridiculous. They literally wait for the main guy to walk down an isle to throw themselves at his feet and get a touch of his godly body. Well, those are the pretty ones. The ugly ones in this novel are constantly reminded of their appearance, humiliated and they always happen to be 'weird'. Oh, but of course, there's a special one, one that has the guys fighting for her because she is just so sweet and special. Lucy is the biggest Mary Sue I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. Sweet, pure and innocent, but just oh so gorgeous. She cannot think of anything but just how much she loves the main guy, she goes crazy when a girl just looks at her love interest (because us women are just crazy jealous and fly into horrifying states of frenzy if someone even dares to think about our men) and she gets turned on by being saved by guys. But that's hardly the only thing that turns her on. No, the authors of this book graciously provided this pathetic excuse for a female lead, a coward that is unable to fight at that, by having her get turn on when she is sexually harassed by guys. I am not kidding you. She admits that, when the savage, violent, would-be murderers and rapists of the jock gang (because, if you are a football player it is required you are a brute with no conscience or functioning brain) would touch her and leer at her body, she would pretend to be offended, but truly, she was turned on. Ah, the old "girls really want to be sexually dominated and preyed upon". No. Fuck no.
I can't remember the last time I read something so openly and disgustingly misogynistic, sexist and objectifying. Each of the female characters reinforces a horrible stereotype of women men like to tell themselves in order to feel better about objectifying, sexualizing and getting their way with women against their will. I am not claiming the authors did this on purpose, but the message is there, whether it was unintended or not. I simply cannot believe all of this has gone unmentioned in the many other reviews about this book. Even worse, I cannot believe the high ratings this book has, most of them at the hands of other women! I don't care if this is just a work of fiction. You put this in the hands of a younger audience and you let them think that it is okay because is not real and you ignore the fact that, book or not, this gives ideas to people, it gets ingrained into the fabric of who they are and they can grow up to believe this appalling, horrible vision of women. We are not sexual objects. We can fight for our lives and we can survive and we can do it without sacrificing our dignity! And we do NOT enjoy being objectified and sexualized and harrassed! It is not okay to treat us like we are blow-up dolls you can satisfy yourself with as you please and we do not enjoy that. Even worse, it is not okay to use one of the most traumatizing events that could happen for a woman and then make a fucking joke out of that experience.
I don't think I'm overreacting or being oversensitive about this. In fact, books should not give me reason to have to write my indignation about these topics like this in a public forum! Books should not offend me and insult me as a woman with misogynistic garbage like this! YA freaking novels should not ask for me to give up my ideals, my beliefs, my self-respect and my dignity in order to enjoy it! I will NEVER agree with stuff like this and I don't care if this is fiction or if the authors never intended to send this message because the things I previously pointed out are not exactly the result of in-depth reading subject to opinion. I gave you nothing but facts about the story and things that any person that goes through this book can see plain as day. This book is offensive, insulting, disrespectful and an indignity to the worth of women. I will not support garbage like this and I will never continue the series nor will I ever recommend this book to anybody. I don't care that this is just escapist fiction with blood and brutality for entertainment. This book got personal and insulted everything I believe in, insulted me as a woman and reduced us to mere sexual objects with no dignity that enjoy being used by men how they please. I will NOT stand for this, not now, not ever.
August 28, 2012
Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.
I've been through a couple of these kids-trapped-in-a-building-without-adult-supervision books already this year, like This Is Not a Test and Monument 14. In theory, I really like that basic structure, because it leaves a lot of space to do interesting things with social dynamics. Here, it was mostly just a way to isolate kids so they can do really awful things to one another.
When I read Monument 14, one of my issues was that none of the kids are particularly likable. Well, compared to the kids in The Loners, I pretty much want to be best friends with everyone from M14. Seriously, there's no one in this book that isn't a RAGING asshole. Even before the apocalyptic scenario, these kids were horrific.
David, the main character, is supposed to garner my sympathy because his mother died and his girlfriend, the hottest piece of ass ever apparently, cheated on him with the guy who took his spot on the football team when he quit. Boohoo, poor Mr. ex-QB. I would have felt badly for him, because both of those things suck, except that, by the time I learn this, he's already commented on how much he wants to sex a couple of different girls. When he finds out about his girlfriend's infidelity, the first thing he does is grab her arm really hard. Not cool. Then he gets drunk and starts a fight. I would hate this guy in real life and I hate him in this book.
His younger brother, Will, seemed like he might be better at first. He should have added some depth to the book, since he has epilepsy, further complicating survival. Unfortunately, his epilepsy was used only for dramatic effect and not to enhance the plot or make a point. Further, Will proves to be driven entirely by sexual urges. Seriously, he has the opportunity to buy useful stuff or to purchase a gold necklace for a girl he's crushing on (that doesn't like him back), and he chooses the necklace. He's so goddamn stupid. Plus, his brother totally had his back and he didn't do anything to help and was generally an ass as thanks. I mean, I don't like David, but Will was even worse.
The women in the book were awful too, every single one of them, which I guess fits nicely with their male counterparts. The kids in the school break down into gangs, two of which are all-female: The Pretty Ones and The Sluts. Yup. Unsurprisingly, girls have limited options in this scenario, so far as I can tell. They can barter sexual favors to a man for safety. They can defend themselves by joining The Sluts, which means they will be called lesbians and fight with the boys, thus get the worst injuries. Besides them, you've got the ugly girls, the ones that don't matter, who exist only to juxtapose their patheticness with that of the others, like Belinda the fat girl. Of course, there's the one girl outside of this, ex-Pretty One Lucy, who, by nature of being a beautiful virgin gets to be protected and survive.
The world building is exceedingly minimal. It exists only to trap the kids in this school. Blah blah virus, blah blah kills adults, blah blah food deliveries every two weeks. Of course, nowhere in the whole paragraph we get explaining why these kids are locked in their school is a reason given for why all of the kids lost their hair when the outbreak happened. Nor do we find out why their hair grows out white.
Anyway, once the first deliveries arrive and they realize the schedule, the kids form gangs, aka cliques based on high school social status. Even in a post-apocalyptic scenario, apparently, hot people do not hang out with uggos. Good to know. Throughout all of this nastiness, the focus upon appearance remains exceedingly important to everyone. Then, of course, they fight about everything.
Seriously, Lord of the Flies has nothing on these kids. They are doing all of this shit for NO REASON. If they don't cause trouble, the government's going to keep giving them supplies. As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this really should not be that bad. Unfortunately, this was apparently a school for demon children, so rape, beatings and deaths are going to be fairly common. Basically, everyone fights for stuff like it's the opening off the Hunger Games, where everyone grabs stuff from the cornucopia, only it's like that ALL THE TIME. Really though, the society they've set up here seems more like prison than anything else; they're all serving their terms, but, while they do, they're fighting for position, for sex and for vengeance.
Also, one thing that really bothered me about this? They had SO MANY WEAPONS. For the most part, that's cool. Just like with prison, you can make weapons out of pretty much anything. I get that and accept it. However, at one point, David mentions having a machete. Where the heck did that come from? It's not like you can easily construct a machete like you could a sort of knife or spear. Did that come in the supplies? If yes, that raises other serious questions. If no, was it in someone's locker? This just seemed inaccurate to me.
What I really don't get is why everything would turn into such a ridiculously violent mess. In Monument 14, the kids realized they had enough for everyone and worked together, making everything bearable. Here, the kids have enough food but make the situation impossible because the gangs hoard food. The Loners ends up reading like some sort of Battle Royale scenario where the kids HAVE to kill their classmates in order to survive. The issue here is that no one is forcing them to do this. They just ARE, because they WANT TO.
If you go to dystopias looking for gratuitous violence, The Loners just might be the book for you. The Loners reads like a horror movie, running through the standard tropes and focusing on gore, blood and violence.
I've been through a couple of these kids-trapped-in-a-building-without-adult-supervision books already this year, like This Is Not a Test and Monument 14. In theory, I really like that basic structure, because it leaves a lot of space to do interesting things with social dynamics. Here, it was mostly just a way to isolate kids so they can do really awful things to one another.
When I read Monument 14, one of my issues was that none of the kids are particularly likable. Well, compared to the kids in The Loners, I pretty much want to be best friends with everyone from M14. Seriously, there's no one in this book that isn't a RAGING asshole. Even before the apocalyptic scenario, these kids were horrific.
David, the main character, is supposed to garner my sympathy because his mother died and his girlfriend, the hottest piece of ass ever apparently, cheated on him with the guy who took his spot on the football team when he quit. Boohoo, poor Mr. ex-QB. I would have felt badly for him, because both of those things suck, except that, by the time I learn this, he's already commented on how much he wants to sex a couple of different girls. When he finds out about his girlfriend's infidelity, the first thing he does is grab her arm really hard. Not cool. Then he gets drunk and starts a fight. I would hate this guy in real life and I hate him in this book.
His younger brother, Will, seemed like he might be better at first. He should have added some depth to the book, since he has epilepsy, further complicating survival. Unfortunately, his epilepsy was used only for dramatic effect and not to enhance the plot or make a point. Further, Will proves to be driven entirely by sexual urges. Seriously, he has the opportunity to buy useful stuff or to purchase a gold necklace for a girl he's crushing on (that doesn't like him back), and he chooses the necklace. He's so goddamn stupid. Plus, his brother totally had his back and he didn't do anything to help and was generally an ass as thanks. I mean, I don't like David, but Will was even worse.
The women in the book were awful too, every single one of them, which I guess fits nicely with their male counterparts. The kids in the school break down into gangs, two of which are all-female: The Pretty Ones and The Sluts. Yup. Unsurprisingly, girls have limited options in this scenario, so far as I can tell. They can barter sexual favors to a man for safety. They can defend themselves by joining The Sluts, which means they will be called lesbians and fight with the boys, thus get the worst injuries. Besides them, you've got the ugly girls, the ones that don't matter, who exist only to juxtapose their patheticness with that of the others, like Belinda the fat girl. Of course, there's the one girl outside of this, ex-Pretty One Lucy, who, by nature of being a beautiful virgin gets to be protected and survive.
The world building is exceedingly minimal. It exists only to trap the kids in this school. Blah blah virus, blah blah kills adults, blah blah food deliveries every two weeks. Of course, nowhere in the whole paragraph we get explaining why these kids are locked in their school is a reason given for why all of the kids lost their hair when the outbreak happened. Nor do we find out why their hair grows out white.
Anyway, once the first deliveries arrive and they realize the schedule, the kids form gangs, aka cliques based on high school social status. Even in a post-apocalyptic scenario, apparently, hot people do not hang out with uggos. Good to know. Throughout all of this nastiness, the focus upon appearance remains exceedingly important to everyone. Then, of course, they fight about everything.
Seriously, Lord of the Flies has nothing on these kids. They are doing all of this shit for NO REASON. If they don't cause trouble, the government's going to keep giving them supplies. As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this really should not be that bad. Unfortunately, this was apparently a school for demon children, so rape, beatings and deaths are going to be fairly common. Basically, everyone fights for stuff like it's the opening off the Hunger Games, where everyone grabs stuff from the cornucopia, only it's like that ALL THE TIME. Really though, the society they've set up here seems more like prison than anything else; they're all serving their terms, but, while they do, they're fighting for position, for sex and for vengeance.
Also, one thing that really bothered me about this? They had SO MANY WEAPONS. For the most part, that's cool. Just like with prison, you can make weapons out of pretty much anything. I get that and accept it. However, at one point, David mentions having a machete. Where the heck did that come from? It's not like you can easily construct a machete like you could a sort of knife or spear. Did that come in the supplies? If yes, that raises other serious questions. If no, was it in someone's locker? This just seemed inaccurate to me.
What I really don't get is why everything would turn into such a ridiculously violent mess. In Monument 14, the kids realized they had enough for everyone and worked together, making everything bearable. Here, the kids have enough food but make the situation impossible because the gangs hoard food. The Loners ends up reading like some sort of Battle Royale scenario where the kids HAVE to kill their classmates in order to survive. The issue here is that no one is forcing them to do this. They just ARE, because they WANT TO.
If you go to dystopias looking for gratuitous violence, The Loners just might be the book for you. The Loners reads like a horror movie, running through the standard tropes and focusing on gore, blood and violence.
August 10, 2012
I have such mixed feelings about this book that I hardly know where to begin. The truth is, there is a lot wrong with it but I still kept right on reading, couldn’t make myself stop. What’s up with that?
For one thing, for a post-disaster scenario, which is pretty nearly always completely unrealistic, this one is way out there in left field. Here you have a school full of teens that have been cordoned off from the outside world. So far, so good. Why this has happened is at first a mystery to the teens and I can buy that, too. What gives me serious pause is what happens within minutes of the teens first realizing something is wrong. Can you imagine our government quarantining an entire school so fast and so competently? Also, why do the adults on the outside cut off all communication with the kids and why do they fail to provide the necessities of life on a regular basis? Well, I suppose these questions are a large part of why I kept reading—I needed to know why even more than what.
In some ways, Quarantine can be compared to Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games, especially in the extreme violence and anarchy that develops and yet…it isn’t really anarchy. The gangs that these 1,000 teens form, based largely on their school hierarchy during normal times, rings true because teens tend to want to belong to groups. The violence is to be expected also when you understand just what they’re up against if they want to survive. The gangs are very distinct and this is one of the aspects of the story I really enjoyed. Each gang has a name and distinguishing colors, each has a leader, each has a responsibility for one or more aspects of life under quarantine, each is feared by the other gangs. There are a couple of gangs that are expectedly in the forefront, particularly the Varsity and the Pretty Ones, but the authors do a great job of building the reader’s empathy for all of them in one way or another.
Another thing the authors do well is come up with details that make the reader really understand the perils these kids face and how they react, such as the way they dispose of bodies and the barter system they develop. Protagonists Will and David are much like most brothers, full of love and antagonism, and the obligatory love triangle with Lucy actually comes about more naturally than in many other young adult novels. I did feel, though, that the extreme hatred Sam has for David is a stretch and Will’s self-centeredness and unwillingness to do his part is a bit much but these elements do add a great deal to the premise. Character development outweighs plot and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I had issues with the way the government/military respond to the situation and with the behavior of the virus, especially how fast it kills and how it is spread, and these are the absurdities that most bothered me in the construction of the story, along with the difficulty I had tracking the passage of time. On the other hand, the pace of the book is breakneck and I can truly say I was never bored. What goes on with the kids is both disturbing and compelling and that is what made me have to finish. Despite its shortcomings, Quarantine is a thriller you don’t want to miss but, because of the violence and sheer darkness, I’d recommend it for older teens and up.
I must admit I also couldn’t resist a story whose first line is “Someone must have bitten off her nose.” Now that’s a grabber if I ever saw one so I guess I’ll have to read the next book, especially if I want to find out where the cliffhanger in this one is going to take us next. And I most certainly do.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2012.
For one thing, for a post-disaster scenario, which is pretty nearly always completely unrealistic, this one is way out there in left field. Here you have a school full of teens that have been cordoned off from the outside world. So far, so good. Why this has happened is at first a mystery to the teens and I can buy that, too. What gives me serious pause is what happens within minutes of the teens first realizing something is wrong. Can you imagine our government quarantining an entire school so fast and so competently? Also, why do the adults on the outside cut off all communication with the kids and why do they fail to provide the necessities of life on a regular basis? Well, I suppose these questions are a large part of why I kept reading—I needed to know why even more than what.
In some ways, Quarantine can be compared to Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games, especially in the extreme violence and anarchy that develops and yet…it isn’t really anarchy. The gangs that these 1,000 teens form, based largely on their school hierarchy during normal times, rings true because teens tend to want to belong to groups. The violence is to be expected also when you understand just what they’re up against if they want to survive. The gangs are very distinct and this is one of the aspects of the story I really enjoyed. Each gang has a name and distinguishing colors, each has a leader, each has a responsibility for one or more aspects of life under quarantine, each is feared by the other gangs. There are a couple of gangs that are expectedly in the forefront, particularly the Varsity and the Pretty Ones, but the authors do a great job of building the reader’s empathy for all of them in one way or another.
Another thing the authors do well is come up with details that make the reader really understand the perils these kids face and how they react, such as the way they dispose of bodies and the barter system they develop. Protagonists Will and David are much like most brothers, full of love and antagonism, and the obligatory love triangle with Lucy actually comes about more naturally than in many other young adult novels. I did feel, though, that the extreme hatred Sam has for David is a stretch and Will’s self-centeredness and unwillingness to do his part is a bit much but these elements do add a great deal to the premise. Character development outweighs plot and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I had issues with the way the government/military respond to the situation and with the behavior of the virus, especially how fast it kills and how it is spread, and these are the absurdities that most bothered me in the construction of the story, along with the difficulty I had tracking the passage of time. On the other hand, the pace of the book is breakneck and I can truly say I was never bored. What goes on with the kids is both disturbing and compelling and that is what made me have to finish. Despite its shortcomings, Quarantine is a thriller you don’t want to miss but, because of the violence and sheer darkness, I’d recommend it for older teens and up.
I must admit I also couldn’t resist a story whose first line is “Someone must have bitten off her nose.” Now that’s a grabber if I ever saw one so I guess I’ll have to read the next book, especially if I want to find out where the cliffhanger in this one is going to take us next. And I most certainly do.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2012.
July 5, 2017
Looking for a light, fluffy read? NOT HERE! This is dark, gritty, violent and terrifying on several levels. One of the most disturbing books I have ever read. And I love it! I've now read it twice.
Meet David, your typical high school student who was once the most popular guy is school until his mother's death who lost his way in life. A new year in school with his younger brother, Will, is going to be a year he will never forget. Mid-day finds him witnessing the death of the faculty before his very eyes and a lock-down of the school. No students can leave and no one would enter. The staff are all dead and students are told there is a deadly virus they now all have that will kill any adult in their vicinity.
Anarchy reigns within a few weeks. Students divide into personality gangs (Varsity, The Pretty Ones, Nerds, Sluts, etc) the local authorities occasionally do drops over the school field for food, clothes, and other supplies. For High Schoolers, it is a fight for survival. Some students, including David, are not a part of any gang so survival is even harder for them. Can David unite them?
Lots of violence, teenagers killing each other, near rape scenes, etc layer nearly ever chapter of this book. Lex Thomas delivers such horrific imagery. It's Hunger Games meets Battle Royale. Not your standard, "Can't sleep at night" horror, but possibly nightmares. Several scenes had me flinching in my seat. The author does a great job giving you a front row seat.
What I didn't like was HOW everything happened seems way to fast and unrealistic. Things unraveled too quickly at first. But as routine sets in I soon out that aside as I was sucked in the more horrific High School experience EVER!
David's character is so well done. I could not help but like him and cheer him on. He doesn't want to lead but so many look up to him. As time wears on students become desperate and he knows to survive things have to change. Unlike David, this brother annoys me throughout most of the book. Friends become enemies and enemies become friends. High School will never be the same!
So overall, a well-worth while read. Not for the light-hearted readers. Mind you I have read darker, but for Young Adult fiction, this tops the list! This is for older teen to adult readers. Explicit warning on many levels! Assuredly not for the soon-to-be High Schooler. They might refuse to go! So if you are looking for dark, twisted and violent here is a perfect read!
Meet David, your typical high school student who was once the most popular guy is school until his mother's death who lost his way in life. A new year in school with his younger brother, Will, is going to be a year he will never forget. Mid-day finds him witnessing the death of the faculty before his very eyes and a lock-down of the school. No students can leave and no one would enter. The staff are all dead and students are told there is a deadly virus they now all have that will kill any adult in their vicinity.
Anarchy reigns within a few weeks. Students divide into personality gangs (Varsity, The Pretty Ones, Nerds, Sluts, etc) the local authorities occasionally do drops over the school field for food, clothes, and other supplies. For High Schoolers, it is a fight for survival. Some students, including David, are not a part of any gang so survival is even harder for them. Can David unite them?
Lots of violence, teenagers killing each other, near rape scenes, etc layer nearly ever chapter of this book. Lex Thomas delivers such horrific imagery. It's Hunger Games meets Battle Royale. Not your standard, "Can't sleep at night" horror, but possibly nightmares. Several scenes had me flinching in my seat. The author does a great job giving you a front row seat.
What I didn't like was HOW everything happened seems way to fast and unrealistic. Things unraveled too quickly at first. But as routine sets in I soon out that aside as I was sucked in the more horrific High School experience EVER!
David's character is so well done. I could not help but like him and cheer him on. He doesn't want to lead but so many look up to him. As time wears on students become desperate and he knows to survive things have to change. Unlike David, this brother annoys me throughout most of the book. Friends become enemies and enemies become friends. High School will never be the same!
So overall, a well-worth while read. Not for the light-hearted readers. Mind you I have read darker, but for Young Adult fiction, this tops the list! This is for older teen to adult readers. Explicit warning on many levels! Assuredly not for the soon-to-be High Schooler. They might refuse to go! So if you are looking for dark, twisted and violent here is a perfect read!
February 10, 2017
Review also posted on my blog
I think I should just let you all know that this review is going to be terrible. Not because the book was bad but because I am struggling to find anything bad to say about it. Expect this review to be full of gushing because I absolutely LOVED this book.
I thought it was smart, compelling and brave. It dares to go into territory that many YA books will not tread. It is brutal, violent, gruesome, frightening and at times overwhelming. Another thing that separates this book from a lot of others in the genre is that you are never quite sure how this is all going to end. Normally you have an idea, you know the main character is going to be fine but in this it is not so certain. It adds a tenseness as you read because you really do care about the characters and you really do care what happens.
The story is compelling, something that I was not expecting when I read the blurb. I never thought that kids being stuck in a school together would be interesting but it was. (The kids go tribal and it is awesome). From beginning to end this book holds your attention. The first chapter is one of the best I have read; these writers definitely know how to grab your attention. The ending is fantastic and leaves you thirsting for more.
What it so utterly brilliant about this book is that it is comparable to life for teens in school today. The pressures of being popular, the fear of being a loner, of being bullied are all represented in this dystopian fiction. I am not a teen but I think a lot of the messages in this novel will reach out to modern teens in a way many YA books cannot. In its way this book is brutally realistic, which I found to be a really smart move from the writers. Also this book takes a close look at human nature, at how quickly and easy it could be for us to all fall into dangerous disarray.
It feels at times so real, people band together in groups, some stay with people who are just like them. Some join people who can protect them, but everything comes at a cost. The protectors are often bullies and control freaks, and it makes you wonder how much could you take before you tried your luck on your own. As horrible as it sounds, I can image this happening and that is what makes this book so disturbing.
The characters are amazing. For me it is all about David. I have not felt a connection to a character like this in a while. Simply put I loved him…a lot (seriously I might actually be in love with him). He was smart, brave, funny and cute. I spent so much of my time preying that nothing happened to him, I am surprised I managed to notice anything else about the book. In contrast David’s brother Will is not as likable; in fact in the beginning he is damn irritating. He acts like a spoilt brat, he is selfish and I was planning on bringing him up as a massive thing I disliked about this book… but then he goes and redeems himself, and he changed and become someone I really liked.
Their relationship is an interesting one. It is clear that they love each other unconditionally. David would do anything for Will and vise-a-versa but the relationship is strained. You see a snippet off their life before disaster struck and see how at ease they are with one another but all that changes in the dark halls of the high school. It is interesting to see the strain on them build up, yet again it felt amazingly real without ever being over the top.
