Review: Quarantine by Lex Thomas

Title: Quarantine: The Loners

Author: Lex Thomas
Publisher:  Egmont USA
Publishing Date: July 10th 2012

Pages: 416
Genre:  YA Horror 

Series: Quarantine #1
Source: Hardcover

  

      

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.

I finally moved this book up on my TBR list thanks to the wonderful publishers at Egmont. I put off reading this book for a very long time, not for any particular reason except that I didn't have it on my shelf when I went looking for a book to read. I am happy to finally mark it as read. It was a very entertaining read from start to finish and I found it hard to put the book down. The story was interesting, original, and crazy. Lots of gore, action, and suspense... just like a horror should be. 

On what seems like a perfectly normal day at school, David and his younger brother Will join many others to start the new school year. Once there nothing is normal. Teachers start to drop dead and the kids get trapped in the school. After a year of no communication with the outside world except for the the drops of needed supplies. men is bio suits enter into the school to finally give the kids a heads up on what is going on. The world has been infected with a virus... those that are in the school are carriers and they have to stay quarantined until further notice.... or at least til they "graduate". Fill with tons of kids, the school is separated into gangs and the fight for survival continues inside the school walls as they wait for release. 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was everything a good horror should be.... gross, intense, and full of not so smart decisions. The characters were all crazy and likable or hated.  The read was quick, a page turner, and it was easy to get through. There was humor along with the gore and just a bit of romance. 

The characters were all over the place with different personalities. I liked that. There were smart mouths, smart brains, and street smart kids. They all were well together to form close friendships or extreme enemies. I felt that most of the kids were true to form for what my mind would see if such a situation existed. I don't think they would make good decisions and I don't think they would care much for the common good of the group. They all formed cliques even in a quarantined situation and instead of being regular school bullies things got real bad. No adults around led to some pretty horrible things. 

I liked the main character, David. He was a pretty strong character and grew through out the book. At the beginning of the book he went from the in crowd to a nobody when he secluded himself from his peers. His mother recently died and he found himself in a depression. In the beginning of the quarantined he was a loner and really just wanted to take care of himself and his brother. When he met up with Lucy, things began to change and he found himself in the leadership role pretty quickly. It was good to see him step up and take control. His little brother Will really just angered me throughout the entire book. He was pretty selfish and worthless in my eyes. Always wanting to be in the spotlight. He did have a few good points, he knew how to scavenge and trade but he seemed to cause more problems then to help solve them. Lucy was pretty OK. I didn't feel a real connection with her. She came in later in the book and she never really stood out for me. 

Sam was the bad guy in the book and he brought villain for sure. He was ruthless, evil, heartless, unpredictable and just plain cruel. I could see how many kids without morals to begin with could turn so bad so quickly. He needed more discipline in his life for sure. I loved hating him though.

The story was good. It was a bit predictable at times and then others things seemed to happen that I didn't expect.  The horror element was great, there were lots of blood and guts, thrilling moments, and some pretty intense scenes. The book moved quickly and I found myself finished before I knew it. I liked enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would and I can't wait to read the next installment. 

It was really good. More than I expected. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway