Saints and Surprises

Quarantine: The Saints by Lex Thomas

* ARC received from the publisher for review.

4 out of 5 gnomes

This series is insane and definitely not for those who are squeamish at all. This book is a mix of horror and survival that takes a look at what exactly a group of teenagers might do if confined to their high school indefinitely.

I actually found the book hard to read at times and would go back to it after a day or two.  There are a lot of points of view in this book, even an animal at one point.  Would really say that it’s one of those books that is good but that you might not want to read in one setting.  It’s one of those really depressing reads but I urge you to stick it out especially for the ending because it was both surprising and awesome.

The characters make such horrible/cringeworthy choices that at times you may not know who to root for.  I think it helps to look at the whole thing like some kind of fantasy documentary, you know kind of like The Hunger Games set in a high school but surviving/graduating is the only prize.  Also if you watch Glee you might find it funny that the high school is called McKinley, I know I found myself imagining what gangs those characters would be in.  

Things looked like they might be okay soon after all at the end of the last book but the beginning takes things in a new horrible yet interesting direction.  There are a couple of new factors introduced that make things very exciting.  

Lucy and Will continue to evolve as characters and I really liked the direction that both their characters seem to be heading in at the end of the book.  Now that the world is established I’m really liking the series more.  It takes awhile to get into and there is just so much killing towards the end of this book that you might not be sure if anybody will survive. That’s the exciting part though because there are always new grudges among the gangs and there was quite the dramatic takedown/exit/revelation at the very end of the book.  I’m now really looking forward to the next book in this series.