All the secondary characters are top notch. Heroes and villains, all are well thought out and well put together.
Lex Thomas (this is really confusing because Lex Thomas is actually two people) really needs a round of applause for their world building. This world is dark and dirty. It is rotting and revolting. It is utterly perfect for what they were going for. It matches the grimness of the characters situation and the fast pace of the story. In this world things move quickly, it doesn’t let up for a second. Things happen in the blink of an eye but never do the writers hide what is happening. The violence and anguish is in your face, they do not shy away from it at all, not for a second.
Maybe that is where the only negative thing I have to say about this book comes in. Although I don’t have a problem with it (in fact I quite like it) this book might just prove too violent and brutal for some. It is beyond anything else I have read in YA and I know some readers are not comfortable with that. I really hope this doesn’t put anyone off because this book is well worth the read.
I have heard today that this book is being made into a movie. I honestly think this novel is perfect source material. I cannot wait for the movie and I cannot wait for the next book. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.
The Loners (Book 1 in Quarantine) is out July 10th. Give it a go, you will not regret it.
(was sent advance copy by publisher via netgalley)
I think I should just let you all know that this review is going to be terrible. Not because the book was bad but because I am struggling to find anything bad to say about it. Expect this review to be full of gushing because I absolutely LOVED this book.
I thought it was smart, compelling and brave. It dares to go into territory that many YA books will not tread. It is brutal, violent, gruesome, frightening and at times overwhelming. Another thing that separates this book from a lot of others in the genre is that you are never quite sure how this is all going to end. Normally you have an idea, you know the main character is going to be fine but in this it is not so certain. It adds a tenseness as you read because you really do care about the characters and you really do care what happens.
The story is compelling, something that I was not expecting when I read the blurb. I never thought that kids being stuck in a school together would be interesting but it was. (The kids go tribal and it is awesome). From beginning to end this book holds your attention. The first chapter is one of the best I have read; these writers definitely know how to grab your attention. The ending is fantastic and leaves you thirsting for more.
What it so utterly brilliant about this book is that it is comparable to life for teens in school today. The pressures of being popular, the fear of being a loner, of being bullied are all represented in this dystopian fiction. I am not a teen but I think a lot of the messages in this novel will reach out to modern teens in a way many YA books cannot. In its way this book is brutally realistic, which I found to be a really smart move from the writers. Also this book takes a close look at human nature, at how quickly and easy it could be for us to all fall into dangerous disarray.
It feels at times so real, people band together in groups, some stay with people who are just like them. Some join people who can protect them, but everything comes at a cost. The protectors are often bullies and control freaks, and it makes you wonder how much could you take before you tried your luck on your own. As horrible as it sounds, I can image this happening and that is what makes this book so disturbing.
The characters are amazing. For me it is all about David. I have not felt a connection to a character like this in a while. Simply put I loved him…a lot (seriously I might actually be in love with him). He was smart, brave, funny and cute. I spent so much of my time preying that nothing happened to him, I am surprised I managed to notice anything else about the book. In contrast David’s brother Will is not as likable; in fact in the beginning he is damn irritating. He acts like a spoilt brat, he is selfish and I was planning on bringing him up as a massive thing I disliked about this book… but then he goes and redeems himself, and he changed and become someone I really liked.
Their relationship is an interesting one. It is clear that they love each other unconditionally. David would do anything for Will and vise-a-versa but the relationship is strained. You see a snippet off their life before disaster struck and see how at ease they are with one another but all that changes in the dark halls of the high school. It is interesting to see the strain on them build up, yet again it felt amazingly real without ever being over the top.
All the secondary characters are top notch. Heroes and villains, all are well thought out and well put together.
Lex Thomas (this is really confusing because Lex Thomas is actually two people) really needs a round of applause for their world building. This world is dark and dirty. It is rotting and revolting. It is utterly perfect for what they were going for. It matches the grimness of the characters situation and the fast pace of the story. In this world things move quickly, it doesn’t let up for a second. Things happen in the blink of an eye but never do the writers hide what is happening. The violence and anguish is in your face, they do not shy away from it at all, not for a second.
Maybe that is where the only negative thing I have to say about this book comes in. Although I don’t have a problem with it (in fact I quite like it) this book might just prove too violent and brutal for some. It is beyond anything else I have read in YA and I know some readers are not comfortable with that. I really hope this doesn’t put anyone off because this book is well worth the read.
I have heard today that this book is being made into a movie. I honestly think this novel is perfect source material. I cannot wait for the movie and I cannot wait for the next book. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.
The Loners (Book 1 in Quarantine) is out July 10th. Give it a go, you will not regret it.
(was sent advance copy by publisher via netgalley)
July 16, 2012
No.
To everything in this book.
I feel like something's wrong with me because so many people enjoyed it.
I just did not feel anything in this book at all.
Theres so many questions about this book that go unanswered, which I guess makes sense because this is a series and maybe the author is leaving it for the next books, but still. It was wholly irritating to me.
Such as:
-how can there be drop offs of supplies from the government, but no contact other than that?
-how can there be so much sex happening and no babies?
-the kids are stuck inside 24/7 with no sun. So wouldnt that make them have some sort of vitamin deficiency or something?
I am all for violence in books - I'm a freak like that. But the violence in this book? No, no and no. I didnt like the way it was written.
I didnt like the way this whole book was written, to be honest. There were parts where the book was slow and then other parts where it was fast paced.
PICK A PACE, DAMMIT.
I didnt even finish it. i cant be bothered looking at where I stopped. It was somewhere toward the end or something.
To everything in this book.
I feel like something's wrong with me because so many people enjoyed it.
I just did not feel anything in this book at all.
Theres so many questions about this book that go unanswered, which I guess makes sense because this is a series and maybe the author is leaving it for the next books, but still. It was wholly irritating to me.
Such as:
-how can there be drop offs of supplies from the government, but no contact other than that?
-how can there be so much sex happening and no babies?
-the kids are stuck inside 24/7 with no sun. So wouldnt that make them have some sort of vitamin deficiency or something?
I am all for violence in books - I'm a freak like that. But the violence in this book? No, no and no. I didnt like the way it was written.
I didnt like the way this whole book was written, to be honest. There were parts where the book was slow and then other parts where it was fast paced.
PICK A PACE, DAMMIT.
I didnt even finish it. i cant be bothered looking at where I stopped. It was somewhere toward the end or something.
October 10, 2012
Ok, Quaranteen (as it says on my copy) or Quarantine is a fun, fast-paced read. It's violent, has mature content and requires a LOT of willing suspension of disbelief, but it works as a quick summer read. I can see a lot of my male sophomore students liking the book. The male protagonists are likable, the fight scenes are graphic, and there are a lot of mini-cliffhangers that will keep kids turning pages. Sure there are a lot of lingering questions & arguable plot holes (we'll see what gets revealed in the sequel), but as escapist - "Hey, my life sucks, but at least I am not locked in my highschool where rival cliques are trying to kill me." - diversion, Quarenteen works.
I received this book as a free ARC from a Goodreads Drawing. (Thanks!!!)
I received this book as a free ARC from a Goodreads Drawing. (Thanks!!!)
November 29, 2012
Yikes! You know those people who want to TELL you the entire plot of a long and convoluted movie or video game and go on and on, but you just never really understand the story or see the setting or empathize with the characters? Oh, and you want those people to stop talking and go away? That's how I felt for the 400 long pages of this novel.
It reads like a bad movie or illogical video game scenario explained by an inarticulate teen with a penchant for throwing in some jolting figurative language perhaps intended to demonstrate writing SKILZ. Examples you ask? Sure, I dog-eared a couple of pages. To point out just a sampling:
"His blond eyebrows were hunched up like train cars in a horrible accident."
"He instinctively looked down and scurried out of the market, feeling like the slave who had dared to look the king in the face.:
"They were the Pretty Ones. Their legs were like silken columns towering over David." Huh?
Just realized I'm not telling the story of the story very well. Told in several limited third p-o-v's, but mostly that of former QB football star turned pariah after social withdrawal following his mother's death David and his epileptic younger brother Will, comes a premise that could work but doesn't due to very poor world building that never allows this speculative fiction--for lack of a more apt genre--to work. Evil military biotech company engineers virus for which only pubescent teens are carriers. Such teens put out a pheromone that acts on adults' lungs as an acid, killing them almost instantly. Captive teen test subjects escaped, so we're told in two pages of exposition, infecting the school, requiring a missile be fired into the school, and when that didn't contain the epidemic, complete lock down, doors welded shut of the large high school. All communication over until soldiers hustle in and build a special chamber that indicates when teens can
"graduate," based on when they turn adult enough that leaving is the only way for them to survive. None of it rings true or seems more substantial than cardboard cutouts of a premise.
Immediately in the wake of the confusing disaster, cliques become scary one-dimensional gangs, yielding all semblance of humanity and individuality for survival under sudden Lord of the Flies conditions. Conveniently, the teens lose all the pigment in their hair or it turns white or some other BS so that gangs can busy themselves dyeing their hair in colors of their affiliations: Yellow for Varsity and their Queen Bees, the Pretty Ones. Also, we have Freaks, Sluts, Nerds, Geeks, and Skaters, I think, with their various shades of belonging. David and his brother are Scraps--no group with which to huddle and survive. Every two weeks the government drops supplies by unzipping the huge plastic containment over the school quad by helicopter. I'm guessing that's supposed to be like the Cornucopia Bloodbath of the Hunger Games because it's a Battle Royal dominated by Varsity, led by Sam, David's nemesis--the Jack to his Ralph.
Not subtle, not well crafted, not three-dimensional, not worth my time. I didn't like a single character, not one. This seems to me to be one that will most appeal to the non-readers, so perhaps it has its place and value, but it will be hard for me to recommend to most at my library.
It reads like a bad movie or illogical video game scenario explained by an inarticulate teen with a penchant for throwing in some jolting figurative language perhaps intended to demonstrate writing SKILZ. Examples you ask? Sure, I dog-eared a couple of pages. To point out just a sampling:
"His blond eyebrows were hunched up like train cars in a horrible accident."
"He instinctively looked down and scurried out of the market, feeling like the slave who had dared to look the king in the face.:
"They were the Pretty Ones. Their legs were like silken columns towering over David." Huh?
Just realized I'm not telling the story of the story very well. Told in several limited third p-o-v's, but mostly that of former QB football star turned pariah after social withdrawal following his mother's death David and his epileptic younger brother Will, comes a premise that could work but doesn't due to very poor world building that never allows this speculative fiction--for lack of a more apt genre--to work. Evil military biotech company engineers virus for which only pubescent teens are carriers. Such teens put out a pheromone that acts on adults' lungs as an acid, killing them almost instantly. Captive teen test subjects escaped, so we're told in two pages of exposition, infecting the school, requiring a missile be fired into the school, and when that didn't contain the epidemic, complete lock down, doors welded shut of the large high school. All communication over until soldiers hustle in and build a special chamber that indicates when teens can
"graduate," based on when they turn adult enough that leaving is the only way for them to survive. None of it rings true or seems more substantial than cardboard cutouts of a premise.
Immediately in the wake of the confusing disaster, cliques become scary one-dimensional gangs, yielding all semblance of humanity and individuality for survival under sudden Lord of the Flies conditions. Conveniently, the teens lose all the pigment in their hair or it turns white or some other BS so that gangs can busy themselves dyeing their hair in colors of their affiliations: Yellow for Varsity and their Queen Bees, the Pretty Ones. Also, we have Freaks, Sluts, Nerds, Geeks, and Skaters, I think, with their various shades of belonging. David and his brother are Scraps--no group with which to huddle and survive. Every two weeks the government drops supplies by unzipping the huge plastic containment over the school quad by helicopter. I'm guessing that's supposed to be like the Cornucopia Bloodbath of the Hunger Games because it's a Battle Royal dominated by Varsity, led by Sam, David's nemesis--the Jack to his Ralph.
