No Safety in Numbers – Dayna Lorentz

The idea of being locked in a mall sounds like a dream come true to me – nothing to do for days on end but try on clothes and shoes? Sign me up! Wait…what? Thousands of other people will be trapped there with me? And there’s a deadly contagion possibly on the loose? Boo…hiss…much less fun, that.

No Safety in Numbers’ tagline is ‘150 stores. 1 Bomb’ - and we’re not talking a bomb that goes ‘boom!’ but a bomb that’s released a biotoxin through the air vents of one of New York’s biggest malls. The story is told from the viewpoints of four teenagers trapped inside the place: Lexi, the nerdy fourteen-year-old senator’s daughter whose mom orders the mall quarantine; Shay, the beautiful but studious teen spending the day there with her grandmother and younger sister; Ryan, the football player who meets and falls for Shay; and Marco, a busboy at one of the mall restaurants who’s bullied at school but finds himself in a position of power during the mall lockdown since he knows the floor plan…and possible escape routes.

When Marco first arrives for his shift at the Grill ‘n’ Shake, he assumes getting jumped in the parking garage by two football thugs from his high school will be the worst of his troubles. Hiding from his tormentors in the mall’s HVAC room, though, he notices a beeping black box attached to the circulation vents, and makes a 911 call that changes not only his life, but the lives of everyone inside the Shops at Stonecliff Mall that afternoon. When word quickly reaches Lexi’s mom, a state senator spending the afternoon at the mall with her husband and Lexi, the senator orders the mall be placed on immediate lockdown. At first, people are told there is no risk, it’s just a security measure, but then one afternoon turns into overnight and…

Most of the characters are pretty laid back about the whole thing at first – after all, there are a lot worse things than wiling away the hours in an Apple computer store. Unsurprisingly, most of the teens hang out in Abercrombie, and even participate in some fun games of truth or dare. It’s when people start getting sick, and one day turns into two and then three days, that people finally get restless and want to know what the deal is. Why can’t anyone leave? Why have all the cell phones dropped signals? What happened to news from the outside world being shown over the store televisions or internet? And what’s up with the arrival of all the peeps in the blue hazmat suits? As panic sets in and sick people start mysteriously disappearing, Lexi learns from her mom there maaaaaaay have been some toxins released through the vents causing a deadly strain of the flu to set in – something no retail therapy in the world can cure!

The first in a series, the book ends with a character death, a foiled escape, and the realization things may be far worse than originally imagined. Lorentz has an ear for how teens talk, and even though the plot is a bit far-fetched – not the biological toxin released in a mall part, which seems like a true terrorist plot-in-the-making – but that it takes the mall’s inhabitants several days to get worked up enough to start rioting. My three-year-old riots after just two hours in a mall!! Action/adventure fans and reluctant readers should enjoy. Soon, I hope to read Quarantine by Lex Thomas which has a similar premise – high school kids struck with a deadly virus and locked inside their school – but is supposed to be edgier and more Lord of the Flies-ish with warring gangs and violence.

To learn more about Dayna Lorentz, the No Safety in Numbers series, and her other books, visit http://www.daynalorentz.com/ .

This Is Not A Test – Courtney Summers

“This is not a test. Listen closely. This is not a test. Do not draw attention to yourself. Once you have found a secure location, stay where you are and help will come soon.”

Sloane Price’s mother is dead, her dad regularly beats her, and her older sister/best friend Lily has just run away without so much as a note or word of ‘goodbye.’ The only possible black icing that could top that Cake of Sad would be a zombie apocalypse, right? Welcome to the world of author Courtney Summers, reader!  Not one to shy away from tough subjects, Summers earlier books Cracked Up to Be, Some Girls Are, and Fall for Anything tackled such issues as bullying, alcoholism, suicide and date rape. Here, she takes on child abuse and abandonment, throws in some zombies, and asks, “Would you fight to survive in a world you’ve given up on?”

We barely meet poor Sloane and get her family history and current mental state before fast-forwarding seven days later to Sloane boarded up in her high school with five of her not-so-closest high school friends. No mention is made of exactly how the town of Cortege got overrun with zombies. We just know that once the outbreak of 'infecteds' occurred, family and friends fell victim quickly and within a few days, this rag-tag group randomly met up during flight from their various homes. With a nod to John Hughes’ “The Breakfast Club,” each character represents a stereotypical high school student type: there are twins Trace (the tough athlete) and Grace (the pretty popular girl); Harrison (the wimpy freshman geek); Cary (the outspoken leader); Rhys (the bad boy); and of course Sloane (the quiet realist).

Turns out if you’ve got to be trapped somewhere during a zombie outbreak, a school is a good place to take refuge. It’s got access to water and showers (the bathrooms and gym), food (cafeteria), clothes (lockers and the drama costume department), comfy furniture (teacher’s lounge), and outside communication (radios and computers). As the message, ‘This is not a test…’ plays endlessly on loop over the radio, the group work to barricade every door, window and access point into the school until they are left to deal with perhaps the scariest creatures of all – themselves.

Trace and Grace already hate Cary, since they blame him for the death of their parents. Seems during their initial escape to a safe haven, Cary sent Ma and Pa Casper down an alleyway first, claiming it was all clear, only to have the couple swarmed and eaten by infecteds as their children and the others watch on in horror before running. Harrison can’t stop crying and wringing his hands wondering how long until they’re miraculously rescued, while Rhys can tell Sloane is battling demons of her own and works to break down the barricade she’s put up to protect her personal pain. Throw in a zombie teacher break-in, an explosion, too many alpha males in close quarters, some hormonal hook-ups, and a shooting, and you’ve got a story you won’t be able to put down.

Summers is a master at building slow dread and doesn’t hesitate to hit you with a punch to the gut when you least expect it. During a few confrontations, I had to remind myself to breathe, and towards the very end, my husband had to leave and watch “Storage Wars” in another room because he said I was gasping and saying, ‘Oh no,’ too much – pfft, like he doesn’t gasp and say ‘Oh no’ at some of the bum deals those peeps end up with on “Storage Wars.”

While I liked Summers’ other books well enough, This Is Not A Test cements my fangirldom. Her next book, All the Rage, is set for a 2013 release and is a mystery involving something sinister that happens to a girl who tries to blackmail her rich classmates. To learn more about Courtney Summers, her novels and follow her on her blog, go to http://www.courtneysummers.ca/ .