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A review by aggressive_nostalgia
Gone by Michael Grant
Wow. This book is psychotically dark. A bunch of kids, the oldest of whom are barely teenagers, caught up in a lot of murder and power plays most adults never have to think about, let alone live through. Caine finds it far too easy to commit some pretty gruesome atrocities, and Drake - no fourteen-year-old should take pleasure in murdering other kids. This was so dark, but that's part of what made it completely gripping.
The character development was really good. I think Quinn - despite his capriciousness - may have actually been my favorite character. I think I kind of felt like I can relate to him in some ways (and he wears a fedora, which is pretty sweet). His and Sam's careening friendship definitely kept me anchored to the story earlier on, before all the suspense dropped in. And the rest of the characters weren't flat, either. The author did such a good job of infusing them with not only diverse powers and abilities, but digging deeper into their psyches than most teen novels might, that it really expanded the dystopian feel of the story. I was also impressed with the way the powers were kind of a secondary thing; they added depth and a means to a story that was going to play out regardless of the crazy mutations or not. The science-fiction plays were just a bonus, something to lend more excitement to an already compelling story. The plot itself was really well fleshed-out, too. It had more originality than I was expecting, and the author did an excellent job of playing out the twists a little at a time, revealing enough to hold the reader's interest but not too much to ruin the story. I admit I really wasn't expecting the cliffhanger (that was maddening). All the same, I didn't feel like too much was left hanging. A surprising amount was resolved, enough that I don't feel like I wasted time reading this, but there's still one enormous question and a somewhat smaller issue that need answering, and that's what's going to draw my interest to the next book.
This was actually a really good novel. (The only thing that really threw me off was the talking coyotes. That was most definitely on the other side of bizarre, not to mention random.) Still, I would recommend this (though probably to teens older than the kids in this book, mostly). Amazing, and I'll be on the lookout for the sequel.
The character development was really good. I think Quinn - despite his capriciousness - may have actually been my favorite character. I think I kind of felt like I can relate to him in some ways (and he wears a fedora, which is pretty sweet). His and Sam's careening friendship definitely kept me anchored to the story earlier on, before all the suspense dropped in. And the rest of the characters weren't flat, either. The author did such a good job of infusing them with not only diverse powers and abilities, but digging deeper into their psyches than most teen novels might, that it really expanded the dystopian feel of the story. I was also impressed with the way the powers were kind of a secondary thing; they added depth and a means to a story that was going to play out regardless of the crazy mutations or not. The science-fiction plays were just a bonus, something to lend more excitement to an already compelling story. The plot itself was really well fleshed-out, too. It had more originality than I was expecting, and the author did an excellent job of playing out the twists a little at a time, revealing enough to hold the reader's interest but not too much to ruin the story. I admit I really wasn't expecting the cliffhanger (that was maddening). All the same, I didn't feel like too much was left hanging. A surprising amount was resolved, enough that I don't feel like I wasted time reading this, but there's still one enormous question and a somewhat smaller issue that need answering, and that's what's going to draw my interest to the next book.
This was actually a really good novel. (The only thing that really threw me off was the talking coyotes. That was most definitely on the other side of bizarre, not to mention random.) Still, I would recommend this (though probably to teens older than the kids in this book, mostly). Amazing, and I'll be on the lookout for the sequel.