Not subtle, not well crafted, not three-dimensional, not worth my time. I didn't like a single character, not one. This seems to me to be one that will most appeal to the non-readers, so perhaps it has its place and value, but it will be hard for me to recommend to most at my library.
April 9, 2015
I really didn't like a single thing about the book-the writing, the plot, the characters, nothing. So if you're hoping I will praise something in it, all I can say is 'Move along, nothing to see here' *flaps arms at readers*
I usually take a lot of notes while reading so I can refer to them later to refresh my memory. My notes begin with 'Quarantine: The Losers' which probably sums up my feelings perfectly. Lets start with the characters shall we? The guys are all mean, obnoxious jerks whose only mission in life is to beat each other up and have sex with as many girls as possible. And maybe play a few football games as well. And this was BEFORE the outbreak. The girls are all stunning, cheating whores willing to screw any guy with a pulse and have no brains, thoughts or common sense. They have the personality of a wet mop. The first part of the book is just about David's cheating girlfriend, David's loser team mates and a lot of guys fighting and being dicks, basically.
And it doesn't improve when the school goes into lockdown. Will is a moaning faced lazy little sod who gets everything handed to him by his brother and who does nothing to help. His constant whining and taking out his moods on his brother got on my nerves. David should have been a sympathetic character with everything he has gone through but I just found him to be cold and unpleasant. He is a bit too eager to hurt his girlfriend after her cheating, he is just Mr Teenage Angry Guy and I can see why nobody wants to hang out with him. The guys just become savages after the lockdown, which was pretty over the top. If you've ever seen the Ray Liotta film 'No Escape' just think of The Outsiders.
The girls are worse. These authors takes every horrific steriotype about women and drapes them all over the characters, portaying them as normal. I'm no feminist but I was disgusted by what the authors were implying all through this book. The authors are trying to make sexual violence look sexy and I bloody well hate that crap in books. Rape victims who fail to get revenge are not sluts. Girls do NOT get turned on by being sexually harrassed, pawed, abused or raped. Girls not interested in being sluts are not lesbians. Women can survive in dangerous situations without opening their legs to men. Women do not turn into screeching harpies at the though that some girl somewhere might fancy our man. And No does not mean yes, EVER. What the hell kind of message are the authors sending to female YA readers-that THIS is what you should aspire to be? That THIS is the sort of relationship you should seek out? Ugh. Pathetic. Yes I know it is fiction but it drives me crazy to hear young YA readers getting gooey over male characters that beat, rape and humiliate their women. Say what you want about Twilight, at least Edward Cullen was a gentleman who treated Bella like a princess!
There is no real plot. We just have a school in lockdown and every time the government drop off supplies to them, there is a Hunger Games style murder spree as all these kids fight over the stuff. It is completely crazy to think that the kids would suddenly all become psycho killers so quickly, using the lockdown to murder people they have a grudge against. It just never felt real to me and if it doesn't convince me that it could happen, I don't engage with the story. There is no variety to the plot, it just keeps going round in circles as the violence gets worse.
And where exactly are some of these weapons coming from? Why were they needing to kill each other to live another day themselves? There were more than enough supplies and if they had some order, they could survive quite easily. So the author obviously just wanted a novel with pointless violence from start to finish. While I enjoy violent novels, there has to be a point to it, a reason, an actual story to fit around it. This book had nothing like that and it just got boring. Oh look, another attack on a kid. *yawn*
I also thought the writing was really poor. The author was using silly descriptions which just did not work, there was a lot of tell and not enough good show. There was little reason for anything that we seen in the plot and frankly, it was not a good piece of writing. It is actually one of the poorest books I've read in a while. When you don't give a crap about any of the characters and WANT the authorities to just nuke the place, you know the book has missed the mark on every level.
I won't be finishing this book or reading anything else by the authors.
I usually take a lot of notes while reading so I can refer to them later to refresh my memory. My notes begin with 'Quarantine: The Losers' which probably sums up my feelings perfectly. Lets start with the characters shall we? The guys are all mean, obnoxious jerks whose only mission in life is to beat each other up and have sex with as many girls as possible. And maybe play a few football games as well. And this was BEFORE the outbreak. The girls are all stunning, cheating whores willing to screw any guy with a pulse and have no brains, thoughts or common sense. They have the personality of a wet mop. The first part of the book is just about David's cheating girlfriend, David's loser team mates and a lot of guys fighting and being dicks, basically.
And it doesn't improve when the school goes into lockdown. Will is a moaning faced lazy little sod who gets everything handed to him by his brother and who does nothing to help. His constant whining and taking out his moods on his brother got on my nerves. David should have been a sympathetic character with everything he has gone through but I just found him to be cold and unpleasant. He is a bit too eager to hurt his girlfriend after her cheating, he is just Mr Teenage Angry Guy and I can see why nobody wants to hang out with him. The guys just become savages after the lockdown, which was pretty over the top. If you've ever seen the Ray Liotta film 'No Escape' just think of The Outsiders.
The girls are worse. These authors takes every horrific steriotype about women and drapes them all over the characters, portaying them as normal. I'm no feminist but I was disgusted by what the authors were implying all through this book. The authors are trying to make sexual violence look sexy and I bloody well hate that crap in books. Rape victims who fail to get revenge are not sluts. Girls do NOT get turned on by being sexually harrassed, pawed, abused or raped. Girls not interested in being sluts are not lesbians. Women can survive in dangerous situations without opening their legs to men. Women do not turn into screeching harpies at the though that some girl somewhere might fancy our man. And No does not mean yes, EVER. What the hell kind of message are the authors sending to female YA readers-that THIS is what you should aspire to be? That THIS is the sort of relationship you should seek out? Ugh. Pathetic. Yes I know it is fiction but it drives me crazy to hear young YA readers getting gooey over male characters that beat, rape and humiliate their women. Say what you want about Twilight, at least Edward Cullen was a gentleman who treated Bella like a princess!
There is no real plot. We just have a school in lockdown and every time the government drop off supplies to them, there is a Hunger Games style murder spree as all these kids fight over the stuff. It is completely crazy to think that the kids would suddenly all become psycho killers so quickly, using the lockdown to murder people they have a grudge against. It just never felt real to me and if it doesn't convince me that it could happen, I don't engage with the story. There is no variety to the plot, it just keeps going round in circles as the violence gets worse.
And where exactly are some of these weapons coming from? Why were they needing to kill each other to live another day themselves? There were more than enough supplies and if they had some order, they could survive quite easily. So the author obviously just wanted a novel with pointless violence from start to finish. While I enjoy violent novels, there has to be a point to it, a reason, an actual story to fit around it. This book had nothing like that and it just got boring. Oh look, another attack on a kid. *yawn*
I also thought the writing was really poor. The author was using silly descriptions which just did not work, there was a lot of tell and not enough good show. There was little reason for anything that we seen in the plot and frankly, it was not a good piece of writing. It is actually one of the poorest books I've read in a while. When you don't give a crap about any of the characters and WANT the authorities to just nuke the place, you know the book has missed the mark on every level.
I won't be finishing this book or reading anything else by the authors.
August 26, 2012
What to feel about this book... not sure yet. It's still settling in my stomach like a large meal at a greasy spoon. I'm going to go with a very safe 3 star review because I did enjoy this book, despite the occasionally awkward writing, the terrible science, and the annoying moody teenager-ness of a lot of the main characters.
The entire plot centers around a scientific macguffin which, if read into too deeply, will make your brain explode with the inconsistencies of logic. Seriously. To get any enjoyment from this book you must completely disregard any possible fallacies or scientific inconsistencies and just go with the flow, or else you will drive yourself crazy with the 'that makes absolutely no fucking sense'-ness of it all.
Two brothers, Will and the older David, find themselves stuck in their high school which has been quarantined after a local chemical company was found to have been experimenting with illegal chemical weapons and one of their test subjects escaped into the high school population. The weapon that the test subject carried in his blood was one that effectively makes kids into walking time bombs - if any adult comes near them they actually throw up their internal organs. Once you turn 18, the disease starts to dissipate and you actually become one of the victims rather than a carrier.
So... yeah. Like I said. Don't get into the science, because the science, she is very bad folks.
The high school eventually devolves into this Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome type gladiatorial environment, with the major fights centering around 'drops' that the military makes which contain everything from food, and apparently hair dye, extensions, perfume, lotion, you name it. The various high school cliques have formed themselves into groups to help get as much of the supplies as possible - The Varsity (jocks), Nerds, Geeks, etc. It's all very Lord of the Flies, if aforementioned book had been written by a teenager with a fascination with dead bodies and disgusting stuff.
I suppose the book works as an allegory for the dog eat dog nature of the high school community, and it was a fun thrill ride, though I found some of the characters so annoying that occasionally I just skipped entire pages just so I could stop reading about them. The idea, I find, is better than the execution here which as a little clumsy. I think it would make a great movie, and I'll definitely check out the sequel. The writing team of Lex Thomas has come up with a fun idea if you don't peer too closely behind the curtains and think too deeply on how it all works.
The entire plot centers around a scientific macguffin which, if read into too deeply, will make your brain explode with the inconsistencies of logic. Seriously. To get any enjoyment from this book you must completely disregard any possible fallacies or scientific inconsistencies and just go with the flow, or else you will drive yourself crazy with the 'that makes absolutely no fucking sense'-ness of it all.
Two brothers, Will and the older David, find themselves stuck in their high school which has been quarantined after a local chemical company was found to have been experimenting with illegal chemical weapons and one of their test subjects escaped into the high school population. The weapon that the test subject carried in his blood was one that effectively makes kids into walking time bombs - if any adult comes near them they actually throw up their internal organs. Once you turn 18, the disease starts to dissipate and you actually become one of the victims rather than a carrier.
So... yeah. Like I said. Don't get into the science, because the science, she is very bad folks.
The high school eventually devolves into this Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome type gladiatorial environment, with the major fights centering around 'drops' that the military makes which contain everything from food, and apparently hair dye, extensions, perfume, lotion, you name it. The various high school cliques have formed themselves into groups to help get as much of the supplies as possible - The Varsity (jocks), Nerds, Geeks, etc. It's all very Lord of the Flies, if aforementioned book had been written by a teenager with a fascination with dead bodies and disgusting stuff.
I suppose the book works as an allegory for the dog eat dog nature of the high school community, and it was a fun thrill ride, though I found some of the characters so annoying that occasionally I just skipped entire pages just so I could stop reading about them. The idea, I find, is better than the execution here which as a little clumsy. I think it would make a great movie, and I'll definitely check out the sequel. The writing team of Lex Thomas has come up with a fun idea if you don't peer too closely behind the curtains and think too deeply on how it all works.
November 9, 2021
Zero stars if I could. Completely misogynistic and chock full of stereotypes, with incredibly stilted and overly simplified language. The plot was awful, the characters even worse, and I desperately want to purge this garbage from my brain. Take your women-hating, pre-pubescent drivel back to your playpen.
September 30, 2014
I think it’s safe to say that it’s a major page-turner, filled with suspense and cliffhangers. Despite this, however, I do think that it has some flaws. For example, the book takes place in a high school that is very stereotypical—almost too much so. Before the quarantine began, David was that stereotypical “popular all-star quarterback” that you see when you’re watching a cheesy show about an impractical high school. And, of course, you can’t forget his very popular, “Queen Bee” girlfriend, Hilary. I think the author did a rather bad job of creating a realistic high school setting. I found the overall scenario after the quarantine unrealistic as well. The students in the high school are given supplies for survival by the government, and they treat it like the supplies in the Cornucopia in The Hunger Games. Instead of attempting to help everyone, they stayed in their cliques and killed anyone who threatened their survival. Did it never cross anyone’s mind that everyone could survive if they all worked together? Overall, I’d say that this book is a gory, spine-tingling, overall interesting book, but it could definitely use some improvement.
