A week ago I watched their Featured Author of the Week: Lex Thomas video. Lex Thomas is the author duo made up of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies who wrote "Quarantine: The Loners". I have heard a little bit about this book and have seen a few other bloggers either reviewing it or having it in their "books I got this week" posts, but I never really thought it would be a book I would like until I watched this video. And then, it got me thinking about other things SO I decided to write this post =D
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| http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12620969-the-loners |
It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High - until a massive explosion devastated the school. When longer 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.
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While watching the video I started to really get into wanting to read this book. Lex and Thomas are screen writers and have had it burned into their brains that in order to write a good screen play you need to pack in the details and make the director and everyone else who reads it able to visually see the story you are telling. This means that Quarantine: The Loners has GOT to be packed with details. I bet you this is going to be a fantastic novel! And I also bet it will eventually become a movie. A dystopian with teenagers fighting to the death for survival? Who would want to read and then later watch a movie about that?
BUT, it does remind you of another novel, doesn't it? Yup, you guess it! It reminds me, at least, of The Hunger Games. I mean the dystopian genre has really taken flight since The Hunger Games got big. Don't get me wrong, I am not at all saying that this is going to be "just like The Hunger Games" or that "they totally copied The Hunger Games". I doubt there will be many similarities beside the genre and intended audience that they share. It is basically like when Twilight got big. After that everybody was pumping out YA paranormals and everybody who read and liked Twilight were comparing them to it. I feel the same thing is going on with The Hunger Games and every dystopian being published currently. If you read and liked The Hunger Games, especially if it was your first dystopian, you are probably comparing every other dystopian you have read after it to it. I think it's a good thing, though, because A. Who wouldn't want people saying that their novel reminded them of an amazing series that millions love? and B. Even if they don't like your novel you still have a much bigger audience you can reach since that earlier novel became big.
So, my first question is do you think this will be the next Hunger Games? Since they are screen play writers and probably have their novel packed with details making it most likely easier to turn it into a movie don't you think they have a bigger chance in getting a movie deal, reaching billions of people, and causing a huge fuss over their book? I certainly think so, and I must say that I love that more and more novels now are coming out with strong, brave characters since dystopian got big, instead of whiny, scared characters.
Second question I have for you all... Are you now interested in this novel too?
