The Loners (Quarantine, #1) in Read by Theme

May 19, 2012 Icy-Cobwebs-In-Space rated it it was amazing

Shelves: may-2012-reads

Genetic engineering gone badly wrong motivates the focus in this action-packed YA adventure thriller. On his epileptic young brother Will’s first day at Pale Ridge’s brand-new high school, David expects trouble because on Saturday he had punched out a rival for his girlfriend’s affections, and opened a vendetta among his former football teammates. But moments after entering the school, that becomes a minor problem, as first an explosion destroys the east wing of the high school, then teachers st ...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Kat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: udate, apocalypse, ya, virus, arc-review-complete

Remember high school? Yeah I hated it - I was one of those kids that never really fit in anywhere, not smart enough to be a nerd, not tough enough to be a freak and not cool enough to be popular. So when I read the synopsis for Quarantine: The Loners, I was immediately drawn into the idea.

Quarantine: The Loners dives straight into the action, with an explosion and the death of all adults, the kids are quarantined by the government and pretty much left to their own devices - food and supplies are Remember high school? Yeah I hated it - I was one of those kids that never really fit in anywhere, not smart enough to be a nerd, not tough enough to be a freak and not cool enough to be popular. So when I read the synopsis for Quarantine: The Loners, I was immediately drawn into the idea.

Quarantine: The Loners dives straight into the action, with an explosion and the death of all adults, the kids are quarantined by the government and pretty much left to their own devices - food and supplies are dropped in on a regular basis, but there isn't a whole lot of solidarity going on - instead the kids split up into gangs and try and gain enough control to survive.

The pace of Quarantine: The Loners is pretty much non-stop - there are some flashbacks to life before the quarantine, but the vast majority of the story takes place in the present. For a book of over 400 pages, I read this over the space of two days because I just had to read 'one more chapter' to see what happened next.

Mr. Thomas doesn't shy away from some pretty intense scenes - this is a violent story, and not everyone makes it through each skirmish between the gangs, and the deaths and injuries are pretty grisly, but that does add to the realism.

I did have some issues with the timelines - there are jumps in time that aren't really easily identifiable, and it's only after reading a few paragraphs of the next chapter that it becomes clear that a significant period of time has passed. Particularly frustrating is the jump between the quarantine beginning and the next scene - I wanted to know HOW the gangs were formed, how they came to claim their particular territories and the first days of adaptation and survival would have made for interesting reading.

Quarantine: The Loners is quite an 'insular' story - there is not much information on what is happening to the outside world, or what has happened to the families of the students, but I understand that Mr. Thomas' focus with this book was the actual politics and actions of the students, not on what was happening outside.

Like other books with similar ideas to this one (Battle Royale for example), there is a large list of characters, but there is a particular focus on the main characters that does make them more memorable. I did however at times find the two brothers quite hard to distinguish between, particularly during the scene where they meet Lucy.

Overall, I really enjoyed Quarantine: The Loners - it wasn't perfect, but it was an entertaining, nail-biting read, and I'll be looking forward to the next book!

Read more of my reviews at The Aussie Zombie ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Meaghan marked it as to-read

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Oct 01, 2012 Crystal marked it as to-read

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