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Detention
Class is in session, and it isn't getting out any time soon.
Like many teenagers, Derek just wants to survive high school. But when detention is a death sentence and tardiness is met with torture, survival is a feat most of his peers have failed.
Living inside the school he was once fond of, entrapped by a government sworn to protect him, Derek knows his time is limited. If the guards outside don’t get him, the gangs inside will.
It’s been two years since the soldiers shut the doors. They decide who comes and goes, but inside, the students are left to their own devices.
With graduation day just around the corner, Derek must make a choice. Either he can Earn the A – an aging out ceremony that forces him to enlist in the army that imprisoned him – or risk it all and escape. Failure is met with a firing squad, but serving those who stole his freedom feels like a fate worse than death.
The students have become the teachers, but not everyone will pass the course.
Will Derek find the strength to claw his way out of the halls of his high school prison, or will he succumb to the dangers that lurk in the darkness?
Like many teenagers, Derek just wants to survive high school. But when detention is a death sentence and tardiness is met with torture, survival is a feat most of his peers have failed.
Living inside the school he was once fond of, entrapped by a government sworn to protect him, Derek knows his time is limited. If the guards outside don’t get him, the gangs inside will.
It’s been two years since the soldiers shut the doors. They decide who comes and goes, but inside, the students are left to their own devices.
With graduation day just around the corner, Derek must make a choice. Either he can Earn the A – an aging out ceremony that forces him to enlist in the army that imprisoned him – or risk it all and escape. Failure is met with a firing squad, but serving those who stole his freedom feels like a fate worse than death.
The students have become the teachers, but not everyone will pass the course.
Will Derek find the strength to claw his way out of the halls of his high school prison, or will he succumb to the dangers that lurk in the darkness?
385 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 16, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 15, 2024
Star Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Spice Rating: 🫑
This young adult dystopian book is if Prison Break and It Can't Happen Here had a love child. Make sure to check content warnings.*
Detention is set a few decades from now and depicts what might happen if a fascist president and his regime took over America. (If you haven't read It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, do it. It's eerie, scary, and eye-opening.) This president decides that the best way to keep children safe from school shootings is to have all children confined to the schools and guarded by the military. These schools quickly turn from safe to horrific. There are no teachers, barely any food, and the kids have split up into gangs. It's a terrifying environment where the kids have learned to grow up quickly or they won't survive.
At the time the kids would graduate high school, they "Earn the A," which means they're sent off into the military. With this time looming over our main character, Derek, he decides to finally team up with some other kids to try and break out of the school before they Earn the A. Along the way, Derek finds friends who become like his family, and we learn a little bit more about how things got this bad. Will he and his group be able to escape? Or will they be forced to Earn the A?
The good: I loved the premise of this book! It's so unique and clever, and it created an immersive and horrifying world for the characters to navigate. Not only are these kids trying to work through the emotions that come with being a teenager, they're trying to fight to survive in an environment meant to kill them.
Needs work: The pacing could've been better, and I thought some of the dialogue was kind of clumsy and awkward.
All in all, this was such an intriguing YA book that explored very adult topics and emotions. The beginning had me hooked, and the end has me wanting more. I'm excited to see where the author takes the characters in book 2.
*Content Warnings: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Blood, Child death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Cursing, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings
Spice Rating: 🫑
This young adult dystopian book is if Prison Break and It Can't Happen Here had a love child. Make sure to check content warnings.*
Detention is set a few decades from now and depicts what might happen if a fascist president and his regime took over America. (If you haven't read It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, do it. It's eerie, scary, and eye-opening.) This president decides that the best way to keep children safe from school shootings is to have all children confined to the schools and guarded by the military. These schools quickly turn from safe to horrific. There are no teachers, barely any food, and the kids have split up into gangs. It's a terrifying environment where the kids have learned to grow up quickly or they won't survive.
At the time the kids would graduate high school, they "Earn the A," which means they're sent off into the military. With this time looming over our main character, Derek, he decides to finally team up with some other kids to try and break out of the school before they Earn the A. Along the way, Derek finds friends who become like his family, and we learn a little bit more about how things got this bad. Will he and his group be able to escape? Or will they be forced to Earn the A?
The good: I loved the premise of this book! It's so unique and clever, and it created an immersive and horrifying world for the characters to navigate. Not only are these kids trying to work through the emotions that come with being a teenager, they're trying to fight to survive in an environment meant to kill them.
Needs work: The pacing could've been better, and I thought some of the dialogue was kind of clumsy and awkward.
All in all, this was such an intriguing YA book that explored very adult topics and emotions. The beginning had me hooked, and the end has me wanting more. I'm excited to see where the author takes the characters in book 2.
*Content Warnings: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Blood, Child death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Cursing, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings
February 12, 2024
Likeable and interesting characters in a very bleak dystopian setting. I like how the book examines people's reactions and how we can treat one another based on extreme situations. There were some interesting developments that I didn't expect...along with violence that certainly added to the desperate situation they were in. I look forward to part II.
January 14, 2023
excellent story
This drew me in right from the start. You feel like you are in the school with those kids and you want to cry for them and help them. This was an amazing story, and I am looking forward to the next book.
This drew me in right from the start. You feel like you are in the school with those kids and you want to cry for them and help them. This was an amazing story, and I am looking forward to the next book.
March 20, 2023
Detention was an amazing and fast read. It kept me captivated for the whole book. I loved the development of the characters and their progress through every trial. Such a good read.
November 11, 2025
Amazing!!
The way the author writes has you feeling like you are right there with all of the characters. It had me on the edge of my seat so many times!! Definitely a must read!!
The way the author writes has you feeling like you are right there with all of the characters. It had me on the edge of my seat so many times!! Definitely a must read!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews