Enclave [Hardcover]

Kit Reed's books are like the Academy in Enclave: They look like safe places to escape for a while. Until you're sealed in. And the walls start closing in. And the air becomes unbreathable. Enclave is a great read. First of all, nobody does kids like Reed. And by that I mean when she writes a teenage character, it's not a thinly veiled version of herself. She writes kids you love, kids you laugh at, and kids you want to see buried alive in a freak cement truck accident. So, take this scary-good cross section of the teen brain, throw in some SEVERELY dysfunctional grown-ups (is there any other kind when you're that age?), grind in a dash of plague, pepper with a massive helping of paranoia, and you've got Enclave. It's great for a plane, but your average reader will be better served reading it on the ground, in a big open field, or a high-ceilinged room with multiple exits.

A couple of choice quotes:

"Below us I can hear Teddy, like, ratcheting up his guts. It sounds like they are coming out in long, pink snakes, it's enough to raise the dead and I can tell you, they will be screaming, SHUT UP!"

"Dude, what the hell is sin?"

You will love the Killer Stade character, and get the feeling that Reed loves him, too, but like so many of her books, she makes you get inside the people you hate, as well. Not to show you how terrible/evil/alien they are, but how thin a line there is between them and you, and how easily circumstance can shove across to the other side, or how so many of us go there willingly, of our own volition and with the best intentions, when you don't even know our feet are moving.

Wow, this was one for the "doozy" list. A fabulous doozy, but a doozy nonetheless. Kit Reed has created one heck of a unique and creative storyline with Enclave, a plot you won't flush out of your system for some time after you turn that last page. She offers up a very thought provoking premise to say the least.

An Ex-Marine named Sarge, after finishing his tour of duty, vows to himself he will atone for the horrifying acts he was forced to commit as a soldier by doing something good for society, something that will help people versus harm them.

Purchasing an abandoned monastery that is perched 500 feet atop Mt. Clothos in Greece, Sarge's new lease on life is to turn around the lives of society's young misfits and social embarrassments. Renovating the ancient monastery into a contemporary Academy for drug addicts, teen criminals, and the physically impaired, the ex-Marine brings 100 chosen students and a staff of adults to bring alive his vision for transforming these brats into civilized human beings. Bamboozling parents world wide in recruiting his students, he tells the parents of these selected misfits to inform their kids that an apocalyptic crisis, and end of the world scenario of doom is approaching and that the only way to ensure their survival is to follow Sarge to the Academy where their lives will be saved from annihilation. A ruse of course, a lie, a devious plot and experiment to be acted out under a strict military style academy environment. Once there, they are in lock-down mode, no one can come in, no one let out. Set atop a steep cliff that plummets down to a raging sea, escape would be impossible.

What starts out as a walk in the park with the program successfully working with teens towing the line like a drugged chain gang, soon erupts into major chaos as internet servers go down, contact with the outside world is cut off, a mysterious man arrives carrying the plague, and both children and adults become mad with murderous rage trying to escape this insane prison once they realize truths and develop their own game plan of revenge. Kids become adults and the grown-ups get childish, tables turn quickly as a duo of two unlikely boys, one an epileptic Prince of a foreign republic, the other literally a 12 year old murderer, yet computer whiz, join forces to kick butt and save the day!

Great characters you will surely love, unlikely friendships and surprising betrayals, clever children and crazed adults, make this story heartwarming, exciting, innovative and very very different. I loved this novel and highly recommend it to all teens and adults who love a creative tale of speculative fiction that both entertains and makes your mind wonder! Two thumbs up, five stars!

What begins as a ferocious satire becomes a tribute to resiliency and the spirit of Semper fi. Sargent Whitemore is a marine veteran of numerous wars in a time when many people truly believe it's the end of days. Part guardian, part con man, and in search of personal redemption, Sarge has started a school for the notorious children of the rich and famous. Ostensibly, this isolated enclave on Mount Clothos will be a Noah's Ark to keep these precious darlings safe through the world's death throes; but Sarge knows that some parents will pay any price to get certain embarrassing offspring out of the public eye. "Killer" Stade a 12 year old hacker who used explosives to off one of his teachers - he never told anyone that the creep was a pederast. Teddy's a younger-son European prince who has grand mal seizures - that casts a dangerous shadow on the reputation of the royal blood. Zander/Alexandra Birch is an unhappy transvestite. Sylvie and her posse are the girls who are famous for being infamous, and with references to hotel fortunes, movie roles, scandals, multiple marriages and shaved heads, it's fairly obvious who served as inspiration for these characters. 100 kids are herded onto a mountaintop into a fortified former monastery, with no access to the internet, or outside communications of any kind.
Except Killer figures Sarge has to have a private link to the outside world, and he is determined to find it; and the last Benedictine resident on the mountain never mentions what killed all the former monks; and Sarge recruited all his permanent staff from the ranks of the desperate, and not all of them are reliable.
Killer and Teddy inadvertently let a monster virus infect the computer base, just as a plague is carried up from the catacombs. Now they are truly isolated, unless Killer can turn his skills to practical use against a binary enemy; and they'll die in droves unless the alcoholic doctor climbs out of his bottle.
The huge surprise of Enclave is the author. Kit Reed is not the 26 year old marine I expected to see after reading five chapters. The bio-pic on the dust jacket shows an elderly New England teacher with parchment skin and eyes that are a Venn diagram of sharp and wise. She must have picked up her street slang from her students. She has previously been nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the James Tiptree Award.