Trapped - Michael Northrop

Trapped – Michael Northrop

Pages: 325

Publisher: ATOM (Little, Brown)

Release Date: 15^th December 2011

Other Titles by this Author: Gentlemen

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it would keep snowing for a week.

Scott and his friends are among the last seven kids at their school waiting to be picked up that day and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn’t seem so bad to spend the night there, especially when Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall.

Then the power goes out. Then the heat. The pipes freeze. The roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, the empty halls grow colder and darker and the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision...

Trapped is a tense and gripping novel of survival in an unforgiving situation.

I have to admit that my favourite element of this novel was reading from the perspective of a teenage boy. Most of the novels I read are about girls and from their minds so it’s very refreshing to hear from the other side. Scotty’s narration is brilliant to read. He feels authentic in his comments on the people he’s been stranded with, including the gorgeous Krista who he’s fancied for ages, and I loved how nervous he was around her – it’s reassuring to know that guys go silly around girls! He also directly addressed the reader which I loved.

Being trapped in your school by several feet of snow miles away from town is a terrifying idea. Their situation got gradually worse as the power went out, the heat went off, the snow blocked out the windows and finally, the roof began to collapse under feet of dense snow. While scary, it’s fascinating to think about how I’d react in that situation and I often got lost in my thoughts about what I’d do if I were Scotty or Pete or Krista.

While reading Trapped it struck me how nice it was to read a survival novel where the only threat to them was the world. There were no zombies, mutated animals or savage grown-ups hunting them down. In fact, the action was minimal and I really enjoyed that; it was refreshing.

Trapped was a really enjoying and rather refreshing survival novel that I’d recommend for those wanting to take a break from the rampaging zombies of most survival novels and the insanity of a girl’s brain.

A big thank you to ATOM for sending me a copy to review.

Sophie