Rainer Maria Rilke

"Live a while in these books, learn from them what seems to you worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be repaid you a thousand and a thousand times, and however your life may turn,-it will, I am certain of it, run through the fabric of your growth as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys."--Rainer Maia Rilke


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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Some Say the World Will End By Fire; Some By Ice

Trapped by Michael Northrop

Dystopian/Survival Thriller/ Teen and Up

When three best friends get trapped at school because of a freak snowstorm, they are mostly excited because school is letting out early.  Scotty seems to be the only one irritated and this is just because his game will be cancelled.  Soon enough, a basketball game is the least of his worries.  What starts out as a freak snowstorm turns into a raging blizzardous nightmare as the snow just doesn't stop falling.....for days. 

Scotty and his two best friends miss their only chance to leave and find themselves trapped in the school with a teacher, two class misfits and two of the most popular girls--and this is both a dream and a nightmare.  When the blizzard continues, the power fails and the small group realizes this after-school adventure is going to be a fight for survival.

Dystopian fiction is my absolute favorite and this one could certainly fit in that genre.  It has all the classic earmarks of a world gone mad and the reader isn't sure if this is just one bad snowstorm or something much worse.  Mostly I read dystopian fiction about plagues, viruses, earthquakes, etc. but an apocalypse by snow was very new.  While it could also be categorized as a survival story, I think the ending leaves an opening for future speculation. 

I really liked this book.  It had me hooked in the first chapter and even though it was blazing summer when I read it, I shivered in places at the description of the frigid horror of the main character.  I would have to recommend it PG13 and higher, though, because of a few sentences that might be inappropriate for adolescents.

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