Book Review: Gone.

Title: Gone.
Author: Michael Grant.
Series: Yes, #1.
Pages: 559.
Source: Library, Borrowed.
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books.
Published Date: 6/24/08.
Links:
Book Depository
Goodreads

Summary:

"In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young.

There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else..."

My Thoughts:

The Gone series has been out for quite some time now, considering the first book in the series was first published in 2008. Even before I started blogging and reading as much as I do now, I had heard many good things about this series, the characters and Michael Grant's writing.

After I read Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant, and LOVED it, I needed more. I honestly couldn't get enough, and couldn't wait for the sequel of Messenger of Fear to come out in 2015. That was just WAY to long!!

So I did a little bit of research and quickly rediscovered that he had an entirely different series out. Another strange and interesting one, that I could finally get my hands on. Of course I headed to the library right away, and picked up the entire series.

If you don't know what Gone is about, it basically takes place on an island full of kids, who's parents disappeared one day. No one knows where they went or what happened, but a lot of kids start to believe that it has something to do with the nuclear power plant on the island.

Days go by, and no parents are to be found. The older kids start taking a bit of charge, by turning off all the power in the houses, taking care of the little kids, and looking for food and medicine. Who knew there would be so much to do without the help of their parents?

Things haven't gone as smoothly as one would hope, and things aren't getting any easier, when kids from the private school on the other side of the island come down and start to take charge. Things get crazy when they start to create rules and put certain people in charge of various things.

Gone is just the beginning of the end...

Final Verdict:

While the size of this book is a bit intimidating, and it took me a bit longer than usual to get through I enjoyed Gone. But I wish some of the parts wouldn't have been so slow, or dragged out as they were. The first few chapters were crazy intense, the middle was slower and repetitive, but the ending was crazy awesome!

What usually pulls me into a book are the characters. I need characters that have depth and that I can relate to. If characters are two dimensional, the story becomes bland for me. But what pulled me in the most to Gone, was the story, the twists and turns, and the absolutely crazy and scary things that the cast went through!

I mean finding out one day that your parents are gone is bad enough, but when you learn that there are kids out there with super powers, some using it for good and others using it to bully people, is insane! Besides that, once you turn fourteen, to the exact time of your birth, you disappear. No one knows what happens to you, or where you go, but one second you're there, the next you're gone!

(I honestly couldn't imagine going through this kind of situation myself....)

I started reading Gone to feed my hunger for strange and interesting, after I indulged in Messenger of Fear and just couldn't get enough. Gone filled that void with pure intensity! There were so many things happening in this story, so many different characters, and I had so many questions. Some of those questions were answered by the end of this first installment, but some were also left in the air, waiting for the rest of the series to answer them.

I liked Gone, even though the middle of the book was a bit slower. I do plan on continuing the series, but I just don't know exactly when.

Have you read Gone? What did you think?