YA Dystopian Review & GIVEAWAY "Quarantine: The Saints" by Lex Thomas

Title:  Quarantine: The Saints (Quarantine #2)
Author: Lex Thomas
Publisher:  Egmont USA
Publication Date: July 9 , 2013
Genre:  YA Dystopian

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Synopsis from Goodreads:  

A cross between the Gone series and Lord of the Flies, Quarantine #2: The Saints continues this frenetically paced and scary young adult series that illustrates just how deadly high school can be.

Nothing was worse than being locked in—until they opened the door...

McKinley High has been a battle ground for eighteen months since a virus outbreak led to a military quarantine of the school. When the doors finally open, Will and Lucy will think their nightmare is finished. But they are gravely mistaken.

As a new group of teens enters the school and gains popularity, Will and Lucy join new gangs. An epic party on the quad full of real food and drinks, where kids hookup and actually interact with members of other gangs seemed to signal a new, easier existence. Soon after though, the world inside McKinley takes a startling turn for the worse, and Will and Lucy will have to fight harder than ever to survive.

The Saints brings readers back to the dark and deadly halls of McKinley High and the QUARANTINE series.

My Thoughts...
Ok, so I liked the 1st book, but this book took it to a whole other level for me.  The story in this one was more involved and we learned SO much more about the characters and the gangs.  The ending was pretty unexpected and quite frankly it was awesome!

This one starts where the the first one left off.  David is gone and suddenly Will is in charge of the Loners.  Then there is a small ray of hope when the doors open again.  That hope is dashed so quickly by a barreling school bus, but not before some of them escape.  Many of the escapees were Loners so that brings the few Loners who are left way down.  They can't compete at the drops because of the low numbers.

The kids who opened the doors are from a local private school.  These kids have essentially been on the run for the entire time since the virus hit.  Their number has been greatly decreased from the beginning because the military has hunted and killed them.  The McKinley kids have dubbed them The Saints.  Their leader, Gates is charismatic and quite likable, but there is something about him that isn't quite right.  One by one the Loners move on to new gangs leaving only Will and Lucy are the only ones left, but how long can that last?

This book is quite possibly more viscous and bloody than the last one.  Many of the main characters go through tremendous changes in this book.  Will grows up, Lucy transforms into something incredible, Hillary becomes more insane and Sam is a whole other story.  The influx of the new kids changes the the whole dynamic of the school and not necessarily for the better even though it seems like it in the beginning.

I am going to have a hard time waiting for the next book to come out for sure!  This one was just one crazy thing after another and the pace is just so fast I read this book in no time.  There are some more adult themes in this one as well.  If you read the first book and enjoyed it then you will like this one without a doubt.  If you haven't read these and you like YA Dystopian then I highly recommend this series.

*Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

I have been authorized to giveaway ONE PAPERBACK COPY of Quarantine 1: The Loners and ONE HARDCOVER copy of Quarantine 2: The Saints!!  So enter for your chance to win.

So...here are the rules:

• Must be at least 16 to Enter
• You must live in the US for hard copy books.
• You will have 24 hours to contact me once it's confirmed that you are the winner and I have emailed you.
• Failure to contact me in 24 hours will result in my drawing another name as winner. 

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