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A review by quadrille
Plague by Michael Grant
5.0
Jack came running like he was expecting trouble. A grinning Sam held a can [of Pepsi] out for him.
“Is that . . . ?”
“It is,” Sam assured him.
Crack psst!
Burp.
Jack started crying then, sobbing and drinking and burping and laughing.
“You going crazy on us, Jack?” Dekka asked.
“It’s just . . .” He couldn’t seem to find the words.
Sam put his arm around Jack’s shoulders. “Yeah, dude. It’s too much, isn’t it? I mean too much like the world before.”
“I eat rats,” Jack said through his tears.
“We all eat rats,” Dekka said. “And glad to get a good juicy one, too.”
This quote cracks me up in its black humour, but it's also representative of this series as a whole and the bleak toll that survival is taking on these kids.
Anyway, onto the review: Hello, nightmare fuel, my old friend!
I'd forgotten how absolutely fucking horrifying these books are; they would be rated R if they were movies. I took an eight-month break from this series and was a little worried that the second half wouldn't be quite as good (not every author can sustain that sort of pace), but good lord, I should never have doubted. Love them as I do, I haven't been able to give previous installments of the Gone series five stars -- but considering that this kept me riveted for 500+ pages so that I finished it in A SINGLE DAY, this one's gotta have it.
The stakes are so high that I existed in constant white-knuckled anxiety, and had to keep reading scene after scene after chapter just because I needed to find out what happens next. More than ever, I'm still reminded of [b:Under the Dome|6320534|Under the Dome|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1268982908s/6320534.jpg|6760952] when reading this series, due to the unrelenting, grueling pace and how Grant presses the pedal to the metal. If anything, Plague might be a bit too action-heavy, but there's still time for introspective character moments and character development (most of it painful!) along the way. And after the sedate pace of [b:Lies|6686092|Lies (Gone, #3)|Michael Grant|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1257814886s/6686092.jpg|6881422], I actually welcomed this high-octane thrill ride. It was unpredictable, and I never knew where it was going to go. I was glued to my book for hours upon hours, only emerging in a hollow daze this morning.
I don't really want to give away what happens in Plague, but I'll just say that this is straight-up the most dire the kids' situation has ever been, as they're beset by three different dangers simultaneously, all of them life-threatening. It builds to a fever pitch, and characters are pushed to their utmost lengths in an attempt to cope. Stand-outs are Dekka (good lord), Brianna (she is an actual honest-to-god superheroine), Caine and Diana (I will never stop loving them), Lana and Sanjit and Virtue and Dahra... and even Astrid, who I've been ambivalent about before -- her development here is fascinating.
Highly, highly, highly recommended.
One of the only things that has given me pause is Michael Grant's take on religion; it's a little worrisome that the two most pious characters are either nutty, or having trouble with their faith, or having their faith actively corrupted against them. But I think he sorts out his message towards the end of the book, and that it's more about when religious extremists & terrorists use their faith to justify terrible acts, and faith has been twisted to suit human ends:
“God decides right and wrong.”
“No,” Astrid said. And now, despite everything, despite her own exhaustion, despite her fear, despite her self-loathing and contempt, she realized she was going to say something she had never accepted before. “Brittney, it was wrong to murder even before Moses brought down the commandments. Right and wrong doesn’t come from God. It’s inside us. And we know it. And even if God appears right in front of us, and tells us to our faces to murder, it’s still wrong.”
It was that simple in the end, Astrid realized. That simple.
As Davos Seaworth wept in Game of Thrones, a gutwrenching scene that punched me in the heart with its simplicity: If your god commands you to kill children, then he is evil.
Also, the relationship between the brothers remains one of my favourite things:
“We can fight!” someone yelled. “We beat the coyotes. And we beat you, too, Caine!”
“How will you fight without Sam?” Caine demanded. “Is he here? No! Sam can’t stop these creatures. He tried, and he failed, and now he has run away!”
He waited for someone to speak up in defense of Sam. But not a word. Gutless, faithless weaklings, Caine thought. He was almost sorry for Sam. How many times had Sam put himself in harm’s way for these ingrates?
Caine's arc remains fascinating, too, and I can't wait to see where he goes next. (I'm still rooting for a long-term redemption. Don't crush my hopes, Grant!)
I think I've run out of things to say, at least until my head clears later. But cripes, this YA series is so good, and I am so looking forward to reading the last two books. Hopefully Grant can stick the landing.
I'm trying out Goodreads' Kindle highlights sync for the first time ever, so hopefully you can access my spoilery and non-spoilery quotes in this review! I'm grateful for this feature, because god, I have had to spend so many hours typing up quotes from my Kindle or C&Ping and tidying them up, and often running out of review space as a result.