The Loop by Ben Oliver - HIGH

The Loop by Ben Oliver, 368 pages. Chicken House (Scholastic), APRIL 2020. $19.

Language: R (45+ swears, 30+ “f”); Mature Content: G ; Violence: R (deaths, dismemberments, bloody fights)

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL:  HIGH

It’s Day 736 in The Loop for Luka Kane.  Except for 1 hour of isolated yard time each day, the rest of the day is in solitary confinement – broken up only by meals and “the harvest” – a brutal siphoning of chemical energy each prisoner undergoes to supply the electricity for their own confinement. When the next Delay (submitting to an experiment in order to lengthen your time before execution) is brought forward for everyone, Luka seeks a way to escape – a chance that comes after the experiment, but he still breaks free and finds that the outside world is in chaos.  The only chance he says of surviving is to risk his life to go back into The Loop and free the few prisoners he knows can help him. 

I predict there will be an upswing in demand for science fiction – apocalyptic fiction especially – in the present.  Oliver takes a bit of The Matrix, adds some I, Robot, and sprinkles in some Maze Runner for his creation.  All of it makes for breathless reading – in some places literal overkill.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS