Lots of action, conflicts, and gore. The kids are going to like this one. Made for a screenplay. ( )

I’m giving this book 2.5 stars. I have very mixed feelings about this book. Great idea, poor execution. The story was great and made me want to keep reading. I would even like to find out or what happened in the next book. On the other hand, there wasn’t a lot of believability with the story or any kind of descriptions of anything, leading to a big lack of character development. I read that the authors are screen writers which may account for the simplicity in the writing. I would recommend this book for older ( 8th grade and up for content) struggling readers. I think it’s high interest as well as an easy and fast read. ( )

I'm guessing that Quarantine: The Loners is one of those books that most readers are going to love or lament, depending on who they are. This is a book that requires you to completely suspend disbelief and, quite honestly, fill in a lot of the blanks with your own imagination. I didn't mind so much, and I ended up enjoying this book immensely. It grabbed me, and I was happy to let it.

I wouldn't say this book is "original" like the cover mentions, although Lex Thomas does blend things that have been done before into something terrifying and beautiful. David and his brother exist in a world where survival is paramount. I've seen this concept in other books before, but it fit well with the high school setting. After all, what place is more cutthroat on a daily basis than high school? Take those same cliques, those same rivalries, and add in an event of apocalyptic proportions. That's what Quarantine: The Loners creates for the reader.

Most of the characters are cut and dry clique members, but the "loners" themselves are really who shine. I couldn't look away as these underdogs fought, against all odds, to survive. In fact, I think that's what really made the book for me. I liked David and Will, but I loved the supporting characters. There was so much to uncover beneath their surfaces and, like I mentioned above, I was more than willing to fill in any blanks. This book moves quickly and I was so immersed that I didn't realize I was nearing the end until there were no more pages left to read.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised with how much this debut brings to the table. I admit I would have liked to see more character development, and more explanation about the virus. The ending definitely left me wanting. Still, there's more in the series so I'm hoping things will resolve themselves. This book is a wild ride, and I know that I couldn't put it down. Next book, here I come. ( )

There are many rules that writers can pick from to follow, but one of the most popular has to be: if you can’t come up with an original idea, then its fine to steal one and make it your own. The operative phrase being, “make it your own.” QUATANTINE: THE LOSERS is the first in a series of books that takes its premise from freely from LORD OF THE FLIES. It’s another in a long line of YA Teen Dystopia books where all the adults die, civilization vanishes and the kids are in charge, which is usually about as bad as it sounds.

I not even close to the target demographic for this book, but I really like the GONE books, similar YA series by Michael Grant, so I thought I’d give this one a try. I’ll give the authors credit, they don’t waste plunging the reader into the action by page 25 as a typical first day at a large suburban Colorado high school ends catastrophically when a deadly infectious virus is accidently released into the student body, killing everyone over a certain age and forcing the survivors to live in a government enforced quarantine. No one comes in and no one goes out.

Of course in this dire situation, the utter worst in almost everybody comes out, and this being a YA book, it means the survivors all join up with whatever rigid social caste they belong in and prey on the others. Naturally the Jocks (or the Varsity as they’re called here) are the worst, along with a clique of hot girls naming themselves The Pretty Ones. Just like every other YA fiction high school in forever. And for YA book, the violence is quite graphic at times and so is the language, let parents be warned.

The main characters are a pair of brothers and a girl they both develop feelings for as the story develops; they’re flawed but likable kids who are not part of any gang at the start. By sticking up for others, they earn the loyalty of more than a few outcasts and sit themselves on a collision with the story’s villains. One of the reasons why I hung with this book was because the authors do a good job of making you care for the characters and come to root them to not only survive, but escape the hell on earth they’re stuck in through no fault of their own.

I do have do not that the writers practice well the mumbo jumbo pseudo science needed to pull these kind of stories off; here we have a virulent virus that is deadly only to people conveniently over the age of graduation and seems to act with the precision of a deadly nerve gas. It’s one of those things that secret government labs are cooking up all the time in fictional horror; it worked for Stephen King in THE STAND didn’t it.

Anyway, the first book of the QUARANTINE series is an easy read, and the ending is a satisfactory one in that it sets everything up quite well for the sequel, which I will check out and find out what hath William Golding wrought. ( )

I loved this book.

http://youtu.be/KH-7Zxs45JY?t=19m1s Start at 16mins. ( )