Gone by Michael Grant

Product Description from Amazon:

In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. 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...

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My Review:

At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book. The descriptions, sometimes pretty out there and scary, were also very vivid. While that was sometimes hard to read, in a way, it also added a bit of edge to the story that you would expect when you understand the circumstances of the setting for Gone.

A community devoid of parents and grandparents – people with more experience compromising and dealing with others in everyday life, and the knowledge to understand more complex situations – can’t be without hardships. As kids, older people are absolutely essential, and without them it doesn’t leave the world in good hands to think the oldest kids in the bunch are just starting puberty.

Add to this the fact that not every child has in an ideal home environment and grows up to have hateful feelings towards peers, and you’ve got some major problems to deal with. And yet, they slowly but surely find their way.

One of the things I loved about this novel was how the kids were able to find some sort of solace in their desperation. The ability they learned to bond with perfect strangers just because they were all in the same boat definitely lended an air of hope to the story, and I think the author (Michel Grant) did a great job balancing out the terrible situations with hope found in the connections the kids had made with one another.

Such as Sam and Astrid, who’s relationship I LOVED. But of course I loved them both as individual characters before they got together, so when they did I “squee’d” for about ten minutes in my excitement! Lol

The only thing that I was slightly bothered about in this novel was the powers. The idea definitely grew on me, but I think at first it felt a little out of nowhere for a while. Guess I was thinking it’d go a different direction, but it ended up being alright in the end.

All in all, the characters were very well written, the book had an interesting premise, and I definitely think I’ll have to read the next book in the series, Hunger, right away!

xoxoxo