Lifers

by M.A. Griffin

Overview

Fear haunts the streets of Preston's city: a girl has disappeared. Preston is drawn to investigate, exploring the city in the hunt for his missing friend. And deep in the bowels of a secret scientific institute, he discovers a sinister machine used to banish teenage criminals for their offenses.

Captured and condemned to a cavernous dimension, Preston is determined to escape. But this is no ordinary jail. Friendships will be forged and lives will be lost in a reckless battle for freedom, revenge--and revolution.

Set in a world all too similar to our own, Lifers is thrilling, pulse-pounding storytelling of the highest degree.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338065534
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/31/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

M. A. Griffin studied English literature at the University of Manchester. His first novel, The Poison Boy, was written under the name Fletcher Moss and won the 2012 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition. He lives in Manchester, England.

Editorial Reviews

It all starts with high schooler Preston hearing a faint noise outside his urban apartment window. Fear presently haunts the streets of Manchester, England, because a girl from a prominent family has disappeared. Now one of Preston’s best friends, a girl with whom he is a little enamored and who is also part of a secretive urban band that prowls rooftops at night, is missing too. Preston and a schoolmate are drawn to investigate entries found in the missing girl’s diary and are soon caught between the police and a government secret located deep in the bowels of a scientific institute. There they discover a sinister, experimental teleportation machine that is used to banish teenage criminals to an unknown location fashioned as an experimental prison. Preston consequently finds himself transported to a scary, cavernous realm populated by dangerous convicts and no apparent food or water supply. A ragtag team is formed to venture through a treacherous passageway to seek freedom and set things right before it is too late. Several thrills and chills, new friendships, and narrow escapes lead to a satisfying ending. The characters are believable, and many social relationships are explored. The dialog has a British flavor but is not off putting. Though it is a far-fetched science fiction conspiracy novel, it also serves as a coming-of-age tale, with Preston finding a new sense of self-worth. Readers who like stories of resourceful kids outwitting conniving adults will thoroughly enjoy it. Reviewer: Kevin Beach; Ages 11 to 18.

VOYA, December 2016 (Vol. 39, No. 5) - Kevin Beach

10/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—Alice has disappeared, and after reading her cryptic final message, best friend Preston is determined to find her. Clues from her notebook lead him to MIST (the Manchester Institute for Science and Technology), where he witnesses a boy's death and realizes that Alice is also in danger from a government conspiracy spearheaded by Christopher Armstrong, a member of Parliament elected on a law-and-order platform. But crime isn't exactly disappearing in Manchester; it's being forced underground. Preston will have to go "beyond the valve" before he can figure out how to rescue Alice, assuming, of course, that he'll be able to make it out alive himself. This urban sci-fi novel is short on details of how the valve actually works, and readers are left to accept that some kind of teleportation system has been built at great expense just to deport teen delinquents in a near-future, although not dystopian, England. Action and adventure abound in this thriller, although there's little in the way of character development. Some strong language makes this more suitable for older readers. VERDICT Purchase where James Dashner's "Maze Runner" series or Alexander Gordon Smith's "Escape from Furnace" books are popular.—Elizabeth Friend, Wester Middle School, TX

School Library Journal

2016-09-19
A British teen investigates a local disappearance.Prestons longtime friend Alice has gone missing, vanishing in the middle of the night. When Preston goes searching the streets of Manchester for Alice he follows her trail to a mysterious scientific research facility that houses a portal to an alternate dimension. This alternate dimension has been fashioned into an experimental prison, with an unlucky group as the inaugural inmates, Alice included. Determined to return to the real world, Preston and the inmates band together to fight the bizarre forces that hold them prisoner. The book feels like Paper Towns and the Maze Runner series smashed together, with elements of Political Thriller 101 sprinkled throughout. The genre-bending premise is promising, but the characters and narrative never meet their own potentials. Alice is a blank, and Prestons unnuanced drive to save her gets old. The trials and tribulations the gang encounters on their journey through dimensions feel like different levels to a video game, with clunky action set pieces and even chunkier exposition delivered between them. All of this leads to a climax thats rushed and blunt. An ambitious misfire. (Science fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews