Gone by Michael Grant Review

Title: Gone
Author: Michael Grant
Age Group: Teen/Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
Series: Gone, book one
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The bottom line: Though a little bit slow at first, the first book in a new dystopian series is disturbing, thought-provoking, and full of action and surprises.

Gone opens with a frightening premise: Every adult and older teen in the world is gone, and a barrier has formed around the town of Peridio Beach, leaving every child under fifteen to fend for themselves. As a result, animals and the kids themselves begin to mutate, forming a rift between kids with mutations and without. Bullies rule and chaos reigns.

What I liked:
-Caine, the villain, and Diana
-Sam, and his initial reluctance to lead and become a hero, and most of his friends
-The hidden connections between the kids
-The way, though everything seemed a bit random at first, it tied together gradually
-Astrid and Little Petey
-The cliffhanger ending
-The power ranking system
-The way it revealed the way kids can act under pressure--the way only younger children are left behind
-The way Orc redeemed himself later

What I didn't like:
-Drake
-The way it took almost one hundred and twenty pages for things to come together coherently
-Most of Caine's goonies, with the exception of Computer Jack
-Connie Temple's lies
-The way it didn't mention Sam's father at all, except to say he was out of the picture
-The way Caine went from a powerful leader to a whining child and back again, towards the end of the novel
-Quinn, Sam's best friend, and his shifting loyalties
-The creepy coyotes

If you guys can get past the first part, which seemed kind of sluggish to me, it's worth it, especially if you enjoy dystopian novels, surprise endings, superpowers, creepy villains, and secrets.

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