Plague (The Gone Series)

Boy, the covers are cheesy, though....

Well, stock in the Gone series has gone back up. After a tepid swim with Lies, Plague is back kickin' ass.

I love a good story about a plague. But strangely enough, the fatal flu wasn't what I flipped over. It was the absolutely disgusting parasitic worms that infected several characters and would literally eat their own hosts. Goodness, I think Grant should have gone into even more detail about those. It was stomach-turning and awesome at the same time. (An aside: Strangely, I have no stomach at all for scary movies, but do love the book versions.)

Back to the book: Albert, the self-made Trump of the FAYZ, has realized that the water levels of the reservoir are dropping dangerously low. Even with one gallon per person rations, the water supply isn't going to last long enough. He sends out an expedition made up of Sam, Dekka, Taylor, and Jack to search the outer boundaries of the FAYZ for additional water sources. While they explore their world, the kids at Perdido Beach must deal with both a devastating flu and a case of parasitic worms - that hatch and turn into almost indestructible and very hungry insects.

But, of course, that's not all. (Because it's not a Gone book unless one hundred other plots lines are happening, right?) Drake and Brittany are back - working for and against the Darkness (a.k.a. the Gaigaphage). What is left of the hate-group, the Human Crew, have beaten Albert to a pulp. Edilio is on his deathbed with the flu, and all hell, of course, breaks out.

Let's just say Caine comes back.

My review? This book really took time to explore Pete Ellison's mind - he's the five year old autistic boy who is responsible for the FAYZ. And he's the center of this whole mystery, so it's terribly exciting to see how he perceives his world. There's a lot of close-up time with Diana, and she absolutely will be the driving force  behind why readers will flock to the fifth book of the series. Character development is still a bit slow, given all the pages, and I'm particularly saddened that I don't really care much for Sam anymore than when I started. However, as always, the storyline is non-stop adrenaline that doesn't let up - or give you time to reflect on plausibility, character development, etc.

Grade: B+

N.B. The covers for these books are absolutely horrible.

Keeping the Moon

I don't know why these shorts have to be this short either.

by Sarah Dessen

Keeping the Moon is about a teenaged girl who finds some solace in a resort town when she lives with her Aunt Mira for a summer. Having once been fat, Colie can't shed her own ugly self-esteem - not that any of her classmates have let her either.

In the town of Colby, North Carolina, Colie lands a job at a local dinner - aptly names "Last Chance." Here she is able to closely observe friendship between two other girls: Morgan and Isabel. While she takes orders and folds napkins, Colie learns how to be a friend herself, how to accept others' differences, and how to accept herself for the wonderful person she is.

This was my first Sarah Dessen book, and I am ashamed it took me so long. My sister has been reading Dessen for years. Regardless, I didn't want to read it, but when a self-professed non-reader finished it in mere hours, I knew I had to give Dessen a chance.

This was a soft, slow, meandering novel. There were lessens learned and lots of feel-good moments. I enjoyed it a great deal. The character development was superb, and I have been missing that. I surmise that sci-fi character development is a tad bit more shallow since the focus is on the what and how and not necessarily on the who. Anyway, I've been all sci-fi, all the time lately, and getting to really know and connect with a character was great.

Grade: B

Lies

by Michael Grant

In the third installment of the Gone series, way too many things happen... So it's business as usual for the world of the FAYZ.

• Sam has ceded control over to the council: A council that is much to slow to make decisions or take action.
• The Human Crew forms; it's a freak-hate group.
• A prophetess named Orsay is communicating with those outside the FAYZ.
• Mary Terrafino, who cares for the children in the nursery, has become overburdened and under-medicated. 
• Astrid and Sam argue.
• Oh, and Brittany - the girl who died during the nuclear power plant fight - comes back from the dead.
• And Drake, too.

Listen, tons of other stuff develops, too, but I read this book two weeks ago. Grade-wise, I would probably give this a C+. Too much happens, and the storyline becomes burdensome with so many different angles to it. However, there were a few redeeming qualities. Astrid's character is developed more. She's conflicted and arrogant. In a way, she's one of the better developed characters. Grant has gone about giving this goody-goody such sharp edges that make her hard to like. Unlike, strangley, the bad-girl Diana, with whom (I assume) most readers probably empathize. I found the whole storyline with Mary Terrafino to be terribly long and boring. For a girl suffering from way too much responsibility, depression, and an eating disorder, I found it hard to even want to pay attention to her.

So, all in all, this book had its slow moments. But in the end, it's about the mystery of the Darkness and Little Pete. What does this five-year old autistic child have to do with the FAYZ?

Grade: C+

The Compound

by S.A. Bodeen

What if the world had been nuked? 

