Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace. Furnace Penitentiary. The world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. One way in, no way out. Once you're here, you're here until you die, and for most of the inmates that doesn't take long - not with the sadistic guards and the bloodthirsty gangs. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, 'new fish' Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Only in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and as dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.
Together with a bunch of inmates - some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers - Alex plans the prison break to end all prison breaks. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace's deeper, darker purpose, Alex's actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that's hidden from the eyes of the world.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/01/escape-from-furnace-lockdown.html Escape From Furnace: Lockdown was horrifically brilliant. It's probably one of the darkest young adult books I've read to date. It was enthralling, it sucked you in from the first chapter, and spat you out when you ended on the cliffhanger, and I loved every moment. There is no romance, no fluffy bunnies or rainbows of inspiration, it's pure suspense and horror and not for the faint of heart.
Alex is only thirteen, which is soon forgotten when you see what awaits him. Society labels those as young as ten as dangerous and it soon becomes clear that boys are being left to rot inside the prison who are innocent, and brought in under the same circumstances at Alex. All due to gangs of young boys who had massacred adults on a killing spree, society deemed all child crimes punishable by Furnace. It's horrific, in which most adults wouldn't survive. Alex, although he stole, broke and entered, was not guilty of murder. Furnace forces him to not only grow up, but he realises the life he was leading was no better than the gangs he now faces on the inside, a revelation too little too late.
If you're looking for something dark, gritty and utterly gripping, you won't be disappointed. Alexander Gordon Smith has created a brilliant and unique series that left me with my heart in my throat. I absolutely loved it. Be warned, it ends in a heart stopping cliffhanger, but luckily, the rest of the series has already been released.
