Saturday, June 6, 2009

Review: Gone by Michael Grant

Gone is the first book in a YA series by Michael Grant.

Summary from Barnes and Noble:
In the blink of an eye.
Everyone disappears.
Gone.
Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.
The first in a breathtaking saga about teens battling each other and their darkest selves, gone is a page-turning thriller that will make you look at the world in a whole new way.

I admit, that it took me awhile to pick up this book...because I thought the cover looked dumb. Yep, I judged this book by its cover. I didn't know what it was about, but I thought it looked dumb.

I was wrong. I mean, I was right about the cover. I don't like it at all. But I was wrong about the book - I actually really liked it!

The book is not told in first person, but the main focus is on the character of Sam. He's a normal, average guy...except that he isn't. A lot of the kids are hiding secrets, and he's one of them. It was sometimes hard for me to remember that the main characters in the book are all 14 years old. This was a pretty big book (about 550 pages), but it was hard to put it down, so it didn't take too long to get through it! It got creepy in parts, and I really wasn't sure what would happen. I knew it was the first book in a series, so I wasn't sure if anything would get resolved at the end or not. I will say that I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book, Hunger, which just came out. And yep, that one also has a bad cover. Oh well.

Rated: 4/5

10 comments:

  1. The UK cover is all black with Gone in green letters: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gone-Michael-Grant/dp/1405242345/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244299310&sr=8-1

    Makes it look more for boys whereas the above cover looks more for girls perhaps? Haven't read it yet but I have it out of the library.

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  2. I totally agree about the cover! I passed up an opportunity to review the second book, Hunger, because I just didn't care for the cover of Gone or Hunger. Big mistake! I really want to get my hands on Hunger now.

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  3. What was wrong with the cover? The cover was the only reason I started reading it. It gave me an idea of what Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine looked like. I do agree the books are amazing. I didn't think I'd like anything as much as I liked the Twilight Series but I was wrong. Gone is great and I'm almost done with Hunger!

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  4. Yeah, i hate the cover too. None of the people on it really strike me as under fifteen years old, except, maybe, the girl on the back. Is the girl who's supposed to be Astrid Hayden Panettiere?

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  5. the books are great. the cover is what caught my attention and they title, just finished hunger-amazing, can't wait till the third comes out

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  6. I bought Gone from Waterstones only because I needed a third book out of the selected to get in with the offer deal. The cover was plain black with luminous yellow/green writing which looked very interesting to me. I'm glad I picked up Gone that day.

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  7. The book Gone is soooooo good. My friend recommended it to me. At first I was like okay this book looks okay. But when I first started reading the first few pages it was soooooo good.

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