Review Time!! Gone by Michael Grant

(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...

Initial Thoughts:

• This was a bit of a slow start for me, and it took me much longer to finish than my norm. 
• I found some of things rather cheesy and it made it hard to read.
• The whole no adults in the world now what's going to happen has been told many times so I was worried it would be boring.

Things I Liked:

• I really enjoyed the different character perspectives in this book! Sometimes that can be very overwhelming, but it totally worked here. Being able to see the story from different characters eyes allowed me to understand what was going on in the entire city. There are some moments when the main protagonist are not in the city and so it would have been very frustrating to just not know what was happening there.
• The writing style did take me awhile to get into, but in the end I enjoyed it. Michael Grant has a certain way of writing that makes you feel like it's a movie. He gives a lot of kind of aerial views of Perdido Beach and the different settings that felt cinematic to me. It was very different from the types of things I have been reading this year! Also each chapter is labeled by a countdown of hours and that was a total anticipation builder while reading.
• Sam, the male protagonist, was a sweetheart. I like that he was an natural hero/leader who really just wanted to be a normal kid freaking out with the rest of them. He grew so much throughout the book  and I was cheering him on the whole way. Overall, the all character development in this book was awesome, and that is saying something considering the amount of characters we meet!

Some Criticisms:

• I mentioned this in my initial thought, and it was kind of a big thing for me. Sometimes things just felt sooooo cheesy. The name of the small town where this story takes place is Perdido Beach. "Perdido" translated from Spanish means lost. The antagonist of the story being named Cain, the girl who devotes herself to taking care of the little kids being named Mary, I just thought it was cheesy. More than anything it made me role my eyes. Still, I get how for some this could be really cool. 
• Kind of related to what I just said there is this scene in the beginning of the book where Sam is describing the town. Basically your getting a kind of tour and it was like oh there's the school, the grocery store, the beach, oh yeah and the nuclear power plant..anyway. Another moment that made me role my eyes in this book because it just felt so cheesy to me. Again these are just small things I didn't like, but you might be into.
• Last thing I feel is worth mentioning! I went into this book knowing it's a long series. There are five more books and they all all equally long. If your not the kind of person who likes a long drawn out  then this might not be the series you want to get into. It's a long story and this book is a lot about character exploration so it is legitimately drawn out!

Overall:

I really enjoyed this book! I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. The cheesy bits did make it loose a star, but I fully plan on continuing on with this series. I'm excited to watch these character's and this world develop. Hopefully in the end we get some answers for all these burning questions.