Review: Lockdown (Escape from Furnace)

I don’t cope too well if I squash a snail by mistake, so any level of violence usually puts me off, but Lockdown grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let me go. When a 14-year -old is set up for murder and gets sent to a notoriously cruel prison a mile under the earth for life with no hope of parole I want to know what is going on.

I found out the hard way that this is not a bedtime read. Images of guards with super human strength, dogs that literally kill and eat their human prey and wheezers who walk on two legs, breathe through gas masks, and scream in delight as they choose their next prison victims in the middle of the night, kept me bug eyed for hours.

I read chapters at lunch-time because this world was too real and the characters were important to me. What really hooked me in the end was the fact that this wasn’t really just about a prison where terrifying things happened. Something even more sinister was lurking behind it all.

I’m still not sure if I have the stomach to read the next book, but I really want to know what sort of crazy maniac is behind the Furnace and if it will ever end.

Themes: terror, violence, suspense, danger, imprisonment and escape.

Title: Lockdown (Escape from Furnace)
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd ( subsidiary of Bloomsbury), $13.99 RRP
Publication Date: November 2013
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780571303410
For ages: 15+
Type: Young Adult