Quarantine: The Loners

( 14 )

Overview

“As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” – Kami Garcia, New York Times best-selling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels

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,...

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Quarantine #1: The Loners

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More About This Book

Overview

“As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” – Kami Garcia, New York Times best-selling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels

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.

"Take Michael Grant's Gone and Veronica Roth's Divergent, rattle them in a cage until they're ready to fight to the death, and you'll have something like this nightmarish debut...Thomas' whirlwind pace, painful details, simmering sexual content, and moments of truly shocking ultra-violence thrust this movie-ready high school thriller to the head of the class." - Booklist (starred review)

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
First in the Quarantine trilogy, this debut novel from Thomas, a pseudonym for first-time writers Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies, is a violent and somewhat campy high-concept mashup, tossing Walter Hill’s The Warriors into a high school setting and seeding it with elements of Lord of the Flies. After a biotech disaster unleashes a weaponized disease that creates teenage carriers and kills adults exposed to them, McKinley High is quarantined. A year later, themed gangs—including Varsity, Freaks, Pretty Ones, and Sluts—have formed to fight over a once-a-week food drop from the government. David, an unaffiliated “Scrap,” works with his epileptic younger brother, Will, to get by, and eventually ends up leading his own gang of outsiders after saving the life of an outcast Pretty One named Lucy. The battle between Varsity and the newly christened Loners occasionally gets muddled, and the authors are more interested in high-impact brutality than realism, but the fast and gory action (one trap-filled hallway sequence is particularly memorable) should satisfy the core audience. Ages 14–up. Agent: Mollie Glick, Foundry Literary + Media. (Apr.)
VOYA - Jane Gov
A virus escapes into McKinley High, instantly killing all adults and post-pubescent students, leaving everyone else—pubescent teens—alive, but fatally poisonous and contagious. As puberty recesses, the teens will not only lose immunity to the virus, but also the virus itself will leave the body. Therefore they can be released back into society, but until then they must survive. The school is quarantined by the military, forsaking the infected teenagers to their own devices. Gangs form, trades develop, and the battle for survival can be deadly. A year later, the school is unrecognizable. Seventeen-year-old David Thorpe is able to stay under the radar, surviving on small cleaning jobs and any scant provisions he can grab from the military's biweekly supply drop. Just a little longer and he will "graduate" and be released from the school—but McKinley High has been left alone for far too long. The students are unsettled and on the brink of civil war. Lex Thomas, pen name for writing team Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies, turns out a frightening and dark tale. Drawing from flawed yet likable characters, Quaranteen thrives on themes of human nature and an ultra-realistic tone. Unpredictable, gory, and full of death and despair, this story is not for the light hearted. Though far less societal driven than dystopian hits like Collins's The Hunger Games and Divergent, Quaranteen will still attract a similar readership and would be a great pick for a book discussion. Reviewer: Jane Gov
Kirkus Reviews
Lawlessness and violence erupt in a quarantined high school. David Thorpe can't ditch school and his ex-friends on the football team because it's his epileptic younger brother's first day. That's the day a weapons manufacturer's biologically improbable virus reaches the school--a suspension-of-disbelief–necessary germ that infects teenagers but kills everyone else. However, the virus leaves teens as they leave puberty, taking their resistance but allowing them a chance to escape. Government technology tells the exact date a student will leave puberty and quarantine, just from a thumb on a scanner. Knowledge of this "escape date" undermines the novel's potential for claustrophobic tension. The breakdown into chaos and establishment of new orders (fierce fighting for resources dropped every two weeks) are mostly skipped over. The virus causes white hair, enabling cliques (Varsity, Geeks, Nerds, Freaks, Skaters, the Pretty Ones and Sluts) to dye their hair uniform colors for identification. David and the other outsiders must fight the strict caste system by forming their own clique. The female-dominated groups--Pretty Ones and Sluts--reflect a tiresome woman-as-commodity approach. The female lead and love-triangle anchor (fought over by David and his brother) only occasionally shows signs of personality and is offended but also "excited" by unwanted groping. Additionally, the major characters' voices are indistinguishable and the villain cartoonishly evil--characterization is generally ignored in favor of more gore. At least this battle for survival has gore going for it. (Science fiction. 14-18)
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—David's experiences at his typical American high school turn into terror after a huge explosion changes everything. He and the other students watch as their teachers die gruesome deaths, and, when they try to escape, they are fired upon by the military. Weeks later, the canopy that traps them opens to drop supplies, and they are forced to fight tooth and nail to survive. A giant television screen is brought in, projecting a talking head that explains that they are carrying a contagion that only affects prepubescent teens, and so they are under quarantine. Quickly, the students form into gangs to protect one another and to help snap up the food that is delivered via black helicopter every two weeks or so. Sam, whom David attacked at a party while drunk, is the head of the strongest gang, called Varsity, and David ends up leading The Loners. The relationship between David and his brother, Will, may be the best part of this story, but it takes a backseat to the battles and struggle of the rival gangs in this first book in the series. While some of the treatment of girl and boy characters seems a bit clichéd, this is a solid choice for teens hooked on the dystopian genre.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781606843291
  • Publisher: EgmontUSA
  • Publication date: 7/10/2012
  • Series: Loners Series , #1
  • Pages: 416
  • Sales rank: 83,941
  • Age range: 14 - 17 Years
  • Lexile: HL620L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 5.84 (w) x 8.24 (h) x 1.32 (d)

