Kara's Book Cravings: Quarantine Series

I found the third book of this series at a local book sale. (Let's be honest, that's where I find so many of my books. Ha!) As soon as I saw the cover and read the blurb, I knew I needed the rest of the series. So, I went to Amazon and bought the rest. I mean, an end of the world event, an enclosed setting, teens fending for themselves? You betcha I was reading this!

THE QUARANTINE SERIES by Lex Thomas is actually 4 books: The Loners, The Saints, The Burnouts, and The Giant. I've only read the first three. Why? Because the fourth book is more of a spin-off that follows one of the side characters. I wasn't that invested in this character to want to read an entire book about him. I'm sure it's as good as the rest, but by the time I finished the third book, I was ready to move on to something else. 

This is a YA series that starts on the first day of school. Upon arriving, there's an explosion, and all the students are now trapped inside. At first, they expect a quick rescue, but that doesn't happen. Turns out, there's a virus on the loose that is carried by teens but kills adults. (Cool, right?) And so the world has decided to quarantine all kids and teenagers who aren't of age until they can figure this out.

There's a major Lord of the Flies feel to this series as the kids fight to survive and to become leaders. They quickly form gangs and an entire community that's full of fights and parties and, of course, a romance. There's a love triangle in this series, too -- sort of. This one is more a necessity of circumstances, but it's handled very well. There are some pretty graphic scenes of violence, but I never felt any of it was gratuitous. A character death near the end really pissed me off, thought that's my largest complaint about the series. 

Overall, if you like YA end of the world, dystopian, romance then you have to check out this series!