Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith

Alex Sawyer thought his plan worked, but temporary escape from Furnace Penitentiary didn’t mean that he was actually free. Just when he and Zee thought they would make it, the unimaginable happens and they are recaptured. Just like that, Alex and Zee are prisoners once more, but this time, Furnace has a lot worse planned for them—solitary confinement. If thirst doesn’t kill them first, the unraveling of their own minds surely will. But Alex has not come this far just to give in this easily. But what can one boy do? His friend Zee is also trapped in a hole in the ground while Donovan is being subjected to the horrors of the infirmary. Alex is going to need a lot determination and inner strength or at least some unexpected help if he’s going to take on the hellish horrors of Furnace again.

Solitary, though not nearly as good as its prequel Lockdown, is still a pretty satisfactory read. Readers can expect a decent amount of action, but, as the title of the novel suggests, a large portion of the story takes place while Alex is in solitary confinement, which doesn’t allow for much movement in the plot. This is both good and bad because while it often seems like nothing is actually happening, it allows for the development of Alex’s character in this lull. I still enjoyed the story, but I felt that everything in Solitary was not nearly as well put together as in Lockdown. Alex’s “confession” that he really is a bad person within the first chapter of this book felt inconsistent with the character that is presented in Lockdown and indeed the rest of Solitary and just out of place in the grand scheme of things. The pacing of the plot felt awkward at times and the ending of this novel makes the reader wonder where Smith could possibly go from there. This doesn’t mean I won’t check out the next installment in this series, Death Sentence, because I’m still curious as to how the story will continue.

Fans of Lockdown will want to read Solitary, as will fans of The Maze Runner by James Dashner and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from AuthorsOnTheWeb