Gone by Micheal Grant (Gone #1)

Title: Gone

Author: Micheal Grant

Rating: 9/10

Aaaaaah this book... soo many things to say...soo many feelings....lets just say it was an emotional rollercoaster ride ! First of all... if your looking for a short quick read that will leave you complete and satisfied this is definitely NOT what you want! Because Gone is one of those books that will leave you with many things unexplained ,make you daydream about all sorts of bizarre nightmarish situations in the middle of class, and definitely leave you pining for the next book! Which is tough because when you don't have all the free time in the world ...and theres SIX BOOKS in the series... well yea..you get the picture.

Gone is about a bunch of children in a town called Perdido Beach, living their normal everyday lives when suddenly- everyone 15 yrs old and above dissappears. No one knows why or how..all Sam Temple (the main character) knows is that he will be turning 15 very soon. I loved the concept of the story and how everything wasn't easily given in the first book- it left a mysterious and suspensful atmosphere throughout the book as you had no idea why everything was happening and were constantly trying to think of all sorts of reasons in your head. The whole setting and overall feel of the book reminded me of Hunger Games meets X-men meets Dan Brown meets Heroes ( the show). random i know ^.^

I think what made the storytelling remind me of Dan Brown was the way each character was slowly introduced.. showing their thoughts, their situations, their first impressions of the people we'd already met..and then them gradually fixing into the whole puzzle of awesomeness *_* Some of my favourites were Lana- because of how strong and independant she was with everything the situation brought her. Albert always made me smile with his cuteness and just the idea of a kid taking care of Mc Donalds and selling waffle burgers amused me =) Oh and last but definitely not least- SAM TEMPLE. I must say he's probably one my favourite main characters ever created, and although alot of reviews on this book thought he was a little too perfect for a 14 yr old..i think in order for him to be the true leader and be able to deal with and think clearly throughout the story- Sam needed to be strong, mature and intelligent. I don't think it was too unrealsitic because not all 14 yr olds are immature and stupid and you do sometimes meet people that are really mature for their age- and think of the bigger picture before anyone else. In my opinion, Sam Temple was one of those kids =)

“But if all they did was kill time, time would end up killing them.”
“It's vital to keep a sense of humour when the world seems to have suddenly become a very strange place.”

I loved how all the characters organised themselves and gave each other little roles =) 'Mother Mary' especially impressed me and made me think about those times when you feel ill and you try and diagnose yourself using google and end up thinking you have all sorts of diseases and conditions. All together the way all the children handled the situation was really impressive and although really..really...REALLLY ANNOYING at times..very realistic.

“Ninth graders with machine guns: its hard to make that a happy story.”

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that wants something a little different from the usual YA... and ofcourse..has time to appreciate and enjoy each book..because each one's GINORMOUS.. like 355 pages ginormous. But.. if your like me ..

      

you'll survive ;)