Gone

So a few days ago, my friend M.M. told me about these books and the first one was called GONE, by Michael Grant. Here's the summary: 

    In the small town of Perdido Beach, California, everyone fifteen and over mysteriously disappears in the blink of an eye. In school, no one knows what to do and there is mass chaos and confusion among the remaining population. A boy named Sam Temple steps forward to help control the masses, along with his friends Astrid and Edilio, and are tested to their limits when some kids from the posh Coates Academy set up camp in town, rallying everyone under the leadership of smooth-talking Caine Soren and his sadistic rule-enforcer Drake. Battles ensue, kids are confused and unsure about who to follow, and even stranger things begin happening when the kids of Perdido Beach discover that something is happening to them and many of the animals within the endless barrier that now surrounds them. Some kids get 'the Power' and animals begin mutating. But there's something even worse lurking under the soil of the beach city....

                                                   

                                                   

There are to be six books in the series, entitled: Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear, and Light respectively.

       While the books certainly don't lack in action and excitement, they do in emotion. Sam and Astrid's relationship is extremely bland, as is almost everyone else's, and the author spends almost no time in the relationship area. Caine and Sam are twin brothers, but they're hardly ever even in the same room as each other and all they ever do is threaten each other. To me, it would be extremely interesting if, say, Zil (the leader of the Human Crew) managed to capture both of them and lock them up in the same room for a few weeks. Now that would be exciting!

     These books are pretty good, I guess (that was a kind of unenthusiastic 'I guess', by the way) but I would really like them a lot more if they had more Sam/Astrid material (not in an inappropriate way, of course; after all, they're only 14!) and more Sam/Caine confrontations and material. 

        I give these books 3 and a half stars :)