Logo
help print
 
 
Image of item
The loners
by Thomas, Lex.
 Book 
Book
YA FIC THO
EgmontUSA,, 2012.
404 p. ; 22 cm.
 
Get it
Go Back
 
You can find this item at these locations:
Location Call Number Shelving Location Status
Howe Library YA FIC THO Teens - Lower level Available
About this item:

When a virus deadly to adults infects their high school, brothers David and Will and the other students soon break into gangs that fight each other for survival and the hope of escaping their quarantine.

Syndetic Solutions - Kirkus Review for ISBN Number 9781606843291
The Loners
The Loners
by Thomas, Lex
Rate this title:
vote data
Click an element below to view details:

Kirkus Review

The Loners

Kirkus Reviews


Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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-disbeliefnecessary 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)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Syndetic Solutions - The Horn Book Review for ISBN Number 9781606843291
The Loners
The Loners
by Thomas, Lex
Rate this title:
vote data
Click an element below to view details:

The Horn Book Review

The Loners

The Horn Book


(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

David and Will Thorpe start the year with an unexpected, indefinite quarantine in their school; the spreading airborne virus, carried by adolescents, kills adults. After months of hiding from color-coded, clique-based gangs, David unwittingly becomes leader of the Loners. The narrative is uneven until the final quarter, but this novel is a fascinating character study of teens fighting for survival. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Syndetic Solutions - School Library Journal Review for ISBN Number 9781606843291
The Loners
The Loners
by Thomas, Lex
Rate this title:
vote data
Click an element below to view details:

School Library Journal Review

The Loners

School Library Journal


(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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 cliched, this is a solid choice for teens hooked on the dystopian genre.-Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Syndetic Solutions - BookList Review for ISBN Number 9781606843291
The Loners
The Loners
by Thomas, Lex
Rate this title:
vote data
Click an element below to view details:

BookList Review

The Loners

Booklist


From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Take Michael Grant's Gone (2008) and Veronica Roth's Divergent (2011), rattle them in a cage until they're ready to fight to the death, and you'll have something like this nightmarish debut. It's an apocalypse writ small: a sick teen infects a Colorado high school with a disease so deadly that half the building is blown up by the military and the rest is sealed inside a giant dome. Every two weeks the ceiling is split for an air drop of food and supplies, and it's during these drops that the 1,000 surviving kids split into warring cliques with names like the Nerds, the Sluts, and the Freaks fight, steal, and even kill to make good. Because of a precontagion feud with Sam, the leader of Varsity (the jocks' gang), David is forced to eke out a loner's existence. But while protecting his younger brother, Will, from the horrors of the darkened hallways, David becomes an underground hero which begins to infuriate Will, who also longs for the spotlight. Though not totally implausible, this is for fans of gritty sf dystopia, and Thomas' whirlwind pace, painful details ( old socks in a zip-lock freezer bag serve as one character's pillow), simmering sexual content, and moments of truly shocking ultraviolence thrust this movie-ready high-school thriller to the head of the class.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Syndetic Solutions - Publishers Weekly Review for ISBN Number 9781606843291
The Loners
The Loners
by Thomas, Lex
Rate this title:
vote data
Click an element below to view details:

Publishers Weekly Review

The Loners

Publishers Weekly


(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

 
New Search