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Sam Astrid & little Pete

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

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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