Lockdown
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Book 1 in the Escape From Furnace series
Pages: 304
Published: 2009
Age: 13+
Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. 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. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman 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 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 an escape. 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.
An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers for Top Ten (2010), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)
About the Escape From Furnace Series
Books in series order
- 1.Lockdown(2009)
- 2.Solitary(2009)
- 3.Death Sentence(2009)
- 4.Fugitives(2010)
- 5.Execution(2011)
Reading age: 12+ years
This series should be read in order.
Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace. Furnace Penitentiary.
In the adrenalin-fueled series - full of action, adventure and mystery - Alex Sawyer seeks to break free of a hellish underground penitentiary for teenage offenders. But with every step toward freedom, Alex finds there will be no escaping the secret horrors and nightmarish creatures haunting his endless nights, until he confronts and destroys the prison's mastermind.

