No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Remember a few months ago when Slate sparked a minor controversy among book lovers? That article about Young Adult fiction, and why adults who read it are lazy and stupid? You can probably guess which side of the debate I was on: pro read-whatever-you-want. Read Harry Potter, read Hunger Games; hell, read Twilight if you want to.
So here’s me, a copy of No Easy Way Out in my hands, thanks to a friend who gave me a stack of books to read. This was a ‘thanks’ and a returned favor for when I gave her a stack of books during her pregnancy. But wait—No Easy Way Out is a sequel. I’d better read the first book in the series, No Safety in Numbers. (Grabbed it from the local library.)
I’m telling you all of this because I want no one to think I am judging that friend of mine in the least when I say, wow, No Safety in Numbers is terrible.
It’s not the plot: a bunch of people trapped in a mall that’s been quarantined by the national guard. I’m fine with the main characters: mostly teens. Government conspiracy? Count me in. Chaos and the slow decay of humanity? Check.
But the writing. Implausible situations, very hard to swallow. Inaccuracies that were laugh-out-loud funny. And the word-choice- ugh. The word “butt” occurs more often than can be justified. This reads less like a YA novel and more like a teenager’s fever-fantasy. I’m all for adults writing things that teens can relate to, but I’m not for writing in what one assumes is the idiotic manner in which teens think.
Because they don’t. Stereotypically, on TV and in movies, teens are histrionic and aloof at the same time. IN real-life, not so much. Me, I expect more from narration. No one witnesses murder and mass death with that kind of casual, almost flippant attitude.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: the reason we adults like Young Adult novels now and again is because when it’s written well, the only thing that makes it YA is, usually, the characters. But when YA is written this poorly, it’s not fit for anyone of any age.