The Loop, Hardcover

A script-ready story with blockbuster potential. -- Kirkus (Starred Review)

Life inside The Loop-the futuristic death row for teens under eighteen-is one long repetitive purgatory. But when news of the encroaching chaos in the outside world reaches the inmates and disorder begins to strike, the prison becomes the least of their worries. Perfect for fans of The Fifth Wave and The Darkest Minds.

It's Luka Kane's sixteenth birthday and he's been inside The Loop for over two years. Every inmate is serving a death sentence with the option to push back their execution date by six months if they opt into Delays, scientific and medical experiments for the benefit of the elite in the outside world.

But rumors of a war on the outside are spreading amongst the inmates, and before they know it, their tortuous routine becomes disrupted. The government issued rain stops falling. Strange things are happening to the guards. And it's not long until the inmates are left alone inside the prison.

Were the chains that shackled Luka to his cell the only instruments left to keep him safe? In a thrilling shift, he must overcome fellow prisoners hell-bent on killing him, the warden losing her mind, the rabid rats in the train tunnels, and a population turned into murderous monsters to try and break out of The Loop, save his family, and discover who is responsible for the chaos that has been inflicted upon the world.

Benjamin Oliver grew up in Scotland and began writing long before he could spell. He attended the University of Stirling where he studied English but spent most of his time trying to write a novel. Benjamin's first short story was published when he was eighteen, and since then he's been published in over a dozen literary magazines and anthologies. Fueled by astounding amounts of coffee, Benjamin completed The Loop -- his first full-length YA manuscript -- in Edinburgh, where he currently lives and teaches English at secondary school.