Book Review: The Saints

I will begin this book review with a disclaimer: this book is VERY violent, with sexual occurrences, and many other very difficult parts to read due to content.  However, this book ROCKS! Fans of The Hunger Games, Gone series, etc. will LOVE this book (and the whole series)

Quarantine: The Saints

Lex Thomas

In the first book of the series, we are left with one teenager escaping the school.  In this new book, we THINK the teens are going to get out, but just when they taste freedom, a bus hurtles into the entrance and crashes, leaving the McKinley High students stuck, once again, in the high school.

McKinley High has been a battle ground for eighteen months since a virus outbreak led to a military quarantine of the school. When the doors finally open, Will and Lucy will think their nightmare is finished. But they are gravely mistaken.

As a new group of teens enters the school and gains popularity, Will and Lucy join new gangs. An epic party on the quad full of real food and drinks, where kids hookup and actually interact with members of other gangs seemed to signal a new, easier existence. Soom after though, the world inside McKinley takes a startling turn for the worse, and Will and Lucy will have to fight harder than ever to survive.

I was unsure of this series to begin with--it seemed so far-fetched that in a situation like this, teens would become so violent and outrageous and form gangs, and what not.  BUT, hey, we never know, so I took that with a grain of salt and began this series.  I was blown away.  Lex Thomas is actually TWO authors working together.  They are able to create such an elaborate community inside the high school, with psychological warfare among the teens.  You think, while you're reading, that there is a solution--an easy one, but when you're fighting for your life, this may not be the case.

This second book adds a new element--teens from another school that came to help McKinley, but end up trapped inside.  Now, the balance of power shifted, and the leader of the new group, The Saints, Gates, may not be entirely mentally stable.  There is so much going on with this book, so much drama, betrayals, plot twists, I mean, you will NOT get tired of this book.  I finished it in 2 days.  What I thought would be a stretch for post-apocalyptic fiction has now become one of my FAVORITE series.  

Quarantine: The Burnouts is the 3rd book of this series, and I will be ordering it for the library next month!