What if your family had an escape plan? 

What if your family had a well-stocked fallout shelter? 

What would happen when things went wrong?

Eli has lived for six years in his family’s compound. An unending compound with room for the whole family, filled with enough supplies to last a nuclear winter of fifteen years. But the time for Eddy has not been one of relief, because for the last six years his identical twin, Eddy, has been dead. Left outside. Because of Eli.

For six years he has not cut his hair. He has not touched anyone. He has cocooned himself from life and from himself, just as much as the compound has cocooned the whole family. After all this time, the strangeness of his life underground doesn’t seem shocking.  But then Eli finally makes the choice to enter his brother’s room in the compound. And his world is torn apart.

Review:

Excellent! I would actually say that the ideas presented in this book were more disturbing than the violence of The Hunger Games or the mercy killing in This World We Live In. The pacing is fast and exciting, and despite the brevity of the book, I developed a connection with the characters, especially Eli (narrator) and his older sister, Lexie.

I have a few complaints. First, this book should have been longer. There are a lot of ethical issues that could have been delved into deeper. Second, had the plot been more developed, it would have given more time for Eli to discover more about the compound and his father’s insane plans. Hence, as a reader, I would have learned more. I love scientific background stories.

Grade: B+

Hunger (sequel to Gone)

by Michael Grant.

One day all the adults disappeared, and only children under fifteen were left in San Perdido, California. One day an impenetrable dome surrounded the town. One day all the children learned they were on their own, in a new world: the FAYZ.

Three months after the FAYZ occurred, life is still the same: the adults are gone, some children have superpowers, and Caine and Drake are still the menacing enemies. But now they are hungry.

As children go hungry, tempers flare, and a rift grows between the "normals" and the "moofs" (mutant freaks).

While Sam Temple, the protagonist, tries to create order out of chaos, find food, and mediate squabbles and fights, Caine - a cruel, power-hungry (with super powers to boot) kid from Coates Prep School - devises a way to topple Sam from his position of leadership. He decides to take over the local power plant.

But Caine's not the only enemy now. Sam and his friends are now fully aware of "The Hunger" a creature that lives underground and is growing more powerful and evil...

My Review:

Perhaps it's because I've read close to thousand pages of this series in the past two weeks, or perhaps it's the actual novel, but I felt like there was some real character development in this book. Astrid, Sam's girlfriend, and Edilio, Alberto, and Quinn (normals who are Sam's friends) become more interesting and create more depth in this fast-paced plot.

Once again, Grant's story was exciting and compelling - although for a brief spell (pages 200 to 300 or so) I lost interest.

Ethically, the book becomes more interesting as character have to deal with prejudices and mistrust between the moofs and the normals.

Each time you think you're unpeeling the mystery of the FAYZ, you find out there is another layer that you didn't know existed, and these mysteries have me chomping at the bit to read the next book: Lies.

Grade: B+

Gone

By Michael Grant

Gone is touted as a modern-day Lord of the Flies. It's not that good. By that I mean, you won't be weighed down with any heavy ethical issues. No guilt for Piggy.

But it is good fun. And like all teenaged fun, it's best not to have the adults around.

San Perdido, California. One minute - normal life. The next? All individuals over the age of 15 have disappeared. There one second, gone the next.

Sam Templeton, a quiet 14 year old boy, becomes the leader who helps band the local kids together - fighting the bullies and also the rich, private school students who come down from their mountain to try to gain control of the town. The young children must be cared for, fights resolved, and a community must be governed.

In all honesty, there's enough to that story line to develop an engaging read.

But Grant gives us more. Along with the disappearance of adults comes the children's development of super powers. And the impenetrable domed barrier that prevents anyone from leaving the area. Oh, and did I forget to mention the mutating animals?

Throughout all the trials, the characters and the reader struggle to determine how? and why?

Honestly, that's a lot of ingredients for one story. And a lot of authors (especially if they were a seventh grader) would lose control of everything. But Grant does a good job tying it all together, juggling it all to help create a compelling mystery that drives the reader forward. I imagine that the reader's hunger to know the mystery is comparable to the series Lost (which I have never watched), Defying Gravity (awesome sci-fi series that was cancelled), or Battlestar Galactica (Best. Series. Ever.).

Of course, all this action and mystery has to take a toll on some aspect of the novel and it does: character development is rather shallow. But you'll forgive the book for this because you don't care so much for the characters as for the strange events, the mutations, the super powers, the fights, and the mystery. The fast pacing of the story line won't give you a moment to reflect on the weaknesses of the book anyway.

If you liked Hunger Games, super power stories, action-packed books, The Girl Who Owned a City, I Am Number Four, you will like Gone.

Grade: B+