Michael Grant (4) (1954–)

I read this volume 2 of a series as it was cheap in a charity shop and the black cover was intriguing. It is basically a young adult novel based on a 'Lord of the Flies' situation when everyone over the age of fifteen has disappeared from an area surrounding a beach resort in California and the children have to survive within an enclosing dome. That would have been fine, but a lot of other elements are thrown in, including animal mutations - coyotes have become intelligent enough to talk, for example - strange superpowers which often seem of little use to the child who develops them, a malevolent creature lurking in a mine which has mind control powers, a vendetta developing between standard humans and 'freaks' as the superpower kids are known, a war between the resort and another area centred around a former school, the leaders of the two communities being half brothers, and a person with an eating disorder. Plus there is an autistic little brother who seems to have developed a very powerful ability he doesn't really control. This all made it a bit too much to deal with and the book constantly swapped between multiple viewpoints so it wasn't easy to 'invest' in the characters.

One big issue was pacing. There's a lot about the problems of the community with the lack of food becoming critical. It takes ages for the action to get going to address the major crises that develop. When it does it is sometimes too fast and furious which doesn't leave space for real issues to be explored - such as an important character developing radiation sickness due to their earlier heroism - which become throw-away lines. Part of the problem is that some characters, especially Sam the leader of the resort town, spend a lot of time on internal monologues of self-doubt, depression etc. and this drags down the pacing.

I did find Sam in particular an irritating character. It seemed the obvious solution was to delegate the silly little problems where children were complaining about each other to a wider committee to leave Sam free to concentrate on important things such as was his half-brother planning action that would have severe consequences for everyone. With divided attention, he was running all over the place and never addressing major problems which then spiralled out of control. I understand that these are under-fifteens, but there were some responsible characters and it would have been better to, if necessary, imprison the boy who was stirring up hatred against those with super powers, especially since that included Sam himself. I gather though, that this development becomes important in later books.

It was an OK read but overlong and on the basis of this volume I wouldn't bother with the rest of the series, though I take the point that I'm not the target reader. So for me 2 stars.… (més)

Maybe even 1.5*...

Perhaps I wouldn't have been so disappointed in this young-adult novel if I hadn't been expecting it to be a sci fi story. It definitely is NOT science fiction! There is no basis in science at all so I guess it could be called fantasy - though paranormal describes it better. Not content with the initial fantastic improbable event - the disappearance of all people 15 or older (don't worry - that isn't a spoiler, it happens at the beginning of the first chapter) {I have previously ranted about how I feel about this sort of unscientific age-related "sci fi" in another book review. Suffice it to say that how biologically different do you think a person is at 14 years 354 days from the way he/she is at exactly 15 years?} - the author brings in paranormal abilities, rapid & unusual animal mutations & some unknown but evil force.

The book is very dark and violent; it is not what I would want a 10-15 year-old to be reading if I was a parent. The basic message is similar to "Lord of the Flies" but not as well done in my opinion.

The story is quite thrilling, enough so that it is fairly easy to overlook all the improbable plot devices while reading (or listening in my case) to it, so I didn't feel the book deserved 1*. If it had an ending with more resolution, I would have been happy with a solid 2* but instead the book ends with no major issues resolved, clearly intending there to be a sequel or series to follow, and leaving this reader unsatisfied.… (més)

Everone over 15 have disappeared, all systems fail, there ia a barrier that burns, and when you turn fifteen you disappear on your birthday. Now survive. Great story and performance.

FROM AMAZON: In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. 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.… (més)