Suz @ Bookish Revelations
Written on Sep 14, 2013
Fourteen kids stranded inside a superstore. Inside they have everything they could ever need. There's junk food and clothes, computer games and books, drugs and alcohol ... and without adult supervision they can do whatever they want.
Sounds like fun?But outside the world is being ripped apart by violent storms and chemicals leaking into the atmosphere that, depending on blood type, leave victims paranoid, violent or dead.
The kids must remain inside, forced to create their own community, unsure if they'll ever be able to leave. Can they stop the world they've created inside from self-destructing too?
'Riveting' New York Times
'A post apocalyptic wild ride' Huffington Post
- ISBN10 1250027381
- ISBN13 9781250027382
- Publish Date 28 May 2013 (first published 5 June 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Square Fish
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 352
- Language English
Reviews
Kelly
Written on Jul 22, 2013
http://divainpyjamas.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/monument-14-by-emmy-laybourne.html
Monument 14 was entertaining for the most part, a little dull at times, but good nonetheless. Dean is our main character who is generally the voice of reason, apart when it comes to fellow trapped teen, Astrid. He's quite boring, quiet and reserved, but the department store group has enough personalities, from child prodigy and Dean's brother Alex, the football stars, the artistic girl, the bossy little miss, the non English speaking child, and the beauty queen. Similar to a post apocalyptic The Breakfast Club.
It's well written, but light on the action. Once the children are safely locked inside, it becomes the story of the democratic community formed within the confines of the store, and the individuality of each character. I would love there to have been potentially more disaster strikes, more clashes and more dire circumstances, rather than everyone seemingly finding their place. I just needed more.
Briana @ Pages Unbound
Written on Jul 9, 2013
Source: Publisher Twitter givewaway
Review:With a group of children sheltering in a locked superstore while the world outside falls apart, Monument 14 promises to be a thrilling read. Unfortunately, the poor writing often distracts the reader from enjoying the plot or characters. The book is narrated by teenager Dean, and his voice is oddly stilted. He, and most of the characters, use contractions only sporadically, making their dialogue sound unnatural. Additionally, Dean is the type of first-person narrator who would be more believable as a third person narrator. He is strangely omniscient and observant, even for a character who is supposed to be a writer. It is difficult to imagine a teenaged boy who says things like “I did not really save the best for last because Batiste, the lone second grader, was a real handful” (paperback 29) or “I felt gray. Washed out. Like a stone” (paperback 35). I found the writing style painful enough I was ready to DNF at page 29, but I powered through to see what the rest of the book would bring.
From the beginning, I was ready to compare Monument 14 to Danya Lorentz’s No Safety In Numbers, as both books feature groups of children trapped in stores and facing disasters. The differences between the two quickly became clear, however. Laybourne writes about a small group of children, ranging from kindergarteners to high schools, who are in a superstore riding out natural diasters. Lorentz writes about a group of teenagers stuck in a mall with a large number of other people, all of whom want to get out because the danger is inside. The dynamics are distinct in each case, as the characters must face different dangers and different fears. In common: both groups have just about everything they need to survive, ready for the picking from the stores.
In Monument 14, this convenience is actually something of a detriment on Day 1 of the children’s lock-down. At this point, the children believe they will be in the store for only an hour or so. Their school bus has crashed during a hailstorm, and several students died in the accident, but the survivors are ready to return home. As they wait for aid to arrive (again, in literally an hour), they illogically start raiding the store. Anything they want, they take (believing their parents will have to pay) and they even break into the pizza restaurant and start baking themselves pie for lunch—at their adult bus driver’s advice. I may be in the minority, but this would not be my course of action in such an emergency.
The children’s sense of logic proceeds to fluctuate wildly throughout the remainder of the book. The kindergartners will seem abnormally wise and aware, until Laybourne seems to remember their age and sends them off to suck their thumbs in a corner and cry. The older children also behave very maturely for their ages. One does expect this in a post-apocalyptic novel, where children must grow up fast, but it would be nice if they encountered more difficulties solving their numerous challenges. No water? No problem. Someone has a solution to the hygiene problem in the next paragraph and begins building the necessary structures. One boy is a boy scout, but his troop could not have prepared him with a quick solution to literally every problem he might face in a post-apocalyptic world.
Beyond the universal gift of quick-thinking, the characters range in skills and personality: the average Joe narrator, the unattainable girl he loves, the jocks, the too-young girl trying to be sexy, the generally interchangeable kindergarteners. I personally felt no connection with any them, did not like any of them, and was not particularly interested in their fates. (I had a similar reaction to No Safety in Numbers, so perhaps I just don’t like teens stuck in stores.) Laybourne tries to give most of them moving backstories, but they often seem like things that are constructed by the author and then tacked on, rather than things are actually true about the characters.
The plot is not entirely lackluster and, in fact, features an ever-growing list of catastrophes that the children must face and solve. However, the writing is off-putting enough that I did not care for the novel and will not be reading the sequel. Many other readers, of course, have much more complimentary opinions of the series.
Content Note: Light language. Mature themes including sex and attempted rape.
Amber
Written on Mar 31, 2013
Monument 14 has an interesting premise. There's a series of natural disasters which set off a whole chain of events, and eventually cause toxic waste to be released into the air. I really like post-apocalyptic stuff, and I was looking forward to this one because I thought it might help me edit my own apocalypse survival plan. Instead, it was a dull. So. Dull.
elvinagb
Written on Jan 9, 2013
celinenyx
Written on May 31, 2012
On their way to school brothers Dean and Alex get stuck in a hailstorm of massive proportions. Because of their heroic bus driver they are brought to safety in a shopping mall together with the other kids. Here they have to survive one of the biggest natural disasters ever, without any parental control.
This was an extremely quick read which I just breezed right through. Where other apocalyptic books are bogged down with descriptions of the world ending, Monument 14 is rather light on the gruesomeness. Most of the book it's just an afterthought - the only thing the main characters think about is how to survive in the here and now, not about what is going on outside.
For me that was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because I was looking for a light read, something more focussed on characters instead of plot. Bad, because at the end of Monument 14 I was left wondering what the hell I actually just read. It was a very entertaining book - but not that memorable.
I was glad that the little romance in this book didn't feel too forced or clichéd, but stayed very down to earth and teenager-y. The cast of characters is very diverse, with five year old twins, to high school seniors. It was interesting to read of such an odd bunch of kids, being thrown into a surreal situation where they have to care for themselves. I've seen it compared to Lord of the Flies, but even though I haven't read that one I am quite sure that there was a rather extreme anarchy in that one. That isn't the case in Monument 14. To be honest the whole bunch seemed to be very organised and responsible.
For an apocalyptic read Monument 14 is very low on graphic details or gruesomeness, and I would recommend it for people liking their books not too heavy. It also makes it accessible for a slightly younger audience, which most YA apocalyptic reads aren't. I'm looking forward to see what happens with all the kids from Monument 14.