No Safety In Numbers: Book 3: No Safety In Numbers Series, Book 3
May 15, 2014
This final novel in a trilogy about teens quarantined in a mall after their exposure to a virus is realistic in its portrayal of the lasting effects of the ordeal for the survivors.Though it shifts the narrative focus slightly from predecessors No Easy Way Out and No Safety in Numbers (2013, 2012), this volume continues to tell the story from various points of view-including bullied Marco (who has now become a bully himself), self-doubting football player Ryan and poetry-loving Shay. However, the fate of Lexi, the daughter of a U.S. senator also locked down in the shopping center, is in question throughout most of this installment. Ginger, a dancer, is introduced as a fourth perspective instead. While the voices of each character are distinct, it can be difficult within such an action-packed plot to keep track of the movements of each. Several chapters featuring the communications of the senator to her government superiors very effectively ratchet up the suspense. The horrific actions undertaken by many of those trapped in the name of survival are disturbing but not gratuitous, and the question of morality at play in many of the characters' decisions is fascinating.Though readers will need to have read (and possibly recently reread) the previous two to understand this conclusion, it provides a thoughtful and broad-reaching ending to a tale of surviving dire circumstances. (Thriller. 14-18)
COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
September 1, 2014
Gr 9 Up-Only two weeks have passed since a deadly virus was released at a suburban mall and thousands were quarantined, including four teens-Marco, Lexi, Ryan, and Ginger. The medical teams have evacuated, the virus has mutated, and complete darkness has now descended because the power has gone out. In order to survive, the teens must make the ultimate sacrifices. A chilling conclusion to a gripping trilogy.
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 The trilogy kicked off by No Safety in Numbers (2012) comes to an end with this effectively blunt last volume. After two weeks of bloodcurdling quarantine, the lights are off at the Shops at Stonecliff mall, leaving our five protagonists to feel their way through the body-strewn darkness to resolve their rivalries. Most important, Shay has a cure to the virusbut who in this war-torn world is left to use it? Readers who begin here will be lost, and even fans might find this wandering finale a bit overpopulated. Still, self-anointed king Marco remains a fantastic, complex character, and the extended denouement is rather poignant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)