Title: Lockdown (Escape From Furnace #1)
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Published: October, 2009 by Farrar Straus Giroux
Pages: 273
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries.

Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.

Final Thoughts:
It took me almost a week to read this. I was initially turned off by the first few chapters that I put it down and ended up reading three vampire books in the process. I came back to it, determined to finish it, and after the first hundred pages, surprisingly it wormed its way into my subconscious. I didn’t love the book, but it got addictive. It’s essentially Prison Break for early to mid-teens. It plays heavily on the male friendship aspect as the wrongly imprisoned try to deal with, and find a way out of, their new gritty, despair-filled futures.

Title: Every Other Day
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published: December, 2011 by EgmontUSA
Thanks: EgmontUSA via NetGalley
Pages: 336
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Every other day, Kali D’Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She’s human.

And then every day in between . . .She’s something else entirely.

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism.

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she’ll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

Final Thoughts:
This one turned out to be nothing like I’d thought it would. The first chapter didn’t reel me in so I set aside for a few days, little did I know, chapter two was completely different. For some reason I’d expected it to be all about demon hunting, instead it turned into an awesome paranormal conspiracy. The characters felt real, each with their own intertwined histories that made them who they were. Here, not only did the main character get ample development time, the two sidekicks did as well. While there could have been more on the romance front, with the tight timeframe of the plot, I’m relieved it didn’t fall into the trappings of insta-luv.

Title: Touch (Denazen #1)
Author: Jus Accardo
Published: November, 2011 by Entangled Publishing
Pages: 251
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.

Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.

Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.

A secret Kale will kill to protect.

Final Thoughts:
Touch had everything I could have wanted. It’s wickedly romantic, while still managing to pound you with the action and wring you out with twist after twist. I’d liken it to a teen-focussed book version of the CW’s Nikita—evil corporation kidnapping and brainwashing recruits into thinking they’re doing good—well if the recruits had supernatural abilities. The prospect of a boy with a death touch drew me in, but it’s the bond between Kale and Deznee that really hooked me.