When a nor’easter stalls over New England, the resulting blizzard strands seven teenagers at school for a week. The stage is quickly set for an edge-of-your-seat experience as Scotty, a sophomore varsity hoops player, narrates with a chilling nonchalance even as he makes it clear that at least one person didn’t survive. Telling them, “I’ll be sort of like your guide through all of this,” Scotty lulls readers into an ordinary morning at school, during which his biggest concern is whether the evening’s game will be cancelled, then hints at the horrific things to come with images of “black smoke and blue skin.” Scotty and his friends Jason and Pete hang out in shop class after early dismissal, sure that Jason’s dad will pick them up. Cell phones die, parents don’t arrive and the snow keeps rising, leaving the marooned students to fend for themselves. Scotty narrates from a slight remove, lending a deceptively one-dimensional feel to the cast of characters, a Breakfast Club assortment of various stereotypes from jock and goth to bad boy and hot girl. Just as he did in Gentlemen (2009), Northrop gets at the core of human nature through masterful pacing. The characters rise above their seeming limits, as the dawning realization of their worsening situation leads to acts of desperate bravery. Gripping. (Adventure. 12 & up)
