Burnouts

If ever a YA book warranted a parental guidance sticker, this would be it--and that sticker would blister right off from the toxic rot inside. Two years after the escaped virus that got McKinley High sealed off from the world in Quarantine: The Loners (2012), the school has become a thunderdome of thuggery, violence, prostitution, and drugs. Having escaped the hell in Quarantine: The Saints (2013), Will is reunited with brother David in the relative peace of outside before they are both dragged back in to rescue the pregnant Lucy. Meanwhile, Lucy is ejected from the Sluts and falls into the hands of the Burnouts, lesion-covered creeps getting high on 'stinkers'--fermented feces fumes inhaled through a rubber glove. Yes, it's disgusting. Really disgusting. In fact, this is so far outside most readers' comfort zone it feels like outsider art, a surreal attempt to extract meaning and purpose from the sickest of scenarios. The plot, such as it is, is powered by unbalanced ex-mean girl Hilary, obsessed with finding new teeth to plug her tooth hole and determined to hold a demented 'prom.' This trilogy-ender is the hastiest of the three--huge moments are rushed through with regularity--but as a capper to this undersung 'psycho soap opera, ' it sure does its dirty job. One character's last words sum up the whole mad series: 'Peace, fuck, barf, love.' --starred, Booklist -- (4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)