Alexander Gordon Smith

When fourteen-year-old Alex is framed for murder, he becomes an inmate in the Furnace Penitentiary, where brutal inmates and sadistic guards reign, boys who disappear in the middle of the night sometimes return weirdly altered, and escape might just be possible.

Lockdown

Sade A

Really great book. Loved that almost immediately you're immersed in the action no break, you just get right into the thick of things. wasn't really in love with the main character Alex just cos he never listened, dude could have gotten everyone killed more than a number of times. i hope he makes smarter decisions in the other books.

Toni Turner

I’ve wanted to read this for a while! Thanks to Joel I finally got my hands on a copy and now I have to struggle trying to fit the rest of the series into my tbr hahaha great! 

Really though this was creepy and fun and easy to read. Plus a lot of intrigue and characters you root for!

Katie Holem

I could not put this book down! Furnace Penitentiary is a horrible horrible place and creepy but it was so enthralling to read! I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series!

Cameron Austin

Review up sometime soon

I'm indifferent about this book...

Lockdown follows the life of Alex, who, after being framed for a heinous crime, is sent to Furnace Penitentiary, an underground prison that's presumably worse than Hell. And, from the details that the Alex gives you, you can pretty much come to the conclusion that, yes, Furnace, is worse than Hell. 

But to me, I didn't feel like it. Everything that happened whilst Alex being down there, didn't frighten me like I wish it would have. When he described the mutated dogs, I saw myself rolling my eyes. When he would describe the Blacksuits or Wheezers, I would look half-interested. And as the time came for him to talk about the Warden, oh, my gosh, I wanted to shoot myself. I have nothing wrong when a character describes something once, but when they repeatedly do it, it gets repetitive and gives me a less liking to the book. 

I did enjoy when (view spoiler)[the Wheezers and Blacksuits had taken Monty out of his cell, and when he returned, murdered the crap out of his cellmate, Kevein (hide spoiler)]. That was about the only part that interested me throughout the whole book. I wasn't suspecting it, and I thank the author for doing that. 

So that's why I'm indifferent towards this book (although I didn't tell you everything). I liked some of the characters...Alex, which is the main character, was the only one I didn't really like. He was annoying, doing stuff he knew he shouldn't do, after Donovan, who was in Furnace for five years or so, told him not to. And the plan to escape was unrealistic.

Kristen

This book was solidly "okay". It wasn't amazing or crazy exciting for me.

That's not to say this was a bad book.
 Actually, it was incredibly well written, the characters were fantastic, I was emotionally attached to the main side character, Donovan, and the few truly scary parts had me breathless. But overall, it wasn't scary, thrilling, or gory enough, at least for someone nearly a decade older than the main character who loves books that are far scarier. 

Alex Sawyer is a bad kid who, in the grand scheme of things, could be much worse. He's a thief, breaking into houses and making a living off other people's stuff with his friend, Toby. For a 14 year old, the kid is used to having money. But one night, the heist doesn't go as planned and strange men with silver eyes and black suits show up. They seem to be after Alex for some reason. They frame Alex for murder, the worst sort of crime in this futuristic England world that gives child murderers no second chances. In fact, it has created a world just for them: Furnace Penitentiary, miles underground and full of menace, evil, and nasty things that go bump in the night. Alex has to learn to survive the rules of his new life, or he might be the next one taken out of his bed by the monsters in the dark. Only Alex isn't the biggest fan of rolling over to accept his fate.

This was a very slow story for me. It began exciting and it had moments that took my breath away with their intensity and the way they played on my emotional involvement, but there were too many scenes that lagged. I did, however, love how you felt like you built relationships with each character, whether you loved them or hated them. 

I would recommend this book series to younger ya readers who haven't read as much gory, bloody, scary adult stuff. This book is fun, but the thriller factor is toned down a bit and the scares are not as many as I was expecting. I wanted more scare out of Furnace, and although it's a wonderfully chilling setting and everyone is a potential traitor, I couldn't help but feel like there could have been more. And it may get more intense later in the series. I won't continue with it right now just because I have so many other things to read but this is an author I will definitely check out in the future! 

What had me, as a girl, the most curious was the question of, where do the girls go? Girls can be killers too. Is there another Furnace for them or does something else happen to them? 

Overall I was disappointed with the book, but I think it was more my fault than the book's or the author's. I've just read so many scary things that I was expecting more from this book than it was offering. But it would be a great series for a younger audience or adults wanting to break into thrillers, but that want to start with something a little more tame.

Lynn Braden

Lockdown, the first book in the Escape from Furnace series was a fast-exciting novel grabbing the reader right from the start and never letting go until the very end. Alex is a typical bully who escalates into a thief. During his last robbery his best friend is killed by strange men in black, some with odd looking masks on their faces. Alex is framed for his friend's death and is thrown into a prison for violent young offenders called Furnace. What a great beginning for a series of books. Reminds me a little of the television show, Prison Break, as well as the book series, I Am Number Four.

Anna

Actual rating around 4.5 and 4.9. It was so much better than I was expecting and right now I can't wait to read the next book.

Lockdown

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