Book #60 of 2024: No Safety In Numbers

No Safety In Numbers by Dayna Lorentz.

Quick synopsis: During a normal day in a shopping mall, a deadly virus is put into the air ventilation system, causing the mall to go on lockdown. (Book published pre-Covid.)

Brief opinion: I didn't love it as much as I had when I first read it 10 years ago, but it was still a quick, entertaining read. (Originally read in 2014, review here.)

Plot: Just a normal day in a normal shopping mall. Marco (a teenage boy who works as a busboy at one of the restaurants in the mall) spots a shadowy man doing something to the HVAC system. Soon after, the mall has to go on lockdown because that "something" forced a new virus into the AC system.

A number of other teenagers are there, including three from a football team, an Indian(?) girl and her sister and grandmother, and a girl with her family (mother/a senator and her father).

The POV chapters move from one teenager to the next, the whole story taking place in just a couple days (four, I think it was).

Things in the mall fall apart quickly, and people (adults) start dying from the new virus.

Writing/editing: Both were good. The story was fast-paced and kept me reading beyond bedtime some nights.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I really liked that, unlike many YA books, the adult characters in this story were real people -- they didn't exist just as roadblocks to the teenage characters.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ - 4 and a half stars / I liked it a lot.