April 5, 2020
At A Glance
Genre: YA; Science Fiction; Dystopian
Love Triangle/Insta Love?: triangle
Cliff Hanger: fuck ya
Rating: 4 Stars
Score Sheet
All out of ten
Cover: 7
Plot: 7
Characters: 6
World Building: 7
Flow: 7
Series Congruity: n/a
Writing: 5
Ending: 9
Total: 6
In Dept
Best Part: Hallway of death!
Worst Part: "romance"
Thoughts Had: At least they have condoms...
Conclusion
Continuing the Series: yes
Recommending: yes
Short Review: ahhhh that freaking cliffhanger ending!? why do that to me! ugh. okay parts of this book reads as a creative writing project which was making me give this 3 stars, but the ending really saved it so 4 stars. i don't mind all the characters, i wasn't too fond of Will, he acted like a total baby most of the time. Lucy was written too "blonde" for me, and why the fuck would she keep the necklace from Will but refuse to kiss him?. David was alright, didn't really care for him either way really. I do wonder what all was given to these kids on the drops since they mentioned wearing all the same clothes for months, but were given laundry supplies? Overall decent, writing could have been better, but i liked the storyline and the ending saved it.
Genre: YA; Science Fiction; Dystopian
Love Triangle/Insta Love?: triangle
Cliff Hanger: fuck ya
Rating: 4 Stars
Score Sheet
All out of ten
Cover: 7
Plot: 7
Characters: 6
World Building: 7
Flow: 7
Series Congruity: n/a
Writing: 5
Ending: 9
Total: 6
In Dept
Best Part: Hallway of death!
Worst Part: "romance"
Thoughts Had: At least they have condoms...
Conclusion
Continuing the Series: yes
Recommending: yes
Short Review: ahhhh that freaking cliffhanger ending!? why do that to me! ugh. okay parts of this book reads as a creative writing project which was making me give this 3 stars, but the ending really saved it so 4 stars. i don't mind all the characters, i wasn't too fond of Will, he acted like a total baby most of the time. Lucy was written too "blonde" for me, and why the fuck would she keep the necklace from Will but refuse to kiss him?. David was alright, didn't really care for him either way really. I do wonder what all was given to these kids on the drops since they mentioned wearing all the same clothes for months, but were given laundry supplies? Overall decent, writing could have been better, but i liked the storyline and the ending saved it.
December 1, 2012
I just finished reading Quarantine moments ago and OMFG! This book is absolutely amazing. I literally was in love with the book right from Page One. It reminds me so much of Gone by Michael grant which is my favorite series so you'll likely here me compare them.
Let's Start the Review
A. Characters:
There are a lot of characters in Quarantine...A LOT but the main ones who matter are David, Will, Lucy, Sam & Hillary.
David is the lead character and honestly, i felt bad for David in the beginning of the book because he had such a crappy as start. He suffered a loss prior to the story beginning that broke him, his girlfriend cheated and then he was thrown into the hell of the quarantine. However, by the middle of the book I actually started disliking him. He reminds me of Sam from gone. Both are good guys...but they are a little TOO GOOD. There was not a whole lot of flaws about David which made him seem too perfect for me...He was idolized by so many people and I just felt like he wasn't flawed enough. Even with events towards the end of the book, David just felt one-dimensional to me...Although a lot of bad shit happened to david that made me empathize with him even if he was a bit boring to me at times.
Will, is the second lead character, and I absolutely love will. He is an Epileptic teen so he has a few seizures throughout the book. He has one one his first day of school right after the quarantine happens and that sets the course for his character development. He went from a bit of an immature brat to a cocky jackass with good intentions. Unlike David, Will was flawed. He made a lot of bad decisions throughout the book fueled by his insecurities and Jealousies he experienced. But for every bad thing he did, he seemed to always find a way to redeem himself. Will is the type of character in a book you just fall in love with instantly. I love the bad boy vibe he had going on. He is definitely my favorite character on the good side.
Lucy....Lucy(like Astrid from GOne) is the love interest and in all honesty, i hate this girl. She starts off as a prissy girl and that's fine. But then she literally becomes a love interest and that is literally all she is really. There isn't much defining moments for her...She annoyed the crap out of me and she is a big reason i hated David because of David's choices with her that affected Will. I will admit that towards the end of the book, she did have one badass moment but in a book filled with so many amazing female characters....she is easily the weakest character in the books. Even the weird twins in the book make better characters than Lucy. She is the weakest character by no doubt..and it was hard for me to see WHY they were so in love with her.
Sam....I love Will but I freaking LOVE SAM! I love bad boys with a bit of craziness mixed in. He is a mix of Caine & Drake(From Gone) which is why i love this guy. He is crazy, deranged, obsessive and he is so flawed yet during his many inhumane moments and trust me, Sam committed a lot of heinous actions in this book, I love the fact there was a vulnerability in Sam. He makes the perfect villain. My favorite character(Will is a close second). Highly well-written.....
Hillary...she is the bitch of the story and rightfully so. Like Sam, she has committed a lot of heinous actions in this book. There is one scene involving Hillary that definitely gave me chills because it was so violent and horrible and downright evil of her. Unlike Lucy, Hillary was a VERY strong female character but she also had flaws of her own and it made her that much more appealing especially towards the end of the book.
Other cool characters Zachary, Violent, Smudge, ritchie, Nelson, Gonzalo and so many other characters whose names i can't remember!
B. Plot & Writing
Plotwise....
I initially said this book reminds me of Gone because it does...it also has elements of Hunger games mixed in without the survival skills & Divergent....
Yet this book takes familiar plots and makes it unique...trapping these kids in a closed setting because they have a disease that can literally kill adults and they have to be quarantined off is brilliant.
Add in the fact, that these are TEENS...who already hate each other from day to day schooling but you add in the fact there is no authority...no rules....anything goes...remove democracy...remove safety of laws and you have a brutal setting and that is what makes this book amazing.
C. Realism
I love that this book did not hesitate to use cussing quite often because that is how teens my age talk.
It wasn't afraid to have frank & open sex scenes(nothing too graphics).
I love the fact that the guys talk as gross and crass as guys tends to talk. It was real...
The fact that people banded together with people similar to them...realistic. You want to be close to those like you so you feel safe and sound and secure with.
Overall, this book impressed me. I am a bit shocked to see it doesn't have a higher rating on goodreads than it does. Some things like Lucy & David do make this book slightly imperfect but with strong and more appealing characters like Will, Hillary, Sam and the secondary characters and descriptive and realistic writing make this book one of the best I've read this year and it is now in my top 3 favorite books. I don't read a whole lot but i am looking forward to reading Book 2 next year! i do hope we get more development from Lucy & David because they just really sort of....bored me. But I can't wait for more Will & Sam!
Let's Start the Review
A. Characters:
There are a lot of characters in Quarantine...A LOT but the main ones who matter are David, Will, Lucy, Sam & Hillary.
David is the lead character and honestly, i felt bad for David in the beginning of the book because he had such a crappy as start. He suffered a loss prior to the story beginning that broke him, his girlfriend cheated and then he was thrown into the hell of the quarantine. However, by the middle of the book I actually started disliking him. He reminds me of Sam from gone. Both are good guys...but they are a little TOO GOOD. There was not a whole lot of flaws about David which made him seem too perfect for me...He was idolized by so many people and I just felt like he wasn't flawed enough. Even with events towards the end of the book, David just felt one-dimensional to me...Although a lot of bad shit happened to david that made me empathize with him even if he was a bit boring to me at times.
Will, is the second lead character, and I absolutely love will. He is an Epileptic teen so he has a few seizures throughout the book. He has one one his first day of school right after the quarantine happens and that sets the course for his character development. He went from a bit of an immature brat to a cocky jackass with good intentions. Unlike David, Will was flawed. He made a lot of bad decisions throughout the book fueled by his insecurities and Jealousies he experienced. But for every bad thing he did, he seemed to always find a way to redeem himself. Will is the type of character in a book you just fall in love with instantly. I love the bad boy vibe he had going on. He is definitely my favorite character on the good side.
Lucy....Lucy(like Astrid from GOne) is the love interest and in all honesty, i hate this girl. She starts off as a prissy girl and that's fine. But then she literally becomes a love interest and that is literally all she is really. There isn't much defining moments for her...She annoyed the crap out of me and she is a big reason i hated David because of David's choices with her that affected Will. I will admit that towards the end of the book, she did have one badass moment but in a book filled with so many amazing female characters....she is easily the weakest character in the books. Even the weird twins in the book make better characters than Lucy. She is the weakest character by no doubt..and it was hard for me to see WHY they were so in love with her.
Sam....I love Will but I freaking LOVE SAM! I love bad boys with a bit of craziness mixed in. He is a mix of Caine & Drake(From Gone) which is why i love this guy. He is crazy, deranged, obsessive and he is so flawed yet during his many inhumane moments and trust me, Sam committed a lot of heinous actions in this book, I love the fact there was a vulnerability in Sam. He makes the perfect villain. My favorite character(Will is a close second). Highly well-written.....
Hillary...she is the bitch of the story and rightfully so. Like Sam, she has committed a lot of heinous actions in this book. There is one scene involving Hillary that definitely gave me chills because it was so violent and horrible and downright evil of her. Unlike Lucy, Hillary was a VERY strong female character but she also had flaws of her own and it made her that much more appealing especially towards the end of the book.
Other cool characters Zachary, Violent, Smudge, ritchie, Nelson, Gonzalo and so many other characters whose names i can't remember!
B. Plot & Writing
Plotwise....
I initially said this book reminds me of Gone because it does...it also has elements of Hunger games mixed in without the survival skills & Divergent....
Yet this book takes familiar plots and makes it unique...trapping these kids in a closed setting because they have a disease that can literally kill adults and they have to be quarantined off is brilliant.
Add in the fact, that these are TEENS...who already hate each other from day to day schooling but you add in the fact there is no authority...no rules....anything goes...remove democracy...remove safety of laws and you have a brutal setting and that is what makes this book amazing.
C. Realism
I love that this book did not hesitate to use cussing quite often because that is how teens my age talk.
It wasn't afraid to have frank & open sex scenes(nothing too graphics).
I love the fact that the guys talk as gross and crass as guys tends to talk. It was real...
The fact that people banded together with people similar to them...realistic. You want to be close to those like you so you feel safe and sound and secure with.
Overall, this book impressed me. I am a bit shocked to see it doesn't have a higher rating on goodreads than it does. Some things like Lucy & David do make this book slightly imperfect but with strong and more appealing characters like Will, Hillary, Sam and the secondary characters and descriptive and realistic writing make this book one of the best I've read this year and it is now in my top 3 favorite books. I don't read a whole lot but i am looking forward to reading Book 2 next year! i do hope we get more development from Lucy & David because they just really sort of....bored me. But I can't wait for more Will & Sam!
April 17, 2024
Pre-review:
WHY DOES THIS SOUND SO GOOD BUT SO DARK.... ACKKKKK I NEED IT NOWWWWW
Review:
NOOOOOOOO IM SO MAD IT WAS A CLIFFHANGER AND I FINISHED IT AND HOW AND WHY AND AHHHHH 😆🔫
WHY DOES THIS SOUND SO GOOD BUT SO DARK.... ACKKKKK I NEED IT NOWWWWW
Review:
NOOOOOOOO IM SO MAD IT WAS A CLIFFHANGER AND I FINISHED IT AND HOW AND WHY AND AHHHHH 😆🔫
April 18, 2012
I consider myself fairly good at suspending disbelief in order to connect with a good plot, but Quaranteen: The Loners just didn't get there.
