No Safety In Numbers- A Book Review
This school year we began a student book club at my new campus. The first book was one that I chose and then the second round of the students picked a few potential titles. We settled on the book No Safety in Numbers, which is the first book in a series. Originally she had selected the second book in the series, but we soon realized we'd need to start with book one.
This book is presented as being a dystopian book that has a nod toward the ever famous and popular novel Lord of the Flies. The novel itself does have some characteristics of both. The main characters are four teenagers who are trying to navigate through a critical and difficult situation. The mall has been shut down due to a biological threat. There is now a flu outbreak among the people at the mall and the government doesn't want to let anyone out.
This book was interesting enough. It was enough to keep me engaged throughout the entire book, but I wasn't dying to read the second book in the series. I think that the author was trying very hard to make the teenagers seem like teenagers. Their actions and behaviors at times almost seemed too cliche and predictable. The characters at times fell flat for me. The parents often times seemed unrealistic and the behaviors of the people in the mall felt unrealistic. A lot of the time people were behaving way more calmly than what seemed appropriate for the situation. I found myself wondering if that would be my reaction in this situation and then finding myself to think that it all felt so unreal. Many of the teenage characters were trapped in the mall alone and without parents, which made it all seem a bit silly at some points.
I would say that it didn't take long to read the book and I don't regret reading it. I can see why high school students might enjoy the book. There were a lot of things as an adult that I just couldn't let go of throughout the book. On the other hand if I was younger there might be quite a few things that I wouldn't mind. Sometimes books feel like the dip into both realms of young adult and adult, but this one really felt like it was only falling into the young adult category.
This book is presented as being a dystopian book that has a nod toward the ever famous and popular novel Lord of the Flies. The novel itself does have some characteristics of both. The main characters are four teenagers who are trying to navigate through a critical and difficult situation. The mall has been shut down due to a biological threat. There is now a flu outbreak among the people at the mall and the government doesn't want to let anyone out.
This book was interesting enough. It was enough to keep me engaged throughout the entire book, but I wasn't dying to read the second book in the series. I think that the author was trying very hard to make the teenagers seem like teenagers. Their actions and behaviors at times almost seemed too cliche and predictable. The characters at times fell flat for me. The parents often times seemed unrealistic and the behaviors of the people in the mall felt unrealistic. A lot of the time people were behaving way more calmly than what seemed appropriate for the situation. I found myself wondering if that would be my reaction in this situation and then finding myself to think that it all felt so unreal. Many of the teenage characters were trapped in the mall alone and without parents, which made it all seem a bit silly at some points.
I would say that it didn't take long to read the book and I don't regret reading it. I can see why high school students might enjoy the book. There were a lot of things as an adult that I just couldn't let go of throughout the book. On the other hand if I was younger there might be quite a few things that I wouldn't mind. Sometimes books feel like the dip into both realms of young adult and adult, but this one really felt like it was only falling into the young adult category.
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