Horn Book Review
This fourth book provides backstory for a secondary character from the series-opener. After graduating from McKinley High quarantine zone, where an all-teen society formed, Gonzalo wants only to find his precious Sasha. Alternating between Gonzalo's flashbacks to life as a gang member inside and the present as he travels through the harsher-still infected zone, this volume offers more formulaic and gratuitous grit, blood, and danger. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
This fourth book of the violent, virus-lit Quarantine series tells the story of Gonzalo, the ax-wielding, self-proclaimed monster of McKinley High School, and his girlfriend, Sasha. At 16, scrawny Gonzalo is barely able to fend for himself amid the savage gangs (the Varsities, the Skaters, the Nerds, the Sluts, etc.) that have developed in the school since its quarantine because of a virus that kills adults. Though adults oversee food and supply drops, kids like Gonzalo don't have much chance of surviving long enough to age out of the infection and be released. When Gonzalo is rescued by Sasha, one of the Mice, who live in the ductwork, he falls for her and finally has something to live for. A parallel story follows Gonzalo a year after his graduation as he scours the infected zone for Sasha with his high-school enemy, Baxter, and uncovers a plot to destroy the infected underground. This edgy, explicit novel isn't as hard-hitting or fast-paced as its predecessors, but it's a solid choice for mature readers seeking morally ambivalent, lawless dystopias.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2016 Booklist