It's the first day of school for David and his freshman brother, Will, at their brand new high school. Soon after they arrive, there is an explosion, and all of the adults die a horrible, graphic death. The school is quickly quarantined by the military.
The school kids almost immediately form gangs, based on the usual high school cliques. There are food and supply drops twice a week, which the gangs must battle for. The swiftness of the teens' demise into anarchy was unbelievable. I can believe this would happen over time, but there would have been some attempt at organization and governance first.
Speaking of time, it was very difficult to decipher the passage of time. At times, we were told weeks or months had passed, and supposedly over a year passes during the story, but it was very ambiguous.
Will has epilepsy, and because of the absence of his medication, has a seizure very early in the book. This fact is alluded to a couple more times, but he doesn't have any more seizures until it is necessary for a very convenient plot device at the end of the book. It would have been much more believable if he had experienced some other difficulties because of this disease.
The authorities drop food and supplies every two weeks. Every drop causes an aggressive battle as the different gangs try to procure enough food for survival. Why? If they could drop food every two weeks, why not every week? Why did students have to be starving? Why not include some communication -- letters or news -- from the outside world?
There is no significant world building. We have no idea what is going on outside. The school has been quarantined because the teens carry a virus that kills adults. The military is able to enter the school to install a high-tech device so that the students can determine when they are no longer adolescents. Therefore they can leave, but must do so before they die. Other than that, there's no outside communication or assistance. Why? I couldn't get over the fact that the adults didn't communicate in any way. If they can come in once, why not come in and take over and restore order?
Thomas made it really difficult to bond with the characters. I just kept thinking that everything they were going through didn't make any sense, and it was frustrating to see their suffering.
Quaranteen: The Loners consisted of one violent scene after another. Boys (and yes, I think this can definitely be considered a boy book) who enjoy violent displays will probably enjoy this book, even with the lack of a coherent explanation of the situation. I, however, only finished this one because I had to review it for a printed publication. Quaranteen: The Loners would have been a DNF, except for that fact. I wouldn't recommend this necessarily to reluctant readers because it is fairly long at over 400 pages. I'm pretty tolerant, but you really have to love violence to connect with this book. I need more than violence....
It's the first day of school for David and his freshman brother, Will, at their brand new high school. Soon after they arrive, there is an explosion, and all of the adults die a horrible, graphic death. The school is quickly quarantined by the military.
The school kids almost immediately form gangs, based on the usual high school cliques. There are food and supply drops twice a week, which the gangs must battle for. The swiftness of the teens' demise into anarchy was unbelievable. I can believe this would happen over time, but there would have been some attempt at organization and governance first.
Speaking of time, it was very difficult to decipher the passage of time. At times, we were told weeks or months had passed, and supposedly over a year passes during the story, but it was very ambiguous.
Will has epilepsy, and because of the absence of his medication, has a seizure very early in the book. This fact is alluded to a couple more times, but he doesn't have any more seizures until it is necessary for a very convenient plot device at the end of the book. It would have been much more believable if he had experienced some other difficulties because of this disease.
The authorities drop food and supplies every two weeks. Every drop causes an aggressive battle as the different gangs try to procure enough food for survival. Why? If they could drop food every two weeks, why not every week? Why did students have to be starving? Why not include some communication -- letters or news -- from the outside world?
There is no significant world building. We have no idea what is going on outside. The school has been quarantined because the teens carry a virus that kills adults. The military is able to enter the school to install a high-tech device so that the students can determine when they are no longer adolescents. Therefore they can leave, but must do so before they die. Other than that, there's no outside communication or assistance. Why? I couldn't get over the fact that the adults didn't communicate in any way. If they can come in once, why not come in and take over and restore order?
Thomas made it really difficult to bond with the characters. I just kept thinking that everything they were going through didn't make any sense, and it was frustrating to see their suffering.
Quaranteen: The Loners consisted of one violent scene after another. Boys (and yes, I think this can definitely be considered a boy book) who enjoy violent displays will probably enjoy this book, even with the lack of a coherent explanation of the situation. I, however, only finished this one because I had to review it for a printed publication. Quaranteen: The Loners would have been a DNF, except for that fact. I wouldn't recommend this necessarily to reluctant readers because it is fairly long at over 400 pages. I'm pretty tolerant, but you really have to love violence to connect with this book. I need more than violence....
Read
April 26, 2016This book is full of surprises. Just when you think the characters are going to get a break...they don't.
The plot goes like this: teenagers in a local high school are infected with a virus that make them toxic to the rest of the world. They are locked up on campus, and high school becomes a quarantine zone. The only thing is, the kids quickly become desperate and feral, and the teens switch to Hunger Games-mode pretty quickly. After all, it's survival of the fittest...right?
There are a few main characters here: David, the older, wiser brother. Will, the younger, idiot brother. Lucy, the perfect love interest that everybody is infatuated with because despite the fact that they're living in an apocalypse, she still has perfectly clean clothes and smells like a cookie. Amazing how the "hot" girls manage to do this, right?
This is what I liked:
-The Desperation. Everybody was truly, incredibly desperate. Their humanity was peeled back and their true nature emerged in light of surviving in a quarantine zone.
- The acknowledgement of violence. The world is a violent place, and in a situation like this, I think it's only accurate to depict it as such. With that in mind, I would never let my 12 year-old read this book. There is a lot of graphic violence, sexual innuendo and attempted rape. In fact, rape is a definite repeated theme here.
What I didn't like:
- Lucy and Hilary, the two female leads in this book, are just okay. I enjoy reading about strong female characters, but neither of them were noteworthy. Hilary was just evil, and Lucy was annoying. None of them, were complex, they were just...well, they were there to be "hot." I get this, but I think that's boring. I want the women to be more than just eye candy, you know? A little brains goes a long way.
- Will. I had a love/hate relationship with Will. He was pretty much an idiot until the end of the book, but I believe that was the intention of the authors, so I'll go with it.
- I think that some of the details in the book could have been a little more...fleshed out? But perhaps more will be revealed in the following books.
NOTE: This book is intense because of the graphic sexual content and violence (and also language). Apparently sex is very important in the game of survival of the fittest! Just kidding, just kidding. Eh.
There should be a warning label on this book, so I don't recommend it for young readers.
The plot goes like this: teenagers in a local high school are infected with a virus that make them toxic to the rest of the world. They are locked up on campus, and high school becomes a quarantine zone. The only thing is, the kids quickly become desperate and feral, and the teens switch to Hunger Games-mode pretty quickly. After all, it's survival of the fittest...right?
There are a few main characters here: David, the older, wiser brother. Will, the younger, idiot brother. Lucy, the perfect love interest that everybody is infatuated with because despite the fact that they're living in an apocalypse, she still has perfectly clean clothes and smells like a cookie. Amazing how the "hot" girls manage to do this, right?
This is what I liked:
-The Desperation. Everybody was truly, incredibly desperate. Their humanity was peeled back and their true nature emerged in light of surviving in a quarantine zone.
- The acknowledgement of violence. The world is a violent place, and in a situation like this, I think it's only accurate to depict it as such. With that in mind, I would never let my 12 year-old read this book. There is a lot of graphic violence, sexual innuendo and attempted rape. In fact, rape is a definite repeated theme here.
What I didn't like:
- Lucy and Hilary, the two female leads in this book, are just okay. I enjoy reading about strong female characters, but neither of them were noteworthy. Hilary was just evil, and Lucy was annoying. None of them, were complex, they were just...well, they were there to be "hot." I get this, but I think that's boring. I want the women to be more than just eye candy, you know? A little brains goes a long way.
- Will. I had a love/hate relationship with Will. He was pretty much an idiot until the end of the book, but I believe that was the intention of the authors, so I'll go with it.
- I think that some of the details in the book could have been a little more...fleshed out? But perhaps more will be revealed in the following books.
NOTE: This book is intense because of the graphic sexual content and violence (and also language). Apparently sex is very important in the game of survival of the fittest! Just kidding, just kidding. Eh.
There should be a warning label on this book, so I don't recommend it for young readers.
November 4, 2016
way better then i thought from the first couple of chapter.
and now i have to buy another book (damn).
and now i have to buy another book (damn).
April 12, 2020
2.5 It Was a Struggle Stars
To say I struggled with this one would be an understatement. It took about two weeks to finish the book and unfortunately it just never got better. The ending in fact just served to piss me off more and set the stage for the next book which I could care less about reading. Apocalypse, disease, dystopian novels are my jam, and even with an actual Quarantine happening around the world, I could not find it in me to like this book. The book was essentially highschool drama-cliques and pettiness with a strange illness thrown in that effects only teens. All the students are being quarantined at their highschool and they’ve been there for over a year. It was all just too much for me. I found none of the characters likable and even the MC David with his unrequited/psychotic love for his ex only served to piss me off more. Then we have Will, David’s younger brother who is beyond selfish and angry that he is blinded by jealousy and resentment causing much of the problems the brothers endure. As for the plot, not much of it made sense like this illness. We are left to assume until the end that it’s a solitary event only happening at this location where the kids are quarantined. Were there no teens who stayed home that day, was just one boy the cause? I can kind of understand the immaturity of all the characters, they are highscool students but what I question is the response of the adults-people on the outside. There is a drop of food, supplies etc at the school regularly. If this incident is secured why do they never send enough supplies? If nothing else was going on outside there was no reason they didn’t over-send stuff. Any person with common sense would foresee an outcome like what we get with various groups of gangs, fighting to the death, everyone out for themselves their fight or flight instincts engaged. Why would they knowingly cause the situation to worsen? Why were there no babies running around? Condoms were sent but they were a highly sought after item. Plus with no punishment for crime, rape was a high probability for the girls left behind especially those without a gang for protection. But I don’t remember a single baby. It’s as if the outside was using them as an experiment, there’s no other excuse why they would basically put wheels into motion for this kind of outcome. I get that there was one kid who was supposedly the cause but we don’t know more information about him and I guess I just want answers when there are none. If what we’ve been led to believe is true, why wouldn’t the parents be fighting more for their kids, wouldn't they be willing to send supplies or money for their kids?!? Why can no one communicate with outside, in fact why is everyone left so in the dark to begin with?! There’s just so much I question and I’m pissed because I don’t care enough to read on. I’m never a fan of teenage cliques and drama and that's really what this book is. It would have helped if the bad guys got their due soon but as in real life the good guys don’t always win, it sucks. This book just wasn’t for me, I was bored annoyed and pissed for practically the whole book, it was not the experience I was hoping for.
