Review: No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

No Safety in Numbers (No Safety in Numbers #1) 
By: Dayna Lorentz
Release Date: May 29, 2012
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Reviewed by: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

My Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Life As We Knew It meets Lord of the Flies in a mall that looks just like yours.
A biological bomb has just been discovered in the air ducts of a busy surbanban mall. At first nobody knows if it's even life threatening, but then the entire complex is quarantined, people start getting sick, supplies start running low, and there's no way out. Among the hundreds of trapped shoppers are four teens.
These four different narrators, each with their own stories, must cope in unique, surprising styles, changing in ways they wouldn't have predicted, trying to find solace, safety, and escape at a time when the adults are behaving badly.
This is a gripping look at people and how they can - and must - change under the most dire of circumstances.
And not always for the better.

I had really high expectations for this book. The whole premise of a bomb in a mall with unsuspecting people, it just something that could happen in real life and I love to read these kinds of books. The mixture of the fictional with reality that freaks me out and it cause me to get sucked into the story line. However, this was not the case with No Safety in Numbers.

My first complaint was the multiple POVs. I understand that the author was trying to portray different views and show how they all tied together. However, I feel like I had to play the guessing game at the beginning of each chapter to remember which character was which and what was their story.

The next issue is the characters themselves. Maybe it because I'm in my mid-twenties  and the characters are all teenagers and teenagers are typically self-absorbed but I found them all to being really selfish and didn't want to pay attention to authority. Unlike what the synopsis said, the adults weren't behaving badly. They just didn't know what exactly happened and how to deal with the consequences as well they didn't want pandemonium on their hands if they blurt out everything that was happening without no answers. Which is exactly what happened whenever a teen somehow told a secret they overheard or were entrusted with. Each character had their own hidden agenda and weren't looking out for what was best as a whole.

Overall, the book had potential but it just wasn't executed well enough. I am curious to see what happens next but I may just go online and search for spoilers than waste any more time on these teens.