Kirsten reviews: Quarantine by James Phelan

Quarantine by James Phelan

Alone #3

In a dangerous, devastated New York, one 16-year-old Australian boy finds himself alone…

It's now or maybe never sixteen year old Jesse has spent eighteen days in post-apocalyse New York, waiting for help that never comes. He owes it to his new friends, Rachel and Felicity, to go beyond their temporary refuge to find other survivors who may hold the key to escape. Could the collective at Chelsea Piers have the answers or prove to be just another distraction in his quest? Meanwhile, Jesse is burdened with guilt and sadness at the fate of his other friend, Caleb, who has fallen prey to the virus and become a Chaser. So when it emerges that a cure-all serum may be available, Jesse determines to secure it to save his friend. At any cost perhaps even his own future.

Quarantine is the final volume in the Alone series by James Phelan is both the conclusion of the series as well as book that feels unfinished.

With a series, readers hope that events and tension will continue building to some kind of satisfying confrontation and resolution. That was definitely not the case with this book.

Between that and the fact that Jesse's hormones are making him more focused on girls than the fact that he's literally living in a post-apocalyptic world with zombies, the entire series was unsatisfying. A character should develop and grow into something new, if not better, than different, and with Jesse, that wasn't the case. At times he seems more like a boy who should still be in school, and while that’s true, he hasn’t learned from what he’s experienced enough to make him relatable or at times, likeable.

There is enough action to keep the story moving at a steady pace, and conflict between characters ensures not all goes smoothly. However, the ending and other problematic elements of the previous books ended the story in such a way that if there was a continuation of this series, it would be better recommended to someone else.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating:

Order Links:



Other Reviews:
     Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories
     All the Books I Can Read

Previous Books:
     1. Chasers (Kt's Review) (Kirsten's Review)
     2. Survivor

read more

Kirsten Reviews: Survivor by James Phelan

Survivor by James Phelan

Alone #3

Jesse is alone. His friends are gone. His supplies are gone. And the chasers, the zombies, are getting bolder. So when he starts to see signs of life, of other humans, he can't believe his luck. But in post-incident New York, the only thing more dangerous than the chasers, are the survivors.

Survivor by James Phelan continues the Alone series that began with Chasers. While at the beginning of Chasers, Jesse had friends, by its conclusion he was on his own and unsure of who he should trust. The airborne virus that has affected so many people and turned them into Phelan's equivalent of zombies. However, the military aren't any help either, and Jesse ended up on his own. The reason for his friends abandoning him? The twist at the end of the last book was the Jesse's friends were actually figments of his imagination.

He now has to cope with the Chasers, who are evolving from relatively easily avoided antagonists, to predators who actively hunt humans down to drink their blood, or any other liquid they can consume. With this obstacle, Jesse is trying to find other survivors and maintain some kind of positive outlook on what is obviously a terrible situation.

The issues of the first book continue in this installment. Jesse is a teenager in a post-apocalyptic world and should be easy to connect with, given the magnification of typical feeling of isolation and being different. But, it's difficult to connect with him as a protagonist. New characters, such as Rachel and Caleb are more personable for some reason.

In addition, the uneven pacing makes it hard to settle into any kind of groove with the story, as it's packed with action and then seems to meander without direction. While the action-filled scenes are enjoyable, that's offset by the rest of the book, and it feels like more than a little bit of a letdown in comparison.

What the series does have going for it is an uncommon take on zombies and a post apocalyptic world where there are a great deal of twists. With that in mind, there is one more book in the series, which may tie everything together more neatly than the second book.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating:

Order Links:



Other Reviews:
     Reading in Pajamas
     Jeanz Book Read N Review
     Tome Tender

Previous Books:
     1. Chasers (Kt's Review) (Kirsten's Review)

read more

Kirsten Reviews: Chasers by James Phelan

Chasers by James Phelan

Alone #1

Four Teenagers.One Destroyed City.Thousands of Infected Predators.


Jesse is on a UN Youth Ambassadors camp in New York when his subway carriage is rocked by an explosion. Jesse and his three friends, Dave, Mini and Anna, crawl out from the wreckage to discover a city in chaos.

Streets are deserted. Buildings are in ruins. Worse, the only other survivors seem to be infected with a virus that turns them into horrifying predators...

Outnumbered. No sign of life. Just them. And you... ALONE.

Chasers, the first book in the Alone series by James Phelan is a story of the world being shocked askew. From the first page, the protagonist Jesse is out of place. He’s originally from Australia, but has moved to Manhattan and is on a field trip with other students when things change with a literal ball of fire. They get out of the subway to find that New York has been destroyed, and even worse, they’re on their own and afraid.