To say I struggled with this one would be an understatement. It took about two weeks to finish the book and unfortunately it just never got better. The ending in fact just served to piss me off more and set the stage for the next book which I could care less about reading. Apocalypse, disease, dystopian novels are my jam, and even with an actual Quarantine happening around the world, I could not find it in me to like this book. The book was essentially highschool drama-cliques and pettiness with a strange illness thrown in that effects only teens. All the students are being quarantined at their highschool and they’ve been there for over a year. It was all just too much for me. I found none of the characters likable and even the MC David with his unrequited/psychotic love for his ex only served to piss me off more. Then we have Will, David’s younger brother who is beyond selfish and angry that he is blinded by jealousy and resentment causing much of the problems the brothers endure. As for the plot, not much of it made sense like this illness. We are left to assume until the end that it’s a solitary event only happening at this location where the kids are quarantined. Were there no teens who stayed home that day, was just one boy the cause? I can kind of understand the immaturity of all the characters, they are highscool students but what I question is the response of the adults-people on the outside. There is a drop of food, supplies etc at the school regularly. If this incident is secured why do they never send enough supplies? If nothing else was going on outside there was no reason they didn’t over-send stuff. Any person with common sense would foresee an outcome like what we get with various groups of gangs, fighting to the death, everyone out for themselves their fight or flight instincts engaged. Why would they knowingly cause the situation to worsen? Why were there no babies running around? Condoms were sent but they were a highly sought after item. Plus with no punishment for crime, rape was a high probability for the girls left behind especially those without a gang for protection. But I don’t remember a single baby. It’s as if the outside was using them as an experiment, there’s no other excuse why they would basically put wheels into motion for this kind of outcome. I get that there was one kid who was supposedly the cause but we don’t know more information about him and I guess I just want answers when there are none. If what we’ve been led to believe is true, why wouldn’t the parents be fighting more for their kids, wouldn't they be willing to send supplies or money for their kids?!? Why can no one communicate with outside, in fact why is everyone left so in the dark to begin with?! There’s just so much I question and I’m pissed because I don’t care enough to read on. I’m never a fan of teenage cliques and drama and that's really what this book is. It would have helped if the bad guys got their due soon but as in real life the good guys don’t always win, it sucks. This book just wasn’t for me, I was bored annoyed and pissed for practically the whole book, it was not the experience I was hoping for.
April 24, 2018
This was an interesting read. I never expected me to enjoy this book as much as I did. The story was intriguing, especially the formation of different gangs, and how the students got exposed to the virus because of a kid that the military couldn't catch. I did not like the romance aspect of the story because it was a sort of love triangle between the two brothers (David and Will) and Lucy. However, wherever the romance was lacking, the suspense was really entertaining. The characters were very complex and unique. I really can't wait to see what happens during book 2 - The Saints. I hope the series continues to get better. Overall, a great read.
Read
July 18, 2016DNF at 45 pages
I received a copy of this title from Walker Books Australia for review.
Ten Second Synopsis:
When a population of high school students contract a virus that makes them deadly to adults, they are trapped in their school, Lord of the Flies style.
I had high hopes for this one but unfortunately I gave up after about four chapters and 45ish pages. I had three main problems with what I read. The first of these is that the narrative style focused far more on telling than showing, and so I didn't feel drawn in to the story.
The second is that the major plot point of the book - that the kids have somehow contracted a virus that is deadly to adults - is just sort of plonked into the text. There is no indication of how this happened or why or anything. Admittedly, this could be explained after page 45 and I would be none the wiser, but essentially what I'm saying is that there was not enough believable world-building in the early stages for me to want to stick with it.
Examples of this include the fact that the army has cordoned off the school within minutes of the first teacher's death - why (and how??) could they do this unless they were involved? (I don't know if they're involved because I finished at page 45, but this was the only logical reason I could think of for the army to be there so quick.)
Another example is the fact that the teacher who dies in front of David (the main character) takes time out from vomiting up his internal organs to warn David to "stay back!". Why? If I was literally spewing my guts up, I'd want the nearest person to help me, not stay back. Did the teacher know that David was causing his death, and if so, how did he know?
Finally, there is a scene in which the boys carry the corpse of the aforementioned dead teacher to a sort of makeshift burial ground (actually, a collection of lockers). This scene is noted as being two weeks after the death of the teacher. At no point are maggots mentioned. I would have expected (and the most cursory of glances at the first webpage about corpse decomposition I came across confirms this) that the body, at two weeks after death, would be crawling with maggots and doused in more than a little seepage of bodily fluid. Yet this is not mentioned. Further to this, the teacher-burial-locker thing seems quite an organised operation, but no mention is made of who organised it, how everyone agreed to it etc, etc....
The straw that broke the gargoyle's back however, was a mention on pages 44 and 45 that was particularly telling to me regarding how women were going to be portrayed in this book.
Picture it: A month after hundreds of teenagers are left to their own devices in a locked school, with food only provided through occasional airdrops, the main characters burst into a girl's toilet while on the run from an angry mob. This is mere pages after a boy is stabbed through the throat with a piece of wood. Guess what the girls in the bathroom are doing.
Go on, guess.
Dying their hair with a packet of Kool-Aid.
I effing kid you not.
So, the authors expect us to believe that in a life-or-death situation, wherein food is scarce and, as has just been demonstrated, people will literally KILL to get it, these young ladies are not only misusing a foodstuff that could be used to boost their daily calorie intake, but are also seemingly more worried about their looks than, oh, I don't know, being locked up with hundreds of hormonal, angry, mob-based teen boys where the risk of rape or violent attack would be astronomical.
And so I stopped reading. Because if the lacklustre narrative style and lack of basic research weren't bad enough, there was no way I was going to sit through a book in which young women are portrayed as looks-obsessed halfwits even as the world collapses around them.
I received a copy of this title from Walker Books Australia for review.
Ten Second Synopsis:
When a population of high school students contract a virus that makes them deadly to adults, they are trapped in their school, Lord of the Flies style.
I had high hopes for this one but unfortunately I gave up after about four chapters and 45ish pages. I had three main problems with what I read. The first of these is that the narrative style focused far more on telling than showing, and so I didn't feel drawn in to the story.
The second is that the major plot point of the book - that the kids have somehow contracted a virus that is deadly to adults - is just sort of plonked into the text. There is no indication of how this happened or why or anything. Admittedly, this could be explained after page 45 and I would be none the wiser, but essentially what I'm saying is that there was not enough believable world-building in the early stages for me to want to stick with it.
Examples of this include the fact that the army has cordoned off the school within minutes of the first teacher's death - why (and how??) could they do this unless they were involved? (I don't know if they're involved because I finished at page 45, but this was the only logical reason I could think of for the army to be there so quick.)
Another example is the fact that the teacher who dies in front of David (the main character) takes time out from vomiting up his internal organs to warn David to "stay back!". Why? If I was literally spewing my guts up, I'd want the nearest person to help me, not stay back. Did the teacher know that David was causing his death, and if so, how did he know?
Finally, there is a scene in which the boys carry the corpse of the aforementioned dead teacher to a sort of makeshift burial ground (actually, a collection of lockers). This scene is noted as being two weeks after the death of the teacher. At no point are maggots mentioned. I would have expected (and the most cursory of glances at the first webpage about corpse decomposition I came across confirms this) that the body, at two weeks after death, would be crawling with maggots and doused in more than a little seepage of bodily fluid. Yet this is not mentioned. Further to this, the teacher-burial-locker thing seems quite an organised operation, but no mention is made of who organised it, how everyone agreed to it etc, etc....
The straw that broke the gargoyle's back however, was a mention on pages 44 and 45 that was particularly telling to me regarding how women were going to be portrayed in this book.
Picture it: A month after hundreds of teenagers are left to their own devices in a locked school, with food only provided through occasional airdrops, the main characters burst into a girl's toilet while on the run from an angry mob. This is mere pages after a boy is stabbed through the throat with a piece of wood. Guess what the girls in the bathroom are doing.
Go on, guess.
Dying their hair with a packet of Kool-Aid.
I effing kid you not.
So, the authors expect us to believe that in a life-or-death situation, wherein food is scarce and, as has just been demonstrated, people will literally KILL to get it, these young ladies are not only misusing a foodstuff that could be used to boost their daily calorie intake, but are also seemingly more worried about their looks than, oh, I don't know, being locked up with hundreds of hormonal, angry, mob-based teen boys where the risk of rape or violent attack would be astronomical.
And so I stopped reading. Because if the lacklustre narrative style and lack of basic research weren't bad enough, there was no way I was going to sit through a book in which young women are portrayed as looks-obsessed halfwits even as the world collapses around them.
July 1, 2012
I never thought I would enjoy a story written mainly in a male's perspective this much.
It is high school drama.
Except you don't fight to get up the ranks, you kill to survive.
First day of school at McKinley turned out to be the start of a nightmare.
For the students, that is.
For the teachers it's easier, they just die.
And trust me when I say it's easier for them.
When the school exploded into chaos, fear masked the faces of every single member of the school.
Then came the news that their school has to be shut down because of virus-infected test captive run loose.
Within months, gangs started to form so as to secure enough supplies for the whole lot of them to survive.
The Jocks (Varsity), The Pretty Ones, The Sluts, The Nerds, The Geeks, even The Freaks.
But there were people who didn't fit anywhere.
The scraps.
Like David and his younger brother, Will.
David was like any other student trapped in the disaster.
He's got even more reason to be scared because he has offended the leader of the biggest and strongest gang and he's out to get him.
But he did not break.
One major reason is the group of people who were willing to stand by him at the time of crisis.
The people who look up to him as a leader, their leader.
He's no genius, but with so much responsibility on his shoulders, he had to make it.
He cares for his people even though they're mostly weirdos but really, they're almost family to him.
Will, on the other hand, was weak.
And foolish.
His big brother seems to always be the hero while he is only his sidekick, at max.
It doesn't help that this girl he has a major crush on is looking at David adoringly.
It is almost a pity how late he got to his senses.
Got smacked into it by reality.
Filled with crazy ideas he gave us plenty surprises harsh twists to the story.
It was really amazing seeing how the authors manipulated the people.
With survival instincts kicking into place when the first gleam of hope arrived: the supplies.
Living in groups for ensured protection and a sense of belonging.
Stepping out for what they believe in, or who, in this case.
Betrayal vs Loyalty.
They portrayed what was real in society.
Survival of the fittest and the cruelty to be shown where self well-being is at stake.
The moments of true friendship and faith in one person.
All in all, The Loners is something you don't want to miss.
I would say the description isn't doing this book justice as I almost would have dismissed it as a stupid teenage drama lacking of any substance.
It was nothing like that, quite the opposite.
It was filled with kinship, friendship, trust and faith.
At the same time, it showed the dark side of human nature that makes people shudder.
I've never been a big fan on dystopia but this novel really surprised me.
Full review can be found here.
It is high school drama.
Except you don't fight to get up the ranks, you kill to survive.
First day of school at McKinley turned out to be the start of a nightmare.
For the students, that is.
For the teachers it's easier, they just die.
And trust me when I say it's easier for them.
When the school exploded into chaos, fear masked the faces of every single member of the school.
Then came the news that their school has to be shut down because of virus-infected test captive run loose.
Within months, gangs started to form so as to secure enough supplies for the whole lot of them to survive.
The Jocks (Varsity), The Pretty Ones, The Sluts, The Nerds, The Geeks, even The Freaks.
But there were people who didn't fit anywhere.
The scraps.
Like David and his younger brother, Will.
David was like any other student trapped in the disaster.
He's got even more reason to be scared because he has offended the leader of the biggest and strongest gang and he's out to get him.
But he did not break.
One major reason is the group of people who were willing to stand by him at the time of crisis.
The people who look up to him as a leader, their leader.
He's no genius, but with so much responsibility on his shoulders, he had to make it.
He cares for his people even though they're mostly weirdos but really, they're almost family to him.
Will, on the other hand, was weak.
And foolish.
His big brother seems to always be the hero while he is only his sidekick, at max.
It doesn't help that this girl he has a major crush on is looking at David adoringly.
It is almost a pity how late he got to his senses.
Got smacked into it by reality.
Filled with crazy ideas he gave us plenty surprises harsh twists to the story.
It was really amazing seeing how the authors manipulated the people.
With survival instincts kicking into place when the first gleam of hope arrived: the supplies.
Living in groups for ensured protection and a sense of belonging.
Stepping out for what they believe in, or who, in this case.
Betrayal vs Loyalty.
They portrayed what was real in society.
Survival of the fittest and the cruelty to be shown where self well-being is at stake.
The moments of true friendship and faith in one person.
All in all, The Loners is something you don't want to miss.
I would say the description isn't doing this book justice as I almost would have dismissed it as a stupid teenage drama lacking of any substance.
