Review: Gone (Gone #1) by Michael Grant

Synopsis from back cover:

In the blink of an eye, the world changes. The adults vanish without a trace, and those left must do all they can to survive. But everyone's idea of survival is different. Some look after themselves, some look after others, and some will do anything for power. For Sam and Astrid, it is a race

against time as they try to solve the questions that now dominate their lives. What is the mysterious wall that has encircled the town of Perdido Beach and
trapped everyone within? Why have some kids developed strange powers? And can they defeat Caine and his gang of bullies before they turn fifteen and
disappear too?

Review (Spoilery):

Gone, from the first was a riveting book. It deals with the

challenging scenario of how teenagers would behave if everyone aged

fifteen and above suddenly disappeared in an instant. The fight for

survival is only made many times more difficult when young people,

many of whom are not at all pleasant, suddenly gain astonishing powers. Sam and Astrid must attempt to discover where all the people aged

fifteen and above have disappeared to and why they are trapped and are

unable to leave their town due to a force field which surrounds them.

Grant paints a realistic portrayal of how people would respond if

such a crisis should take place. This was tragically and devastatingly

made evident when Sam discovers the body of a small child of a single

parent who lived in his neighbourhood.

With his own worries, confusion and his struggle to survive and make sense of his drastically changed world, he forgets to look out for the weakest in his society. This was hard for me to accept but I think this is possible in a real life

situation. On the whole Sam was thoughtful and brave as he stuck by

his friends and helped Astrid to find her missing little brother when

the disaster first takes place.

The characters in the book are 3D, believable and vividly constructed.

Sam is the reluctant protagonist who simply wants to fade into the

background and be forgotten so that he can get on with his life, but

he cannot help standing up to face evil and injustice as he is a

natural leader.

The villain of the novel however, is Caine, a cruel

and callous young man with niggling abandonment issues who does not

fail to take full advantage of any opportunity to make people follow

his will and obey him. Undoubtedly, Drake is the worst human character

in the novel, without pity or remorse he is simply driven by his lust

for power and will stop at nothing to gain it. I for one will be happy to see the last of him.

Grant also has in between characters who are neither good or bad but just want an easy life or who are easy to bully and manipulate such as Computer Jack, who although he is extremely intelligent, is easily pacified despite his qualms and twinges from his conscience.

I look forward to seeing what he does with these in between characters in future books. Behind the struggle for power between Sam and Caine is the lurking malevolent power of The Darkness which is the greatest danger to Perdido Beach and I can’t wait to see how this inhuman, sinister character develops in the series as I think that it is the Darkness which is responsible for

more than we know so far.

Grant provides excellent descriptions in his novel and it is easy to

conjure up an image of Perdido Beach and its surroundings as it is so

vividly illustrated by him. In addition, the novel deals with many

ordinary day to day concerns such as finding enough food for the

population and rationing and distributing it fairly in an appropriate

manner. The delegation of work to the survivors in order to accomplish

anything is also a topic which is discussed mainly focusing on the

question who should actually be doing the delegating.

Realising that the young children must all be found and taken care of

and acting on this knowledge is also important. The issue of who makes

a better leader is central to the novel; a leader who quickly takes

control and provides a semblance of order but who is tyrannical under

a thin veneer of civility and persuasive charm or the other who is

undoubtedly a natural leader, has a good heart and has his morality

intact but shies away from being a leader until it's very nearly too

late.

Gone made fantastic reading and I will definitely read the other

books in the series to discover how things work out for the

inhabitants of Perdido Beach, especially for Sam and Astrid.

Rating: 4/5

Concept: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Author: Michael Grant
 

This review is part of Dystopian February at Presenting Lenore.