Meet the Author

Lex Thomas is the pen name used by the writing team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies. Lex and Thomas met in a writers' group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other's minds with clips from bizarre movies. In 2005, they became a screenwriting team and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. QUARANTINE: THE LONERS is their first novel.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 14 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(11)

4 Star

(2)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

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1 Star

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Sort by: Showing all of 14 Customer Reviews

  • Posted July 10, 2012

    I have two sons- one of them a teenager. I was just bemoaning th

    I have two sons- one of them a teenager. I was just bemoaning the fact that there's a point at which boys seem to stop reading. Say around age 9-12. Why? To some extent, they run out of stuff to read. There is just not enough fiction being published that's appealing to teenage boys. So, they don't read and because they don't read, nothing much gets published that teenage boys will like. Because it won't sell, because teenage boys don't read. Kind of a big circular mess, actually. I'm mentioning this because if you have a teenage boy at home who is a reluctant reader, this is the book for him. In fact, this would be my 2012 pick for Reluctant Male Readers.

    However, I think the very things that boys will like about this book are things that (some) parents may have problems with. For starters, it's violent. Not just violent, but it contains very graphic violence. Second, there are sexual situations. For me personally as a parent, I find violence and sex in books less offensive and troublesome than in movies, TV, and video games. There's something about having a visual image that's more disturbing and video mediums lack the ability to convey the thought processes going on in a character's head. That whole gratuitous sex and violence thing that I think is common in movies, TV, and video games and is actually relatively rare in YA books.

    There are two major things that are appealing in this book. The first is a must for teenage boys- that something is always happening. This book is well-paced and there are constant twists, turns, and action. The plot consistently moves forward. As a parent, the thing I most liked about the book was the relationship between the two brothers- David and Will. I have two sons and my husband is one of four boys- three of them even went to high school at the same time. I found the relationship between David and Will to be both real and touching. The authors really captured the love/hate/competition thing that brothers- especially those close in age- seem to have.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 26, 2012

    I haven't finished the book yet, but from what i have read so fa

    I haven't finished the book yet, but from what i have read so far is it is such a good book. can't wait for summer 2013 for the second one!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 5, 2012

    Wow! loved it!

