This post-apocalyptic page-turner will keep you reading with non-stop action and spunky characters. In this near-future thriller, there has been a virus that was contained by building a wall around the city (Austin, TX) to create the Q; a Quarantine zone that trapped everyone exposed to the virus inside. There is never a dull moment after Lennon, son of the Senator who is running for President of the United States, gets kidnapped and pushed out of an airplane to parachute into the Q. Challenges abound as Maisie, who was born inside the Q, tries to get Lennon to the gate before his time runs out and he is stuck in the Q forever. Hand this to reluctant readers or fans of The Hunger Games and watch them get drawn in.

The Q is a decent young adult science fiction/dystopian book. It bogged down a bit in places but overall, it was a good read.

The Good:

. This book was fun, fast-paced and easy to read!
. I appreciate that it is a standalone! Also, a dystopia! I feel like we haven’t gotten many of those in the past decade, so it’s good to see some new dystopian YA books!
. The characters were fun! I liked their banter and their personalities.


The not great:

. For some reason, I kind of lost interest at some point?? Idk why… 😕
. The romance between Maisie and Lennon developed too quickly for me. Sure, it was still a slow-burn, since they only get together at the end of the book, but I couldn’t forget the fact that they only knew each other for like 1 day lol.

The Q, by author Amy Tintera, is a story that the author created because of the pandemic. Texas is a quarantine zone after a deadly international pandemic almost two decades ago. The virus, which had a 40% mortality rate, caused the government to build a massive quarantine zone around Austin and stuck all the sick people within the walls. Some people who were not sick, tried to escape, so, the government build walls around Austin. The virus did not provide long-term immunity to people who got infected with it.

So basically, all these people in the quarantine zone kept repetitively getting sick. And of course, the virus kept mutating and no real vaccine has been created to stop the spread. Because of the animosity between Q and the US government, they basically created their own laws governed by two gang families: the Spencer family in the north which is split into 4 parts and the Lopez family in the south. The animosity between the families created a "neutral zone" between the north and south.

The story alternates between 18-year old Maisie Royas, who was born in The Q, and 19-year old Lennon Pierce, a teen who has been kidnapped numerous times over the course of his life. Some people, like Maisie, who was born in the Q, have had to have numerous organs replaced with artificial organs. But, she has a secret which only a few know about. Meanwhile, Lennon, the son of a Presidential candidate who wants to tear down the walls, is one again being kidnapped in Georgia, the State, not the country, and dumped off in the middle of the quarantine zone in the middle of Texas.

The worst part is that there are certain people in the DC swamp who want to bomb the Q, and wipe out everyone who lives there. Which makes Lennon's presence all that more interesting. He's also given 48 hours to get out of the zone, or he won't be able to leave. Lennon may be a target for one political party, or the answer to saving the Q and everyone who lives there. Maisie and Lennon end up teaming up to not only try to find a way to get their supplies to the south which has been stopped, but to also stop a brewing war between members of the Spencer's and disgruntled members of the South.

I think the best thing I can say about Lennon is that he doesn't take himself seriously which is likely why he gets into so much trouble. He's a literal trouble magnet. Meanwhile, Maisie has been trained most of her life to become the next leader. She's a strong voice about a disturbing faction that believes war is the only way to survive in this world. I also loved Hadley Lopez who is the voice of Q's Radio Quarantine as well as Val Spencer who sees that she's the voice of reason when it comes to her family, and helping Maisie help Lennon leave the Q. I was also pleasantly surprised at who the mysterious Queso is.

Two things: The majority of Latino's do not like being called Latinx, so stop it! There is only a small minority of people who created this word. Try going to little Havana in Miami and calling the people Latinx. The Q is apparently not a standalone if you read what's posted on the publishers web page via Edelweiss. It also says the next installment is planning to be released later in 2023.

Lennon Pierce is the son of U.S. Presidential candidate, Senator Camden Pierce. He's a bit of a wild child (he's been arrested a few times for things like drag racing) and doesn't seem to take life too seriously. That's about to change when he's kidnapped, put on a place and strapped into a parachute and then pushed out. He's fortunate enough to think through his actions and pull the ripcord to engage the parachute. He is not so fortunate, however, in his place of landing. The intention of the kidnappers is to send Lennon into The Q - once the state of Texas, now a walled off quarantine zone from the last pandemic.

There's only one gate in or out of The Q and no one is allowed to come out because they carry the virus, and no one goes in willingly. Lennon's been given an antidote which will protect him for 48 hours - meaning he has two days to get from the southern-most point in The Q to the gate at the northern point. The territory inside The Q is divided into sections with each area controlled by rival families and no one gets along with anyone else. Lennon will have to navigate through the territories - and he knows no one.

Enter Maisie Rojas - the seventeen-year-old daughter of one of the family leaders who has been groomed to take over her family territory. Maisie finds an instant attraction to Lennon and is willing to help him navigate The Q to get to the gate. But finding an ally is only the first step - they still have to get past the other families!

This was a very fast-paced story. A constant 'out of the frying pan into the fire' adventure. I find it a little difficult to pinpoint the genre. The 'Q' setting has a post-apocalyptic, scifi feel, but it's window dressing to the 'get from point A to point B' story. This could be The Great Race or a lost tourist in Tanzania. The scifi-ness was almost incidental.

This reads more like an adventurous romance. The romance is laid on pretty thick and there was never a doubt in my mind how this was going to end. The journey isn't so much will Lennon make it to the gate in time, it's 'what new obstacle will be thrown in his way?' and 'will he and Maisie admit they like one another?'.

I did not remember that Maisie was only 17, but saw that note as I was going back to review some incidents in preparation of writing this review. This surprised me. I really thought that both she and Lennon were mid-20's given how they acted and reacted. I can't help but wonder if the only reason to put in print that she's a teenager was so that this would be classified as a YA novel (I see that author Amy Tintera is known to be a YA author). I was recently listening to a podcast in which the hosts talked about how so many books feature 'teens' simply to make the book a YA book even though the characters act five to ten years older. I hadn't encountered this until now, but I also haven't read a lot of YA recently.

Overall, I enjoyed this, it moved along quickly and was an easy read, though I did find it a bit 'simple' and highly predictable. A target audience might be YA reluctant readers?

Looking for a good book? The Q by Amy Tintera is a Young Adult, action/romance with a slightly scifi setting. It's a good read for teens at the beach.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

A fun and interesting post-pandemic world and teen story. The author note about the timing of the book is crazy, thanks COVID. Glad that Amy's post-pandemic isn't what we are in now.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC of this!

It was a fast paced thriller in a post-pandemic (but not this pandemic!) quarantine zone. I had a lot of fun reading it, it felt like it flew by. The characters were interesting and the ending was really well done.

“The Q” is a walled post-quarantine zone that was once Austin Texas where Maisie Rojas has lived her entire life. She is also apart of one of the most notorious families that keeps things running smoothly. One day, a plane drop a mysterious person into the walls of “The Q”…something that has never and should never happen as it isn’t only dangerous for the person dropped, but for everyone inside.

It is soon discovered the mystery person is the son of a US Presidential candidate. His father’s enemies kidnapped him and dropped him inside the walls as retaliation. He is quickly given a shot to help him fight off the illnesses inside but it’s up to Maisie to get him outside within 48 hours or everyone will be in danger.

With a ton of action, a great storyline, witty commentary, and a drop of romance, this Dystopian is one worth your time. I loved our main character Maisie, and I loved even more that they made her such a baddie. She had no problem running straight into danger to protect those she loves…and those she MAY come to love.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Children's/Crown Books for Young Readers for this eARC for review.

3.75/5 stars.

Although I have yet to finish this (I've also purchased my own digital copy), I'm going to be taking a pause on this book. Although I knew the basis of the plot while requesting/going in to reading, I am still not in the right mindset to read this story. It has a great premise and possibility, but some of the character dynamics feel a bit flat, as well as my personal experiences working during the pandemic (I worked in the Infectious Disease Laboratory for the major metropolitan hospital in my region on overnights......yeah I didn't have a fun two years.), I just can't seem to enjoy this the way it's meant to be. I plan to come back and finish this eventually, but it's just not meant to be at the moment.

A sci-fi dystopian entry from Amy Tintera that is perfect for fans of her other series. While I personally enjoyed Reboot more than this, Tintera definitely knows her genre and produces solid books.

**Thanks goes to NetGalley for this ARC! This review is my opinion**

Amy Tintera's "Reboot" series is still one of my Top fave science-fiction YA series. I can re-read those books any day! So, I had high hopes for "The Q", which may have been the problem. This was a good book, especially with COVID still in our presence, but I just felt like something was missing. That extra "umph!". I loved the banter between the two main characters, and they did grow on me, but as I said, I needed that spark that I had in Amy's other series. I didn't finish the book for that reason, but I am willing to give it another shot in the future!

This was okay. It was a quick read and fun. But after living through an actual pandemic, there were parts that were right on the nose and other parts that were a biiiiit far fetched. But I liked it overall.

I do think I would have really loved this if I had read it as a teenager. The nostalgia I felt while reading this definitely felt weird since obviously, this is a new novel. Unfortunately, the nostalgia wasn't enough for me to absolutely love this. The concept was interesting: a world where a pandemic caused a divide in the United States resulting in cities being turned into being completely locked down. It felt like it was the first book in a series but I'm not seein a sequel anywhere. If there was one, I would read it just to get a few more answers.

Great concept for a dystopian novel. We can easily imagine how an effort to contain a virulent disease could lead to quarantine zones that would turn into walled-off, self-ruling cities. We've got some solidly unique elements here - especially the warlord/gangster structure. The plot is well paced and action oriented. Compelling.

*Amazon review is still pending approval*

Thank you to the publisher for a review copy!

I had been so genuinely excited to read this book that it had been on my "most anticipated" list even before receiving an early copy for review. I mean, c'mon, enemies trying to escape a quarantine zone together? Hell yes. I love a solid quest in a great setting and I could feel the characters' tension from the synopsis alone.

Unfortunately, this story fell flat. While enjoyable, it also wasn't as exciting as promised - the character development was quite shallow, the quest was quite tame. I finished the book feeling bored, disappointed, and annoyed at the characters' illogical decisions. And I haven't thought about it much since.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's, Crown Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All the views and opinions expressed are purely my own and not affiliated with any brand.

This is a well thought and and fast paced novel that any fan of dystopians will enjoy!

A fast paced dystopian novel that never lets up. I really enjoyed the dual pov's of Mazie & Lennon (I kept wondering if Lennon's parents named him after John Lennon!) The story takes place 20 years after a global pandemic (sounds familiar) in the Q (The quarantine zone) formerly known as Austin Texas. Texas is split into sectors: The South, The North, West Spencer, East Spencer & the Vals (the former four sections run by the Spencer Siblings) Mazie's father the second in charge to the leader, Lopez, of the South. Lennon is the son of the future president of the US, who is thrown into the Q and is at risk for being infected by the virus if he doesn't receive a temporary antidote. From that moment on, it's a race against time for Mazie to get Lennon to the North Gate & to safety, while also obtaining the necessary medical supplies to help the people in the South. I truly hope their is a sequel to this book. There were many storylines left open: how did the pandemic start? why is Austin/The Q the only place walled off? How is the rest of the world? What is going to happen between Lennon and Mazie? Who are the "8" and why are they and Mazie so special? Still pick up a copy if you want non stop action, along with some laughs!

I enjoyed the concept but the book went a little too fast for me, I felt like I needed more time to really understand the characters and their choices. Simple, quick, fun.

Great dystopian novel! I know my high school students are going to gobble this one up, and I predict it will be super popular in my library.