REVIEW: Lockdown (Escape from Furnace 1) – Alexander Gordon Smith

• Year first released:  2009
• ISBN of the edition I read:  0312611935
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Square Fish
• My rating (out of 5):  2.5

  

I've always been a believer in "young adult" books not only being for teenagers. Of course the Hunger Games and Twilight series are highly popular with adults as much as teens (even though at least one of those really really shouldn't be - but I won't say which *cough, cough* Twilight *cough, cough*), and I would argue strongly that Paper Towns by John Green is just as applicable to adults as it is to the younger crowds it was theoretically aimed at.

Then I come across a book like Lockdown, and I remember that, actually, some books really are for one specific demographic. I can imagine my 14-year-old self enjoying Lockdown immensely. It has a gritty, action-packed, thrilling story in an imaginative, disturbing setting, and with a main character who is at least half a step deeper than the protagonist of many other teen thrillers. 

Really, Lockdown wasn't bad. It didn't do anything unforgivable. The mystery it builds and the curiosity it inspires are admirable. But its constant stream of - and overt reliance on - testosterone and adrenaline really drive the point home that Gordon Smith was unmistakably trying to appeal to just one particular group of people (12-17 year-old boys, give or take). 

Perhaps it is not fair of me to judge the book too harshly. It wasn't written for me - and so, if I don't like it, this doesn't actually say anything against the book as a whole, does it? We might say that I wasn't, per se, meant to like the book.

Here are the things I can say about it, with at least a little less bias:

• The book does a good job of creating a sense of claustrophobia. Its prison setting - both in appearance and in the society that inhabits it - is strongly developed and suffocatingly small (in a good way). 
• The overall story kept me interested throughout the book, but the twists and tropes it employs (who lives and dies, the pace at which the events unfold, etc.) were overly transparent. Though I still don't know what's lying at the heart of the mystery (this was only the first book in the series), the types of events were rather predictable. 
• Gordon Smith's writing style was tense and atmospheric, but not particularly unique in any other way. Also, it suffered from as many run-on sentences as the worst of Suzanne Collins' books. (Seriously: why is it okay for young adult books to be littered with so many run-ons? How disappointing. No wonder people don't know how to use commas and semi-colons anymore.)
• In theme, plot, and overall content, Lockdown bears a striking resemblance to the much-more popular Maze Runner series by James Dashner. That said, I'd happily suggest Lockdown before Maze Runner. Though Lockdown doesn't transcend its demographic (neither did Maze Runner), it at least fixes many of the egregious errors of Dashner's book.

All in all, I can maybe see myself picking up volume two at some point in the future, but I doubt I'll make it through all six volumes of the series. It's interesting, but not six-books interesting. (To be fair, I can't think of any story which is worth being six books long.)

If you're a 12-17 year old boy*, I'd wager you would enjoy this book quite a bit. If you're not that demographic, though, then...meh. If the premise really sounds interesting to you (or if, for some reason, you enjoyed The Maze Runner), then sure, give it a shot. It's a rather quick read, at least - you won't lose too much of your life to it. But I can think of several other books - even similarly-themed young adult books - that I'd recommend before Lockdown.

*My apologies; I don't mean to play a gender-roles card here. Let me instead say: If you're a 12-17 year-old reader who enjoys actiony, adrenaline-packed thrillers, I'd wager you would enjoy this book quite a bit.

Fair?