School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Although only 15, Will Drake has escaped from three of the roughest juvenile prisons on Earth. Now he is sent to the Rig, a "rehabilitation facility" in an old oil rig in the middle of the Arctic Ocean that holds some of the most violent juvenile offenders in the world. The Rig is operated by the Alliance, an enormously powerful global institution that runs the world in sinister, shadowy ways. Drake is determined to escape, but besides being in the middle of an ocean, he also has another problem: the GPS tracker strapped to his arm. And what about those glowing lights in the ocean? And where exactly do some of the rougher boys disappear to for days on end? There is definitely more to the Rig than meets the eye. Drake and his friends are realistically flawed characters. Although they are all convicted criminals, readers will root for them. The young convicts who work as the villains' henchmen tend to be rather one-note characters, but the true villains are the warden and the prison guards, and they are wonderfully complex and evil. While the ending sets things up for a series, the book is satisfying on its own. VERDICT Readers who are a bit tired of dystopian stories but who crave action will find this very much to their liking.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
The Rig, a floating juvenile detention center, is inescapable--but no prison has been able to hold fifteen-year-old Drake, who's determined to get home to his sick mother. When prisoners start acting strangely, Drake discovers the Rig may not be just a prison. Drake's martyrdom is a familiar trope, but the dark and sinister world of the Rig is well developed. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In the near future, an incarcerated teen with a reputation for escape attempts is moved to a new, maximum-security facility called the Rig, an oil-drilling platform in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, now converted to use as a prison. Fifteen-year-old William Drake is a likable, tough-talking narrator who hails from London, the son of an African-American father and a Polish mother. True to hard-boiled type, Drake keeps to himself and resists making friends, even as he makes enemies of the worst baddies by defending weaker kids from them and is won over by the Rig's kindly psychologist, Dr. Lambros. Flavoring the third-person narration with some great one-liners ("She had the voice of a lifelong smoker thrown in a blender"), Ducie takes his time setting the stage for the action-packed second half of the novel, with Drake carefully plotting an escape that involves the skills of his hacker cellmate, Tristan, and the knowledge of Irene, a fellow prisoner who hints at a conspiracy that eventually blows up in their faces. All the elements of a great thriller are heresinister villains, a stoic hero with a heart of gold, even mutated sharks. If some of these details seem a bit familiar to seasoned action-adventure fans, there is still plenty to keep them engaged, and the open-ended conclusion suggests there may be more to come. A solid genre outing. (Thriller. 13-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Welcome to the Rig, the juvenile equivalent of Alcatraz. Located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, this former oil rig now houses the worst juvenile offenders and boasts a reputation of being inescapable. It is for the latter feature that 15-year-old Will Drake is sentenced there, having previously broken out of three of the world's most secure facilities. Inmates are outfitted with wristwatch-style trackers and monitored by gun-toting guards. It is, in short, Will's greatest challenge. There are some familiar characters here: the holier-than-thou warden, the guard with blood lust, the puny computer genius. Even so, the story comes off as anything but stale. Ducie skillfully builds tension and smears it with a liberal coat of blood and grime. Will's lurking suspicion that the Rig is hiding something leads to a supernatural reveal that will please dystopia and sci-fi lovers, ramping up the story's danger and excitement. Sympathetic, though not overly complex, characters will keep readers invested, if the atmosphere, intrigue, and action don't. But they will. It's inescapable.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2010 Booklist
