Book review: Lockdown: Escape from Furnace, by Alexander Gordon Smith

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith

Buy It Now: at Amazon.com

Description: 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.

This review is based on a free, review copy received from the publisher at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference held in Chicago this July.

The Bibliomaniac’s Review:

There are a number of different things to take into consideration when judging a book: style, pacing, characterization, description, plot, and theme are just a few.  A book with great characterization and plot can overcome a pedestrian writing style.  A novel with riveting pacing and great description can lead readers to overlook a weak theme.

On rare occasions, you get books that nail all those aspects and leave you frustrated that the sequel isn’t out yet.

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace is one of those books.

Pity poor Alex Sawyer.  Yes, most readers would consider him a “bad kid”; with his friends, he breaks into houses and robs them; he stands by when Toby–one of those friends–beats up a younger kid and steals his wallet.  He’s probably guilty of countless other crimes of a similar sort that we don’t see in any detail.

But he isn’t guilty of his friend’s murder.  He’s forced to watch as shadowy figures kill Toby and then frame him for the crime.  After a trial so short that you might miss it if you blinked, he’s shipped off to Furnace, a prison that makes Hell look positively luxurious and comforting by comparison.

Alexander Gordon Smith doesn’t stint on the description, showing us the horrors of Furnace in cringe-inducing, claustrophobic detail.  The sadistic guards and diabolic warden are figures straight out of a Grand Guignol play.  Alex and the friends he makes in prison are all unique, three-dimensional people instead of the cardboard cut-outs that populate some Young Adult novels these days.  The pacing starts at high speed and doesn’t let up for a single instant, dragging you along with your heart pounding chokingly in your throat as you wonder what’s going to become of Alex and his friends.

While the theme and action of the novel might be a bit intense for readers at the youngest end of the YA range, most readers 14 and up will see similar topics on their evening news.  Smith gives us the story in tight, terse chunks, his writing style perfectly suited to the tale at hand.  Readers will be on the edge of their seats as they wait to see the final outcome.

Lockdown is the first book in a projected five-book series; the first three books make a carefully-interwoven trilogy, with the final two creating a final postscript.  Readers who enjoy nail-biting horror will enjoy the hell out of this novel…pun definitely intended.