Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith

I read this book last year, and it was such a page turner that I literally burnt out the light bulb in my reading lamp.  It's the first novel in a series of who-knows-how-many yet, and it's so good that I think about when the next installment will come in at least 3 times a week and like I said, IT'S BEEN A YEAR since I read it.  Now that's staying power.  Lockdown: Escape from Furnace is a story of a kid who is accused of killing his best friend- a crime he didn't commit.  While this kid isn't exactly the poster child of innocence, he's also not a cold blooded killer, but that doesn't matter in a world where there is a zero-tolerance policy towards young offenders.  He gets taken to a prison deep underground called Furnace, where he has to worry about other inmates, vicious gangs and malicious guards.  If that's not enough to worry about, when the blood lights come on, he's also got the monsters coming into inmates' cells and taking them away.  The only thing keeping him alive down there is the hope for escape, something everyone says is completely impossible and surely fatal.  You can't help but wonder during this whole thing, how the world came to be this way, throwing kids underground, without any intent for them to ever see the light of day again.  You won't want to put this one down.