What follows is a story of the teenagers trying to figure out what’s happened, while at the same time trying to avoid anyone they encounter who has been infected with something strange that makes them something not a vampire and not quite a zombie. Essentially, Phelan combines aspects of both, and the resulting creatures are what most of the other survivors have turned into.

By setting the book in such a large city, the fact that there aren’t many people left alive becomes even more sharply realized, and on that count, Phelan does a good job. Stylistically, the lack of quotation marks when people talk in the present are a little jarring, and it can make the text seem to run together without much clarification as to who is talking, or when.

The story makes use of the effects that isolation can have on people, and as time goes on, how that informs their actions. There are some recordings and other mementos left behind by other people that the kids find as they explore the city, and in not finding these people, there is no question about what’s happened to them. One girl says it best when she confesses that she’s tired of being alone and doesn’t know who she is anymore. When compared to that, risking everything among the infected seems to her the better choice.

But, in spite of all these elements, the story feels very slow paced, and at times drags on. Since this is the first book in the series, it works at setting the stage for more action, and hopefully the sequel provides that in excess. Chasers offers a post-apocalyptic world where isolation is the norm and the cost of survival is weighed against a need for companionship.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating:

Order Links:



Other Reviews:
     A Book Obsession (Katie's review)
     Parajunkee
     Xpresso Reads

read more

Early Review: Chasers by James Phelan

Chasers by James Phelan

Alone #1

The trip of a lifetime just turned into the end of the world.

When Jesse crawls out of the wreckage of a subway car and emerges into daylight, he’s greeted by a living nightmare. An unexplained force has destroyed New York City, turning skyscrapers into ash, cutting off all power and communication. Jesse and his new friends, Dave, Anna and Mini are dazed but unhurt. The other survivors are not so lucky. Every human being they encounter is infected, gripped by an unquenchable thirst that drives them to monstrous acts of violence.

Somehow, Jesse has to escape. But first, he has to stay alive.

While traveling with other students in New York City, catastrophe strikes and their subway car goes up in flames. Climbing out of the wreckage, Jesse and his friends search for other survivors, but find no one else alive. When they reach the surface, what faces them is nothing short of a nightmare. The skyscrapers are crumbling around them and there seems to be no one left, at least until they stumble across a strange group of people who seem mindless except in their search for liquid to quench their thirst. Any liquid will do, even blood, making Jesse a prime target. Survival in this desolate new world won't be easy, but at least he isn't alone.

I'm at a loss as to how this book can possibly be properly reviewed without spoiling something major in the story. There is a shocking twist at the end that irrevocably changes your perceptions of everything prior to that point. So much so that I can hardly remember what I felt prior to that knowledge, and in all honesty that twist both infuriates and impresses me. It infuriates me because of just how much it turned everything upside down and drastically changed everything. On the opposite end, the impressive part came from its ability to catch me so far off guard. Let's face it, with everything we experience in modern society, it has become harder and harder to drastically surprise anyone. So when something like this comes along you can't help but be impressed even if you didn't really care for what that twist entailed. 

While reading Chasers I kept picturing the movie I Am Legend with Will Smith. Each time they described yet another empty and deserted place, I shuddered just like I did in the movie. In no way am I saying Chasers is a knock off of I Am Legend, since there was a whole different character dynamic as well as a completely different story line behind the devastation. It's just that Chasers elicited that same horrible feeling inside of being terribly alone and isolated while your life is constantly hanging in the balance. Even though there was four of them together, it didn't lesson those devastating feelings one bit. In all honesty it was the isolation was what made this book so absolutely terrifying for me. So much more so than anything to do with the Chasers. Perhaps it is because I'm a social creature by nature, but I cannot see myself lasting very long under that kind of stifling aloneness.

I'm not really quite sure how I feel about the chasers and their role in zombie fiction. Granted, they weren't really zombies due to the fact that they sought out liquid of any kind rather than flesh. But the fact that they were mindless and would attack people for their blood does push them somewhere in the zombie region. I guess in the end I can't really fault them for not being true zombies, as they were plenty scary enough. I think my sticking point with them was that there wasn't any explanation for anything that was going on. Granted, this is a trilogy, so there needed to be some things left open for the next two books, and the staggering feeling of aloneness couldn't have been achieved if there had been any contact with the outside world to get those needed answers. That being said, I'm incredibly eager to get my hands on the next installment, since Chasers was one heck of a terrifying ride that grabbed a hold of me and just wouldn't let go.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating:

Pre-order:

Other Reviews:

• Karin's Book Nook

read more