It was nothing like that, quite the opposite.
It was filled with kinship, friendship, trust and faith.
At the same time, it showed the dark side of human nature that makes people shudder.
I've never been a big fan on dystopia but this novel really surprised me.
Full review can be found here.
May 18, 2012
I didn't think that I was going to like this book much. As hard as I try not to make judgements about books before reading them, I do make small ones. While I was pleasantly surprised by this one, I still have my reservations about the second book. That being said, there is a strong possibility that I would read the second book.
It was both interesting and annoying to see the prevalence of stereotypes in this book. In the description we know that gangs have formed, but the gangs are just high school stereotypes like Varsity which has all the jocks and the Freaks, and the Skaters, and the Sluts and the Pretty Ones, and the Geeks and the Nerds. I liked that the Loners existed because not everyone fits into a category, but by becoming a Loner you labeled yourself. Maybe it was just because my high school didn't really have these clicks, at least not in my grade. Even if you could have applied one label to a kid, that same one would fit in other categories as well.
And while I'm not even close to a feminist (I'll be happy staying home with my children all day when the time comes, thank you) I bristled at the Sluts gang. That just made me mad every time I read it. /rant
I did feel that there were too many characters in this book. Just to name a few recurring names: Lucy, David, Hilary, Sam, Will, Dorothy, Nelson, Belinda, Violent, Smudge, Gonzalo, Brad, Bobby. I literally just finished the book and confused a few of the names. It was hard at points keeping track of who was who and why we cared who they were. That being said, I was able to get a clear understanding of a decent number of the characters that we were introduced to.
I found it interesting how at one point David (our hero) struggles with deciding if his ex girlfriend is the same person she used to be. He keeps thinking that she wasn't the same girl that he used to love and all I could think was. "Nooo really!? Its not like you're both fighting for your survival or anything or going through puberty locked in a school!" But I guess sometimes boys are just a little slower on the uptake than us girls.
Some of the ideas in this book were a little far fetched, (like having the Varsity gang make moonshine) but at the same time it played true to any survivalist senairio; You find a group and fight for food. I found that it was a mixture of The Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games. If you've read both, then you know that Lord of the Flies is about kids that crash land on an island and how they survive with no food and you know that The Hunger Games is a fight for survival in an arena. In this case the school is the arena, the weekly food drops are the "cornocopia" (where food and weapons are in the game) and that these children are stranded with little to no survival skills and they need to make do with what is available to them.
All in all, I think I would give the second book a chance to see how this rivalry between Sam (head of the Varsity) and David (head of the Loners) plays out.
It was both interesting and annoying to see the prevalence of stereotypes in this book. In the description we know that gangs have formed, but the gangs are just high school stereotypes like Varsity which has all the jocks and the Freaks, and the Skaters, and the Sluts and the Pretty Ones, and the Geeks and the Nerds. I liked that the Loners existed because not everyone fits into a category, but by becoming a Loner you labeled yourself. Maybe it was just because my high school didn't really have these clicks, at least not in my grade. Even if you could have applied one label to a kid, that same one would fit in other categories as well.
And while I'm not even close to a feminist (I'll be happy staying home with my children all day when the time comes, thank you) I bristled at the Sluts gang. That just made me mad every time I read it. /rant
I did feel that there were too many characters in this book. Just to name a few recurring names: Lucy, David, Hilary, Sam, Will, Dorothy, Nelson, Belinda, Violent, Smudge, Gonzalo, Brad, Bobby. I literally just finished the book and confused a few of the names. It was hard at points keeping track of who was who and why we cared who they were. That being said, I was able to get a clear understanding of a decent number of the characters that we were introduced to.
I found it interesting how at one point David (our hero) struggles with deciding if his ex girlfriend is the same person she used to be. He keeps thinking that she wasn't the same girl that he used to love and all I could think was. "Nooo really!? Its not like you're both fighting for your survival or anything or going through puberty locked in a school!" But I guess sometimes boys are just a little slower on the uptake than us girls.
Some of the ideas in this book were a little far fetched, (like having the Varsity gang make moonshine) but at the same time it played true to any survivalist senairio; You find a group and fight for food. I found that it was a mixture of The Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games. If you've read both, then you know that Lord of the Flies is about kids that crash land on an island and how they survive with no food and you know that The Hunger Games is a fight for survival in an arena. In this case the school is the arena, the weekly food drops are the "cornocopia" (where food and weapons are in the game) and that these children are stranded with little to no survival skills and they need to make do with what is available to them.
All in all, I think I would give the second book a chance to see how this rivalry between Sam (head of the Varsity) and David (head of the Loners) plays out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2013
Seen at Scott Reads It
If you thought high school was horrible, you're in for a wake up call. As bad as high school was for you, I bet you didn't have it as bad as David and Will. Quarantine is unlike anything I have ever read and it just blew me away. Lex Thomas's debut was an extraordinary vision of what would happen if a high school got quarantined. The scariest thing about Quarantine is that it could actually happen.
Imagine if Divergent and Lord Of The Flies were put in a blender and mixed into one fantastic book. Quarantine takes everything that worked in Lord Of The Flies and Divergent and expands on it fabulously. The Students of McKinley High are quarantined in a High School after a virus get loose in the school and all the adults die. The kids of McKinley High split into factions: Sluts, Varsity, Geeks, and Skaters. Some of the kids are "faction-less" like siblings, David and Will who are just trying to survive.
From the first few pages I was immersed in the world of McKinley High and I just couldn't stop reading. Quarantine had a really realistic feel throughout the entire novel and I am truly scared of getting quarantined in my own high school now. I truly love how Lex Thomas took the High School experience and morphed into a living nightmare. If you think Panem was brutal, you're in for a wake up call with Quarantine.
The narration of Quarantine was truly something spectacular because it was honest and genuine. David and Will didn't feel like fictional characters they felt 100% real people. The complex brotherly relationship between David and Will was a true and honest portrayal of the way brothers are. Of the two brothers I liked David better but I don't want to discredit Will at all. Will was just so misunderstood by everyone and I really hope he opens up more to the reader in the next book.
Of all the characters in the book Sam was the most horrifying person. What happens when the high school football varsity star gets locked in a high school? Let's just say it isn't pretty and it gets pretty gory. Sam was one of the most terrifying villains I have ever read about because Sam was beyond evil. For some odd reason I find teenage villains more despicable than adults, I am not sure why but I do. Drake Caine from Gone seemed like a lamb compared to Sam in Quarantine. Sam was a well developed character and in my opinion he was one of the best written characters in Quarantine.
Quarantine was a book that I really enjoyed because of it's fast pace, compelling writing, interesting characters and fascinating plotline. I would recommend this for older YA readers because there's alot of sexual content, explicit language, and gory scenes. Quarantine: The Loners was a haunting and fun book that I just couldn't stop reading. I really look forward to the next book and I hope I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Quarantine.
If you thought high school was horrible, you're in for a wake up call. As bad as high school was for you, I bet you didn't have it as bad as David and Will. Quarantine is unlike anything I have ever read and it just blew me away. Lex Thomas's debut was an extraordinary vision of what would happen if a high school got quarantined. The scariest thing about Quarantine is that it could actually happen.
Imagine if Divergent and Lord Of The Flies were put in a blender and mixed into one fantastic book. Quarantine takes everything that worked in Lord Of The Flies and Divergent and expands on it fabulously. The Students of McKinley High are quarantined in a High School after a virus get loose in the school and all the adults die. The kids of McKinley High split into factions: Sluts, Varsity, Geeks, and Skaters. Some of the kids are "faction-less" like siblings, David and Will who are just trying to survive.
From the first few pages I was immersed in the world of McKinley High and I just couldn't stop reading. Quarantine had a really realistic feel throughout the entire novel and I am truly scared of getting quarantined in my own high school now. I truly love how Lex Thomas took the High School experience and morphed into a living nightmare. If you think Panem was brutal, you're in for a wake up call with Quarantine.
The narration of Quarantine was truly something spectacular because it was honest and genuine. David and Will didn't feel like fictional characters they felt 100% real people. The complex brotherly relationship between David and Will was a true and honest portrayal of the way brothers are. Of the two brothers I liked David better but I don't want to discredit Will at all. Will was just so misunderstood by everyone and I really hope he opens up more to the reader in the next book.
Of all the characters in the book Sam was the most horrifying person. What happens when the high school football varsity star gets locked in a high school? Let's just say it isn't pretty and it gets pretty gory. Sam was one of the most terrifying villains I have ever read about because Sam was beyond evil. For some odd reason I find teenage villains more despicable than adults, I am not sure why but I do. Drake Caine from Gone seemed like a lamb compared to Sam in Quarantine. Sam was a well developed character and in my opinion he was one of the best written characters in Quarantine.
Quarantine was a book that I really enjoyed because of it's fast pace, compelling writing, interesting characters and fascinating plotline. I would recommend this for older YA readers because there's alot of sexual content, explicit language, and gory scenes. Quarantine: The Loners was a haunting and fun book that I just couldn't stop reading. I really look forward to the next book and I hope I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Quarantine.
August 31, 2014
chcem vám povedať len tri veci - ak idete na dovolenku, určite si zadovážte čítačku!
vec druhá, je fajn, keď ste na rodinnej dovolenke a máte DVE čítačky, jednu aj pre manžela, inak si tú vašu bude muž požičiavať :/
a po tretie - prečítala som si tam samé zombie a apokalyptické knihy - fakt neviem, čo mi to napadlo - proste niečo mimo realitu som potrebovala....
takže Lex Thomas: Karanténa 1: Samotári - úúúúúúplne špičková postapo! je to o teenegeroch (ja viem, zase kniha, kde vystupujú decká!), ktorých školu náhle uzatvoria kvôli biologickej hrozbe - a ako sa v tom uzavretom prostredí začnú správať... fúú, sila! poviem vám, páčilo sa mi to. malo to napätie, logiku celkom, proste som si čítanie užívala (chcem pokračovanie!!!)
vec druhá, je fajn, keď ste na rodinnej dovolenke a máte DVE čítačky, jednu aj pre manžela, inak si tú vašu bude muž požičiavať :/
a po tretie - prečítala som si tam samé zombie a apokalyptické knihy - fakt neviem, čo mi to napadlo - proste niečo mimo realitu som potrebovala....
takže Lex Thomas: Karanténa 1: Samotári - úúúúúúplne špičková postapo! je to o teenegeroch (ja viem, zase kniha, kde vystupujú decká!), ktorých školu náhle uzatvoria kvôli biologickej hrozbe - a ako sa v tom uzavretom prostredí začnú správať... fúú, sila! poviem vám, páčilo sa mi to. malo to napätie, logiku celkom, proste som si čítanie užívala (chcem pokračovanie!!!)
December 17, 2015
The back cover of this books says something about this being a modern day Lord of the Flies, and I think that's a really good description of what this book entails. Being stuck in a high school with no adults to tell you what to do seems like it wouldn't be too bad, but I for one would not want to be stuck in this one. There's gangs and fights and murders and it's actually kind of hard to believe that all the main characters are just teenagers. The premis was interesting, but there were many times where the plot was ragging and I skimmed to help get myself along until something interesting happened again. I haven't decided if I want to read the next book or not.
February 5, 2018
I really liked this book. I hate how the kids are locked up in the school and I hate how David and Will don't have a group to go with. I like how David saves Lucy and lets her join the group. I like how David manages to get a small group together and how he gets a gang. I like how Sam fails in his attempt to kill David multiple times. Definitely a 5 star rating.
April 3, 2020
Very rarely do I give a book one star, but the way that the authors portrayed women in this book was so appalling and degrading that I’ll make an exception. Clearly no women were involved in the publication process and it shows.
August 9, 2025
okay this book is simultaneously really interesting and disgusting.
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