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A review by vikingwolf
The Traitors by Tom Becker
3.0
Adam kissed his best friend's girl and was responsible for Danny being kicked out of school. He has Betrayed and now he has been snatched from his home to a high security prison to serve hundreds of years for his crime. But even amongst other criminals, there is one ready to betray them all to the guards for a ticket home. Who can you trust?
This was a decent YA dystopian read where a prison in a different time dimension punishes kids for betraying friends and family by locking them in prison. There is a Colditz air to it with the Tally Ho escape committee which Adam keeps getting on the wrong side of, and the evil Gestapo like guard of Mr Pitt, making everyone's lives a misery. Adults who have read [b:The Colditz Story|1079482|The Colditz Story (Cassell Military Paperbacks)|P.R. Reid|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335370700s/1079482.jpg|1066211] will recognise the scenes in this book especially the big escape plan. The prison is grim and time passes very slowly when you have a long sentence here. The side characters were interesting and I liked the whole set up of the Dial prison and the way it worked. It was nicely thought out and developed. It was good enough to keep you interested in what was happening and see if anyone could find a way to escape.
I did feel it was a bit obvious about the identity of the bandage boy and who the traitor actually was but it didn't really detract from the story. Other things like echo did surprise me. It was a fast paced book that always had something happening and it kept you guessing what was coming next.
But I really am so mad at how the book ended. All throught the book, Adam was devoted to his friends and was determined not to escape until his friends had the same chance. He risks everything to find a way for everyone to escape and he would NEVER in a million years have made the choice that he did at the end. It was such a massive let down that I almost deducted a star from my rating. I really really hate it when a good book is spoiled by the ending and sadly this one left a sour taste in my mouth.
This was a decent YA dystopian read where a prison in a different time dimension punishes kids for betraying friends and family by locking them in prison. There is a Colditz air to it with the Tally Ho escape committee which Adam keeps getting on the wrong side of, and the evil Gestapo like guard of Mr Pitt, making everyone's lives a misery. Adults who have read [b:The Colditz Story|1079482|The Colditz Story (Cassell Military Paperbacks)|P.R. Reid|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335370700s/1079482.jpg|1066211] will recognise the scenes in this book especially the big escape plan. The prison is grim and time passes very slowly when you have a long sentence here. The side characters were interesting and I liked the whole set up of the Dial prison and the way it worked. It was nicely thought out and developed. It was good enough to keep you interested in what was happening and see if anyone could find a way to escape.
I did feel it was a bit obvious about the identity of the bandage boy and who the traitor actually was but it didn't really detract from the story. Other things like echo did surprise me. It was a fast paced book that always had something happening and it kept you guessing what was coming next.
But I really am so mad at how the book ended. All throught the book, Adam was devoted to his friends and was determined not to escape until his friends had the same chance. He risks everything to find a way for everyone to escape and he would NEVER in a million years have made the choice that he did at the end. It was such a massive let down that I almost deducted a star from my rating. I really really hate it when a good book is spoiled by the ending and sadly this one left a sour taste in my mouth.