YA Book Review: Gone by Michael Grant
Jul. 22nd, 2008 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
odette_riverRemember Lord of the Flies? Gone by Michael Grant is Lord of the Flies in modern-day California. Oh, with a dash of X-Men thrown in there.
Either these two elements have convinced you to never, ever read the book, or it sounds like something you’d like. If you’re in the second category, you’re welcome to read on. If you’re in the first…you can read on if you want.
Michael Grant is the husband of Katherine Applegate, author of the well-known Animorphs series, as well as the lesser-known series Everworld. As he had a hand in the creation of Animorphs, and I think of Everworld as falling in the same category, I will be referring to both series.
The premise of Gone is fairly simple: suddenly and unexpectedly, all the adults disappear; no one older than fifteen is left alive. It’s up to the kids to run the world. Before you start thinking that this is going to be a straight-up man-versus-nature survival story (do dates grow on trees?), let me say that Grant has solved a lot of problems for his characters so that they can focus on other things. The kids are confined to Perdido Beach: a small town on the California coast. No one can leave, for the simple reason that a barrier has been erected encircling the town. They can’t get out, even if they want to. Luckily, Perdido Beach has its own nuclear power plant, so there’s still light at night. Perdido Beach also, apparently, has its own water treatment plant, since the water continues to run, another very useful asset. With running water and electricity, one might think that Grant’s characters have it too easy, but giving them these few assets makes the plot less clouded so that they can focus on other problems.
In the power vacuum left from the disappearance of the adults, a few people immediately begin to stand out. The first is Sam, nicknamed “School Bus Sam” for the time that he maneuvered the school bus safely off the road when the bus driver had a heart attack. He faded into the background after that, preferring to go surfing with his best friend, Quinn. The disappearance of the adults brings him back into everyone’s focus, though. A fire starts, and it is Sam who organizes people to put it out and save the hardware store and the day care. It is also Sam who goes into the burning building to try to save the little girl trapped inside. His actions gain him respect, and people instinctively turn to him to lead.
Sam is, obviously, the Jake (from Animorphs) of this story. He’s the reluctant leader who doubts himself and his actions. Sam has a bit more angst than Jake, though. For a reason that has yet to become clear, the people of Perdido Beach have started to develop strange powers. Sam, himself, has one manifestation of these powers, and blames himself for the problems he causes with them, though he has little to no control. Sam also does not have the calculating mind of Jake. He does not sense traps; he does not predict the motivations of others. Some of this will undoubtedly come with time, but Sam also has Astrid, Astrid the Genius, who theoretically provides him with helpful insights.
This was her assigned task during the climatic battle of the novel. She was to observe and provide Sam with tactical advice. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure if Astrid ever provided helpful advice. As you may or may not be able to tell, Astrid and I didn’t exactly jive. She seemed more like a damsel in distress than anything else. A smart damsel, sure, but in the end, it was always Astrid waiting for Sam to save her. There were a few interesting aspects to her, though. For one thing, she is openly Catholic. Not only is this out of the ordinary for a children’s or young adult book (unless it is the focus of the plot), it is also unusual for a girl her age. In that sense, she is a younger version of April from the Everworld series.
The other interesting aspect of Astrid lies with her autistic brother, Little Pete. Little Pete is, himself, important, but the way Astrid treats him says a lot about her own character. She takes good care of him, and he is her first priority, even though he never thanks her and, for the vast majority of the time, doesn’t even acknowledge her presence. The most interesting part of this interaction is that Astrid never resents Little Pete. On only one or two occasions does she even think about how much work she does and what little thanks she receives, and when she does think about this, it seems out of character.
Of course, kids are not going to just work together. Standing against Sam is Orc, the school bully, and his cronies. Orc is good at fighting and has the aid of fear on his side. When Sam and his friends leave after the fire to find Little Pete and don’t tell anyone, Orc and his crew take advantage of the situation and assert their own control.
Orc and company are just crude bullies, however, and it is Caine who rolls into town a few days later, with his people driving cars, who is Sam’s true opponent. Caine and his people come from Coates, the private school in the area. He is a dynamic leader and someone who can maintain order, which is what the kids need. Caine is a worthy opponent. Like Jake from Animorphs, as well as Marco and Cassie, depending on the situation, Caine is able to predict what events will transpire with stunning accuracy. Remember how Cassie was able to anticipate all of David’s moves in the David trilogy? That’s Caine, except without any of Cassie’s good qualities.
Like any good dictator, Caine has several specialized people working for him. He has an innocent computer genius, a crazy gun-toting bully for his army, and Diana, possibly the most interesting character of all. Diana isn’t in it for Caine. She isn’t even in it for power. She’s in it for herself, and she acknowledges that. Diana is able to see the truth about people, and she doesn’t sugar-coat it. She recognizes that she’s a bad girl, and she completely accepts that. I could talk about Diana for a long time, and there is definitely fic coming, but half of the beauty of her is figuring out how much she knows.
There are several other characters, of course, who all come into their own. There’s the girl who runs the hospital (again, I am reminded of April, this time trying to learn how to treat wounds from medical textbooks). There’s the boy who runs McDonalds (“can I have a Happy Meal with extra happy?”). There’s the girl who runs the day care.
