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by Michael Grant
After reading Gone I was upset by the cliff-hanger ending - then I realized that it was not a stand-alone book as I'd thought, but rather the start to a series. Hunger in the second book.
There were a lot of things that happened in Gone, and at the start of Hunger I was afraid I'd forgotten too many of them. And while the author used practically the whole length of the book in reminding readers of the back story, I did feel it was pretty effective, without feeling like I was reading something redundant.
One of the reviews on the back of this book states, "If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this." (VOYA (starred review)). I think this is actually a pretty good way to describe the feel of the series. It has a dark, menacing creature that taunts its victims mercilessly - all set into the back story of an entire town of kids who suddenly find themselves living in a world without adults. Everyone over 15 has simply vanished. The kids who are left have to find a way to survive and coexist. Food is scarce, arguments erupt, and soon they are the brink of war with each other.
My biggest complaint for this book was that you were never quite sure who was dead and who was alive. Sometimes a kid would die and it would almost be glossed over as if the author was afraid to say it. Pages later I'd find myself thinking, "Wait. They're dead?" On the opposite side of the problem though was that many characters were pronounced dead in the narration, and then only pages later it's proclaimed that they were not QUITE dead after all. Cue Lana: magic healer girl who can fix all sorts of mortal injuries! I half expected Magical Max from the Princess Bride to pop out and tell us that they were "not all dead, only mostly dead". Not that I wish for lots of deaths, but don't tell me they're dead if they're not!
I do love the concept of this book though. I'm excited to see how the creation of the FAYZ will be explained. I also am looking forward to reading how the kids create order in their town. Will Sam continue to lead? Will they finally set up some sort of monetary system? Can they ever find a way to work with each other? I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this story leads!
There were a lot of things that happened in Gone, and at the start of Hunger I was afraid I'd forgotten too many of them. And while the author used practically the whole length of the book in reminding readers of the back story, I did feel it was pretty effective, without feeling like I was reading something redundant.
One of the reviews on the back of this book states, "If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this." (VOYA (starred review)). I think this is actually a pretty good way to describe the feel of the series. It has a dark, menacing creature that taunts its victims mercilessly - all set into the back story of an entire town of kids who suddenly find themselves living in a world without adults. Everyone over 15 has simply vanished. The kids who are left have to find a way to survive and coexist. Food is scarce, arguments erupt, and soon they are the brink of war with each other.
My biggest complaint for this book was that you were never quite sure who was dead and who was alive. Sometimes a kid would die and it would almost be glossed over as if the author was afraid to say it. Pages later I'd find myself thinking, "Wait. They're dead?" On the opposite side of the problem though was that many characters were pronounced dead in the narration, and then only pages later it's proclaimed that they were not QUITE dead after all. Cue Lana: magic healer girl who can fix all sorts of mortal injuries! I half expected Magical Max from the Princess Bride to pop out and tell us that they were "not all dead, only mostly dead". Not that I wish for lots of deaths, but don't tell me they're dead if they're not!
I do love the concept of this book though. I'm excited to see how the creation of the FAYZ will be explained. I also am looking forward to reading how the kids create order in their town. Will Sam continue to lead? Will they finally set up some sort of monetary system? Can they ever find a way to work with each other? I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this story leads!
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