Gone, by Michael Grant

This book was another recommendation by the Lateiners. These guys are a really great site if you're looking for some cool new reads, I got to tell ya. ^_~ Anyway, I think this book was pretty neat and I wanted to tell you a bit about it and why I liked it. So...

Well, to tell you the truth, it kind of reminded me of Maze Runner. Where kids have to act like grown-ups and survive in a new society. The difference is that it's in the "real world" where everyone knows how the world is supposed to work, as opposed to the Gladers in Maze, who all forget their former lives.

It all starts when all the adults and anyone over the age of 15 disappears off the face of the Earth. Or just off the face of Perdido Beach in California. No explanation or fireworks. Everyone just disappears and only the little kids and young teenagers are left to fend for themselves. And when you turn 15 years old, you'll vanish as well! Not only that, the Internet, cellphones and all televisions stop working, so they're cut off from the rest of the world. And there's a strange, impenetrable barrier that wraps around the city limits, so they can't even escape. Oh, and add to all of these scary facts that some kids have started to discover superpowers, and some animals are mutating in very weird ways? I think you've got yourself a very interesting story here.

I liked all the characters in the book. Nearly everyone gets a little bit of the story to tell, so you get inside their head a little bit. The personality of the main guy, Sam, kind of reminded me of Harry Potter, in that he's kind of the reluctant hero, but he's noble and shows natural leadership and tries to do the right thing. Characters like Albert and Mary are also neat, because these teens are selfless and only think about the needs of others. Albert runs the local McDonalds and feeds everyone Big Macs, while Mary runs the day care center and looks after all the children who aren't able to take care of themselves, like babies and preschoolers. These people are big heroes to me.

Some parts were... okay. Like the fact that there were a lot of mean bullies out there. And not that the bullies caused all of it, but there was a lot of blood and gore and pain in this story. There was a very interesting sub-plot about this girl Lana, who at the time of every adult's disappearance was with her Grandpa in a car on the highway in the desert, and with Gramps gone she gets into a major car-crash and nearly dies! Luckily, she discovers she has the power to heal herself, but only after a long, long time. It tortured me to read about how much pain she had to endure. Sheesh!

The end of the book was very open-ended. I knew ahead of time that this was a series, so I know there's more to the story here. Still, I think it was a good place to end this part of the tale. I don't know how long it'll take me to want to read the sequel. Hunger, is it called? Well anyway, I think I'll take a little break from the series. I'm not that crazy about it. But it's good enough that I can recommend it to you.