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Gone Series

Book Review: Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
eve-&-adam-book-cover After being hit by the car, Eve goes flying through the air. The next thing she’s vaguely aware of what’s happening – her mother arguing with the doctor and then being transferred to her rich mother’s pharmaceutical headquarters.

It’s like a private hospital where Eve is the only patient. As she recovers, she’s got sexy Solo pushing her around in a wheelchair. Then she comes to an agreement with her mother to trial software to create the perfect man for herself, who she names Adam.

But there are secrets everywhere. Eve is about to uncover these secrets and then will have to make some difficult choices about what to do with the truth.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. Especially after loving Michael Grant’s Gone Series and knowing that Katherine Applegate is his wife. I hate to give a bad review, but I was disappointed with Eve & Adam.

I just didn’t care about any of the characters. At the beginning of the book as Eve is flying through the air thinking that her life is about to end. Rather than thinking of loved ones, she thinks about an Apple. I felt that the authors had done this conceitedly to make links to Adam & Eve for the purpose of marketing the book. It felt unnatural and therefore Eve felt unreal.

Solo marginally more real, but was a great source of conflict for me. He’s this techno whizz-kid who is described as looking like a surfer, yet doesn’t know some of the fundamental details of his own history. Details that would have been in the computer systems that he so expertly knows after living at the pharmaceutical headquarters for so long.

Aislin, Eve’s best friend did have some believability and depth but was a minor character. It’s always worrying when authors make a minor character more interesting than a main character.

A problem I had with all of the characters is that they conveniently had all of the knowledge, skills, equipment and resources as they needed them. The authors did this by slotting a sentence of backstory in that the reader didn’t know up until the point the characters needed something. It felt like very convenient and lazy storytelling.

The plot was tediously predictable at times verged on being boring. The only reason I carried on reading when I felt bored was because I was half way through the book. I hoped it would get better, have some interesting plot twists, but it didn’t.

Eve & Adam isn’t badly written. The description, dialogue, grammar, punctuation and spelling are all good. It was just the characters and plot that I didn’t enjoy.

Eve & Adam is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 17 September 2014

Book Review: Light by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
light-michael-grant-book-cover Light is the sixth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here. The fourth book was Plague, which I have reviewed here. The fifth book was Fear, which I have reviewed here.

In Light the barrier has become transparent and the outside world peer into the strange world of the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). A world without adults and where some kids have powers. The darkness has taken a body, the child of Caine & Diana, calling herself Gaia.

Gaia is bent on bringing death and destruction; for no other reason than the fact that she’s evil. It’s the EndGame and what an awesome one it is. Some characters will live and others will die. The characters are prey being hunted by Gaia, an enemy who aims to hunt them to extinction.

Light is anything but predictable and so much happens. The plot is as we’ve come to expect from Grant, fast-paced.

Light is thrilling, captivating and a book that was so good I didn’t want it to end. A brilliant finale in the Gone Series.

The ending includes the aftermath, what happens once the barrier comes down. I’m not ashamed to say that some of the final scenes brought a tear to my eye including: Sam & Quinn getting their friendship back to how it was, the ending for the two gay characters – Edilio & Roger, what happened to Brianna (Breeze) & Dahra and Orc’s redemption.

Overall Light is the best in the Gone Series, closely followed by Lies. The Gone Series is worth reading from start to finish. Here are the books in order: Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear and Light.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 10 August 2014

Book Review: Fear by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
fear-michael-grant-cover Fear is fifth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here. The fourth book was Plague, which I have reviewed here.

In Fear the kids are still trapped in the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone) by the impenetrable dome and things are about to get a lot worse.

Astrid is living alone in the wilderness after events in Plague. But after noticing a black stain rising over the dome, she returns to Lake Tramonto and to Sam. If the dome goes completely black it will leave the kids in the dark. With no sunlight how will they grow food? Kids will panic, have accidents, starve and quickly die.

Meanwhile King Caine is continuing his reign of Perdido Beach with psychopath Penny. But when she goes too far he is forced to make a difficult choice.

Penny switches sides joining Drake and the Darkness. The darkness is after Dianna’s unborn baby. Why does it want the baby and will it succeed? Little Pete is surprisingly back as something. Pete will discover his new true nature and so will the reader.

Fear starts with Connie Temple outside the dome. This outside perspective adds another dimension to the story.

Astrid, Dianne, Little Pete and Caine characters developed well. This development gave the characters a strong sense of realism. Sex between some characters was used to indicate the characters maturity and the importance of their relationships to one another. These scenes were an expected progression and written appropriately for a YA book.

In Fear no new kids develop new powers. This was a missed opportunity to develop the storyline. The storyline was captivating as always, with a great dome-related twist at the end. However the ending was anticlimactic and left open. The reader had to many unanswered questions at the end to feel satisfied.

Overall Fear is a great instalment in the Gone Series. It’s good to know that it isn’t the last in the series. Fear is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Thursday 10 July 2014

Book Review: Plague by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
plague-michael-grant-cover Plague is the fourth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here.

Wow, this series just keeps getting better and better. In Plague kids are trapped in a dome; it’s a world without adults, and normal has crashed as burned… as the cover states. It’s hard times in the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). A disease is spreading which causes kids to to literally cough up their lungs, with Healer Lana powerless to do anything. Little Pete has caught the disease, meaning he’s out of action and in his usual own world. Does this make him more vulnerable to the darkness?

Bugs are eating kids from the inside out and are impervious to Sam’s destructive light. Unkillable psychopath Drake/Brittney is still on the loose and up to no good. Sam & Astrid are arguing, while they try to deal with the problems.

Plague is fast paced, uses clear description, characters reflections and action to move the story along, as all the previous books in the series have. But what makes this the best book of the series (I’ve read so far) is that it takes characters to much darker places. It does this by sticking them between a rock and a hard place, giving them difficult choices.

So much happens in this book, it is an essential read in the Gone Series. That said it does focus more on character development to the detriment of the overarching plot. To give you an idea of how much actually happens, without giving too many spoilers away, here are just some of the main events: Lana connects with someone, Caine gets it on with Diana, Caine helps to save Perdido Beach, Albert is nearly murdered, Jack grows – becoming more of an action man, the Human Crew are disbanded, Astrid commits the biggest sin in her mind as a Christian, Orc the useless drunk seeks redemption and much much more.

Plague ends with Sam taking some of the kids to a lake and Caine becoming self-appointed King of the kids who choose to stay in Perdido Beach. Albert, Lana and Howard are allowed to go between the Lake and Perdido Beach as they wish. Plague has a few interesting twists, in terms of who goes with Sam and who stays with Caine.

I only had two gripes with Plague. First, was that Sam’s character development was sacrificed, for the sake of other characters in the book. He spent most of his time off searching for a lake, with a few missed opportunities to develop his character.

The second gripe was purely presentational; the copy I ordered off Amazon didn’t have the same illuminous page edging as the others in my collection. While only minor, it is disappointing that my copies wont all match on my bookshelf. Especially considering that the brightly titled covers and page edging were what caused me to pick up Gone in a local supermarket.

Plague was so absorbing, that I often lost track of time while reading it. I enjoyed Plague so much, that as soon as I’d finished it, I immediately picked up Fear (the next book in the series) and started reading.

Plague by Michael Grant is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



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Thursday 10 April 2014
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