    I loved this book from the first page to the last and wish it would have kept going.....can hardly wait for the next one! This reminded me of "The Lord of the Flies" except in a school. High School students coming together to create their own gangs to survive...very interesting.
    Great story, great characters. Can hardly wait to find out what happens on the outside.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 21, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    I have such mixed feelings about this book that I hardly know w

    I have such mixed feelings about this book that I hardly know where to
    begin. The truth is, there is a lot wrong with it but I still kept right
    on reading, couldn’t make myself stop. What’s up with that? For one
    thing, for a post-disaster scenario, which is pretty nearly always
    completely unrealistic, this one is way out there in left field. Here
    you have a school full of teens that have been cordoned off from the
    outside world. So far, so good. Why this has happened is at first a
    mystery to the teens and I can buy that, too. What gives me serious
    pause is what happens within minutes of the teens first realizing
    something is wrong. Can you imagine our government quarantining an
    entire school so fast and so competently? Also, why do the adults on the
    outside cut off all communication with the kids and why do they fail to
    provide the necessities of life on a regular basis? Well, I suppose
    these questions are a large part of why I kept reading—I needed to know
    why even more than what. In some ways, Quarantine can be compared to
    Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games, especially in the extreme
    violence and anarchy that develops and yet…it isn’t really anarchy. The
    gangs that these 1,000 teens form, based largely on their school
    hierarchy during normal times, rings true because teens tend to want to
    belong to groups. The violence is to be expected also when you
    understand just what they’re up against if they want to survive. The
    gangs are very distinct and this is one of the aspects of the story I
    really enjoyed. Each gang has a name and distinguishing colors, each has
    a leader, each has a responsibility for one or more aspects of life
    under quarantine, each is feared by the other gangs. There are a couple
    of gangs that are expectedly in the forefront, particularly the Varsity
    and the Pretty Ones, but the authors do a great job of building the
    reader’s empathy for all of them in one way or another. Another thing
    the authors do well is come up with details that make the reader really
    understand the perils these kids face and how they react, such as the
    way they dispose of bodies and the barter system they develop.
    Protagonists Will and David are much like most brothers, full of love
    and antagonism, and the obligatory love triangle with Lucy actually
    comes about more naturally than in many other young adult novels. I did
    feel, though, that the extreme hatred Sam has for David is a stretch and
    Will’s self-centeredness and unwillingness to do his part is a bit much
    but these elements do add a great deal to the premise. Character
    development outweighs plot and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I
    had issues with the way the government/military respond to the situation
    and with the behavior of the virus, especially how fast it kills and how
    it is spread, and these are the absurdities that most bothered me in the
    construction of the story, along with the difficulty I had tracking the
    passage of time. On the other hand, the pace of the book is breakneck
    and I can truly say I was never bored. What goes on with the kids is
    both disturbing and compelling and that is what made me have to finish.
    Despite its shortcomings, Quarantine is a thriller you don’t want to
    miss but, because of the violence and sheer darkness, I’d recommend it
    for older teens and up. I must admit I also couldn’t resist a story
    whose first line is “Someone must have bitten off her nose.” Now that’s
    a grabber if I ever saw one so I guess I’ll have to read the next book,
    especially if I want to find out where the cliffhanger in this one is
    going to take us next. And I most certainly do.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 13, 2012

    Oh my god!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS WOW

    There is one thing I hate most.... Waiting! I can not wait until the next book. Lex thomas I hope you start writing. This was a fantastic book and I cant wait until the next!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 25, 2013

    So far so good

    This book is very interesting from what i read from sample.

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  • Posted February 18, 2013

    If you like to read than read this

    I loved this book, the story was original and kept me turning pages. Cant Waite for the next book.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 16, 2013

    Must read

    Awesome

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 24, 2012

    i loved this book! i didnt think i would at first but when thing

    i loved this book! i didnt think i would at first but when things got going it was really good. cant wait till the next one to come out...

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 14, 2012

    READ NOW

    First review suckers!!

    0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 13, 2012

    Fantastically written, highly recommend!

    Love love loving this book!! It's not even usually my genre, but it's truly a great read. I'm sure I'll see this on the top selling list snd then up on the big screen in no time...glad I got it before anyone could spoil it.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 1, 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 22, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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