Locked up, and nowhere to go!

Teenager Alex Sawyer has been framed for murder, and he's going to the most brutal prison imagineable. Except at this prison there are horrors lurking in the dark and in the shadows that nobody (not even the sadistic cruel prison guards) can possibly explain.

This is the set-up for the teen fiction book "Lockdown" by Alexander Gordon Smith.

Our hero Alex is actually a bit of anti-hero: he is caught early in the story stealing items with his buddy. But Alex is not evil, and he is certainly not a murderer. But that's what happens when he is framed and sentenced for murder. Alex will spend his days in Furnace, a massive underground prison built in rock and miles from civilization.

                                                                    

The horrors that await Alex are beyond imagination. he juveniles are required to slave away all day with pick axes as they build new rooms, and sadistic guards can torture and hurt them at will. The facilities leave nothing to be desired: blood soaked cells, sloppy bug infested food, murderous gangs, and oh yeah, genetically mutated killer dogs and people roaming the hallways at night dragging victims for unspeakable terrors.

It's a pretty exciting book!

Lockdown is riveting from start to end. The outlook seems bleak and there appears almost no hope for anyone, although there are glimmers of hope as Alex finds possible ways to escape. The characters come alive with a great balance of terror, action and horror. Alex turns out to be a young man of good character and morals and despite the previous crimes in his life, nothing seems to justify the world he must inhabit now.

This is the first in a 5-book series called "Escape from Furnace." The writer Alexander Gordon Smith is from England although you wouldn't really know it from the writing or the dialogue.

This is a great series for fast paced thrills. Following Alex on his attempt to escape from Lockdown makes for engaging reading. It is a book you will find hard to put down.

-By William

Paper Towns, or Chasing Margo Roth Spiegelman

The subject of this book is about perceptions.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I often imagine how things or people should be or will be, as opposed to how they really are. I can't count the number of times I have imagined a scenario and plotted it out over and over again in my head. The times I planned a date with a girl and I perfectly visioned where we would go, how our conversations would go, how smooth I would be- only to have it actually turn out to be  completely different from anything I remotely imagined. The same thing seems to happen anytime, from meeting up with friends, or how things will go at work, I just wind up imagining how I envision they should or will be.

These perceptions are at the core of the book "Paper Towns" by John Green. I was riveted by this story and related so well to the main character, Quentin. He has been head over heels for this girl next door, Margo Roth Spiegelman. This crush has been going on since they were children, but now in their senior year of high school he is finding that who he thinks and knows of Margo isn't exactly the same as who Margo may really be. Quentin is learning that imagining a person isn't the same as learning who the real person is.

Paper Towns was quite funny and thoughtful. It's a story of the last days of high school, lusting after love, and with a really great road trip. John Green writes intriguing characters and stories that really capture your interest. I recommend this highly.

-William