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Book Review: Monster by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Reviews2 Comments
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 Monster is the exciting and explosive first book in a trilogy that will be a sequel series to the superb and super selling Gone Series.

The Gone Series had six books:

  1. Gone which I reviewed here.
  2. Hunger which I reviewed here.
  3. Lies which I reviewed here.
  4. Plague which I reviewed here.
  5. Fear which I reviewed here.
  6. Light which I reviewed here.

In Monster it has been four years since the events at Perdido Beach.

Four years ago, a meteorite hit a Nuclear Power Plant, an invisible dome was created and all the adults disappeared. The children and teenagers that remained trapped inside the dome had a lot to deal with including an alien virus that gave some of them powers. Some used their powers for good and others for selfish or cruel purposes.

Now more pieces from the same meteorite are starting to fall to earth from space.

This time the alien virus make even more dramatic changes to people whom come into contact with it. They are much more powerful than those in the Perdido Beach dome ever were. They will be able to morph into monsters with astonishing powers and then be able to de-morph back into human form. But for each of those infected with the alien virus, one question trumps all others: Will you be a Hero, Villain or Monster?

Most of our main characters are new. Shade Darby saw her mother murdered by Gaia when the Perdido Beach dome came down and barely survived herself. Her father works for the Government studying pieces of the meteorite in space and he has calculated the exact position of the pieces landing.

Shade was powerless when her mother was murdered and is determined never to be so again. In fact, quite the opposite, she wants to gain power to become a hero. Malik Tenerife is in love with Shade, but their relationship ended due to Shade’s obsession with gaining power.

Shade meets Cruz Martinez Rojas at a bus stop. Cruz is a trans character, although physically male, he dresses feminine and feels neither male nor female. Grant explained and dealt with this gender issue expertly. This didn’t come as a surprise, after all The Gone Series had gay, lesbian and bisexual characters.

Justin DeVeere is a promising art student with delusions of grandeur. He is going out with Erin O’Day. Justin comes in contact with one of the pieces of the meteorite and develops powers. In panic, but with some pleasure he makes some mistakes that harm people.

But Justin makes a choice to murder. He decides to name himself Knightmare and tries to make it a persona. He is aiming for people to think of him like The Hulk. Justin is Bruce Banner and Knightmare is the Hulk, something he has no control over. Only he does.

Armo (his nickname, actual name: Aristotle Adamo) is an Adonis, who happens to have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). He has his whole life a head of him, being just 17 years old. That is until the accident and his nonconsensual exposure to one of the pieces of the meteorite.

Vincent Vu hears voices in his head. He possibly has bipolar or schizophrenia. He is exposed to the largest piece and amount of the meteorite an undergoes the most dramatic change. But does this make him unstoppable?

Dekka Talent makes a welcome return and offers fans of The Gone Series the opportunity to find out what happened to other characters from the series. Tom Peaks from the US Government recruits Dekka to help, but all is not what it seems as Dekka quickly discovers.

Whenever any of the characters use their powers, they are aware of being watched by Dark Watchers. These Dark Watchers appear to be using them as a form of entertainment and love death, destruction and devastation.

The description was superb and brilliant. The plot was action packed and compelled the reader to read on. The pacing was ultra fast-paced.

I would highly recommend Monster to anyone and everyone. It’s a crucial and necessary read for any fan of The Gone Series. Those who haven’t read any of The Gone Series could still pick it up, know what’s happened, understand what’s going on and get full enjoyment from the book.

Review soon,

Antony

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Saturday 16 December 2017

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: Lies by Michael Grant

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

Lies is an epic read. Kids are trapped in a Dome and without any adults. In Perdido Beach, Sam and Astrid aren’t getting on. Zil and his human crew continue their campaign against kids with powers, leading them to set a massive fire that threatens to destroy all of Perdido Beach.

Albert continues quietly with his Alberto currency and running the market. Mother Mary struggles with the responsibility of the daycare, her mental health and her upcoming fifteenth birthday.

Brittney comes back to life and digs her way out of her grave. Kids start to report sightings of a Drake, the boy with the whip hand who died in Hunger. Sam is frustrated at the council’s lack of decision and action about the Human Crew’s antics. Sam goes AWOL emotionally traumatised at the thought that Drake, who tortured him, may have returned to the land of the living.

Orsay becomes a self-proclaimed Prophetess, claiming that she can see into parents dreams outside of the barrier. She also claims to be able to predict the future. Orsay gets a protecter called Nerezza, a weird kid that nobody seems to have seen before. The council decide to spread the lie that Orsay is making up her ability to reach kid’s parents on the outside of the dome.

Meanwhile Caine and his followers have become desperate. The last straw for Caine is eating a dead kid. Caine, Dianna and his followers steal a boat to head to an island which holds the promise of food. I particularly enjoyed reading the good side of Dianna, as it added depth to her character.

As Lies continues some of the kids are start to get ill, knocking some of the kids with powers out of play at vital moments. The darkness continues to manipulate kids and events throughout the book.

Lies develops the main characters well – each having their own strengths, weaknesses and motivations. It adds in some new characters as well. Some of my favourite new characters were: Justin & Roger, Peace, Sanjit and Virtue.

As always the plot is fast-paced, mostly showing rather than telling the story. Description is sparse, but enough to give the reader a good visual. Lies gives enough of the back story, so if you haven’t read Gone or Hunger you can still enjoy it without feeling like you’re missing something. But I would still recommend that you read both of them first.

On everyone of the Gone Series books it has a quote from Stephen King ‘I love these books.’ and I completely agree with him. I love these books. Lies is a fantastic read which is available to buy on Amazon.

I can’t wait to start Plague, the next book in the Gone Series.

Review soon,

Antony



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Sunday 2 March 2014

Book Review: Hunger by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
Hunger by Michael Grant Hunger is the second book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have already reviewed here.

In Hunger by Michael Grant the kids are trapped in the dome and they’re hungry. But they’re not the only ones, the darkness is also hungry. While the kids want food, the darkness wants uranium pellets from the Nuclear Power Plant. It plans to use Caine, Diana, Drake & Co. to get the pellets and healer Lana’s abilities to create a body for its self, so that it can leave the Mineshaft.

More kids are developing powers including Duck who can sink into the ground or float into the sky and Hunter who has microwave hands. There’s a growing divide and resentment among those with powers and those without.

Like Gone, there’s some really good ideas. I particularly liked the worms with sharp teeth intentionally designed to bury through skin. The worms are territorial and that their territory happens to be the agricultural fields, full of much needed food for the kids.

In Hunger I kept an eye out for the kid from Coats who came to Perdido Beach in the beginning of Gone. No mention was made, meaning it must have been a rather annoying loose end or plot hole in Gone.

Hunger is not as fast-paced as Gone and no were near as captivating. Despite Hunger being much bigger (more pages) than Gone, the characters and storyline development disappointed me. None of the characters really showed any development in this book and it added very little to the overarching plot.

Hunger by Michael Grant is available to buy on Amazon. Lies is the next book in the Gone Series, which I will be buying because I generally like the idea behind the series, like the characters and hope it will tell more of the overarching storyline.

Review soon,

Antony



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Sunday 15 December 2013
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