Plague by Michael Grant

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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