Gone

Gone by Michael Grant

My rating:  4.5/5
Summary (from Goodreads):  In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.
Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
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, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...


My review:

Gone was more than amazing.  The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because I forget the details, maybe if  I read it again, I would remember how good it really was.

First, I love the idea.  Adults disappearing, animals mutating, creature lurking, teens getting new powers.  Second, it explains it really well.  A lot of the books that I've read have made no sense until about the hundredth page.  In this book, I knew what was going on right from the beginning. I didn't know why people were disappearing, but I just knew that they were.  Also, I felt like I knew the characters quite well by the time I got to the tenth page: their personalities, and their interests.

My favourite characters in this book were Astrid and Sam.  I like Astrid because of her intelligence, her calm way of handling things.  I like Sam for the opposite reason.  I like his bold way of fighting, more on the offensive than the defensive, plotting to get rid of his enemies.  He's not cruel because of that; he's just trying to help everyone while the adults are all gone.

One of the things that I didn't feel, though I should have, was the urgency that the characters felt.  Because I knew that somehow they were going to make it, I couldn't feel that anxiety.

This book was better than I expected, so I couldn't wait to go buy the second in the series.  Gone was superb!