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young adult book reviews & more

Death Sentence by Alexander Gordon Smith

Death Sentence: Escape from Furnace 3After his second attempt to escape Furnace Penitentiary fails, he knows he’s about to face his worst nightmare. Gone are the days of relatively safe living in Gen Pop or even Solitary. Now, hidden away in the darkest depths of the prison, Alex is going to be subjected to the most evil of experiments. He will be transformed from a human into a monster, into a Black Suit. His only defense is clinging onto the memory of who he used to be—Alex Sawyer. But as his veins are pumped full of the evil nectar, he finds himself succumbing to the more sinister of his innermost thoughts. Against his will, he is turning into what he used to fear most—a soldier of Furnace. Can he still remember to fight his way to freedom once he forgets who he is?

I was a little doubtful of how much I would like the continuation of Smith’s Escape from Furnace series after the conclusion of its second installment, Solitary. Smith really seems to like making Alex’s situation continually go from bad to worse. As Alex finds himself literally deeper in a hole, I found myself wondering how in the world he would be able to fulfill his desire to escape. Yet as I started reading Death Sentence, I became engrossed in the sinister creepiness of the story. This story is saturated with many disturbing images and Alex’s desperate inner battle against the evil spreading inside him. Though it honestly felt pretty hopeless, I kept reading on because Smith made the plot so addicting. And, to my surprise, Smith throws readers a bone and ends this novel on an optimistic note, which is a drastic change from Lockdown and Solitary. With a fast paced plot, satisfactory character growth, and some pretty exciting twists, Death Sentence is such to please fans of the earlier installments in the Escape from Furnace series, and you can be sure I’m going to check out the next book, Fugitives.

The Escape from Furnace series will be enjoyed by fans of The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Rating: 4.0

Review copy borrowed

1 munch(es) :

Lenore Appelhans said...

Re: Hope. It's about time!!

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