There’s also more crazy stuff going on. There are animals mutating at alarming rates, and something has to be running everything…
This is what we’ve come to expect since Animorphs and Everworld: ordinary people who suddenly have the rules of their world tweaked.
Either these two elements have convinced you to never, ever read the book, or it sounds like something you’d like. If you’re in the second category, you’re welcome to read on. If you’re in the first…you can read on if you want.
Michael Grant is the husband of Katherine Applegate, author of the well-known Animorphs series, as well as the lesser-known series Everworld. As he had a hand in the creation of Animorphs, and I think of Everworld as falling in the same category, I will be referring to both series.
The premise of Gone is fairly simple: suddenly and unexpectedly, all the adults disappear; no one older than fifteen is left alive. It’s up to the kids to run the world. Before you start thinking that this is going to be a straight-up man-versus-nature survival story (do dates grow on trees?), let me say that Grant has solved a lot of problems for his characters so that they can focus on other things. The kids are confined to Perdido Beach: a small town on the California coast. No one can leave, for the simple reason that a barrier has been erected encircling the town. They can’t get out, even if they want to. Luckily, Perdido Beach has its own nuclear power plant, so there’s still light at night. Perdido Beach also, apparently, has its own water treatment plant, since the water continues to run, another very useful asset. With running water and electricity, one might think that Grant’s characters have it too easy, but giving them these few assets makes the plot less clouded so that they can focus on other problems.
In the power vacuum left from the disappearance of the adults, a few people immediately begin to stand out. The first is Sam, nicknamed “School Bus Sam” for the time that he maneuvered the school bus safely off the road when the bus driver had a heart attack. He faded into the background after that, preferring to go surfing with his best friend, Quinn. The disappearance of the adults brings him back into everyone’s focus, though. A fire starts, and it is Sam who organizes people to put it out and save the hardware store and the day care. It is also Sam who goes into the burning building to try to save the little girl trapped inside. His actions gain him respect, and people instinctively turn to him to lead.
Sam is, obviously, the Jake (from Animorphs) of this story. He’s the reluctant leader who doubts himself and his actions. Sam has a bit more angst than Jake, though. For a reason that has yet to become clear, the people of Perdido Beach have started to develop strange powers. Sam, himself, has one manifestation of these powers, and blames himself for the problems he causes with them, though he has little to no control. Sam also does not have the calculating mind of Jake. He does not sense traps; he does not predict the motivations of others. Some of this will undoubtedly come with time, but Sam also has Astrid, Astrid the Genius, who theoretically provides him with helpful insights.
This was her assigned task during the climatic battle of the novel. She was to observe and provide Sam with tactical advice. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure if Astrid ever provided helpful advice. As you may or may not be able to tell, Astrid and I didn’t exactly jive. She seemed more like a damsel in distress than anything else. A smart damsel, sure, but in the end, it was always Astrid waiting for Sam to save her. There were a few interesting aspects to her, though. For one thing, she is openly Catholic. Not only is this out of the ordinary for a children’s or young adult book (unless it is the focus of the plot), it is also unusual for a girl her age. In that sense, she is a younger version of April from the Everworld series.
The other interesting aspect of Astrid lies with her autistic brother, Little Pete. Little Pete is, himself, important, but the way Astrid treats him says a lot about her own character. She takes good care of him, and he is her first priority, even though he never thanks her and, for the vast majority of the time, doesn’t even acknowledge her presence. The most interesting part of this interaction is that Astrid never resents Little Pete. On only one or two occasions does she even think about how much work she does and what little thanks she receives, and when she does think about this, it seems out of character.
Of course, kids are not going to just work together. Standing against Sam is Orc, the school bully, and his cronies. Orc is good at fighting and has the aid of fear on his side. When Sam and his friends leave after the fire to find Little Pete and don’t tell anyone, Orc and his crew take advantage of the situation and assert their own control.
Orc and company are just crude bullies, however, and it is Caine who rolls into town a few days later, with his people driving cars, who is Sam’s true opponent. Caine and his people come from Coates, the private school in the area. He is a dynamic leader and someone who can maintain order, which is what the kids need. Caine is a worthy opponent. Like Jake from Animorphs, as well as Marco and Cassie, depending on the situation, Caine is able to predict what events will transpire with stunning accuracy. Remember how Cassie was able to anticipate all of David’s moves in the David trilogy? That’s Caine, except without any of Cassie’s good qualities.
Like any good dictator, Caine has several specialized people working for him. He has an innocent computer genius, a crazy gun-toting bully for his army, and Diana, possibly the most interesting character of all. Diana isn’t in it for Caine. She isn’t even in it for power. She’s in it for herself, and she acknowledges that. Diana is able to see the truth about people, and she doesn’t sugar-coat it. She recognizes that she’s a bad girl, and she completely accepts that. I could talk about Diana for a long time, and there is definitely fic coming, but half of the beauty of her is figuring out how much she knows.
There are several other characters, of course, who all come into their own. There’s the girl who runs the hospital (again, I am reminded of April, this time trying to learn how to treat wounds from medical textbooks). There’s the boy who runs McDonalds (“can I have a Happy Meal with extra happy?”). There’s the girl who runs the day care.
There’s also more crazy stuff going on. There are animals mutating at alarming rates, and something has to be running everything…
This is what we’ve come to expect since Animorphs and Everworld: ordinary people who suddenly have the rules of their world tweaked.
