Gone (Gone, #1)

by Michael Grant

Suddenly there are no adults, no answers. What would you do? In the blink of an eye, the world changes. The adults vanish without a trace, and those left must do all they can to survive. But everyone's idea of survival is different. Some look after themselves, some look after others, and some will do anything for power ...Even kill. For Sam and Astrid, it is a race against time as they try to solve the questions that now dominate their lives ...What is the mysterious wall that has encircled the town of Perdido Beach and trapped everyone within? Why have some kids developed strange powers? And can they defeat Caine and his gang of bullies before they turn fifteen and disappear too? It isn't until the world collapses around you that you find out what kind of person you really are. A chilling portrayal of a world with no rules. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.

• ISBN10: 1405242353
• ISBN13: 9781405242356
• Publish Date: 1 October 2010 (first published 24 June 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 February 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Egmont UK Ltd
• Imprint: Egmont Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 576
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

As far as dystopias go, there’s a lot to appreciate in Gone. It’s a bit different than what I’m used to in dystopias – it’s a contained world, for starters. The characters were a bit frustrating most of the time, but they weren’t… wrong? All in all, it was interesting enough that I will continue the series.

I believe Gone was published in the Golden Age of YA Dystopia, and as such, there was a lot to compete against. Books like The Hunger Games and Divergent led the pack with their distant future and changed society narratives. Gone is a bit different in that we experience the moment of the catastrophe, and we stay in that present. There are many questions unrolled through the course of the story, enough to keep anyone curious. As far as world building goes, it reminded me of Left Behind meets a superhero origin story.

The oldest characters in Perdito Beach is 14 years old – everyone age 15 and older has “poofed”. The remainder don’t know why it has happened, but it has, and suddenly all these kids are left to their own devices to survive. For some, this means stepping up into new responsibility and growing up fast. For others, it’s about taking control. Characters like Mary and Albert understand that some people have to step up, even if they are only 14. Unfortunately, most of our time is spent on far less noble and interesting characters (in my opinion). Sam and Cain (who is aptly named) are very black and white, selfish and whiny characters. They – and other characters like them – were not inaccurate for their age or situation, but they were not characters I enjoyed. There’s a lot of screaming and whining and frustrated kids in Gone, and should something like this actually happen, I suppose there would be… but they just aren’t so interesting as heroes and villains in fiction.

The pacing was very difficult for me – Gone was one of the few audiobooks I sped up to 2x because I was so frustrated by the speed of both the narrator and snail’s pace at which the story was moving. Outside the narration (which was also jarring because of all the screaming and crying… awkward to listen to), I think there were two aspects that slowed down the pace. Firstly, there were so many POV characters. There where chapters from the perspective of Sam, Astrid, Lana, Cain, Drake, Diana, Albert, Mary, Orc, Jack, Dara and Howard… I think that’s all. There wasn’t a consistent rotation, but 12 POV characters is a lot. Additionally, these characters kept poking at the same things. When we got an answer, the presentation was underwhelming… almost lost between all the other events of the story. Sam’s constant insistence that he is not fit to lead are tired and exasperating. Any time Howard was in the scene, I was thoroughly annoyed.

There were some aspects that I appreciated, but I would like to more depth on them. Health issues, in particular, were interesting to me. We have a character with depression, an eating disorder, and other characters who struggle with addiction. They’re darker subjects for the age of the characters, but also? It is such an appropriate thing to discuss in the situation. There is bound to be at least one child who goes for beer, for example, because there’s nobody to stop him. These little details were interesting to see, because they rarely make it into novels. There was quite a few of them, however, there was not a lot of discussion about them. Just part of the children’s daily life.

I haven’t spoken much on the superpowers – the superpowers were fine. My observation was that the children who mutated had abilities that were consistent with their deepest need. Many developed when the character was afraid, in order to make them able to confront that fear. I was waiting for more and more people to develop these abilities, and that may yet happen. These were relatively well done, and I like that there were consequences to them (the healer becomes exhausted, the runner wears out her shoes).

The story concept is really interesting, though. There are a lot of curiosities – why do only some children mutate and have superpowers? How was the barrier erected (there was a sort of half-hearted scene about it, but I am unsatisfied)? What about their continued survival? I want answers to all these questions, but I also want better character development, and less focus on Sam and Cain if that’s possible. Gone is only the first book in an extended series, so I hope there will be more answer an we’ll get to see more of some other more interesting characters.

[Rinn]

This was good but... those kids were not 14 year olds. Who on earth was that mature at 14?

[paperbackjedi]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

Sam just wants to continue flying under the radar and hang out with his best friend. But after a mysterious event leaves him and a motley crew of teenagers and kids looking for answers in a town with no adults, he’s forced to step up and take a leadership position. Unfortunately, not everyone is in support of his decisions and it leads to an all our war zone in what was once a small, quiet beach town. And weird things keep happening. People are developing powers, animals are mutating, and who knows what else is coming.

I was surprised with how much I loved this book. It was a non stop, action packed adventure from start to finish. Though the story is told from multiple character’s perspectives, it mainly follows the story of Sam, an unlikely hero who has no interest in being a hero. I really enjoyed the multiple narratives as it really gave a lot of insight into who everyone was and what they wanted. You had some people who just wanted their parents, some who were hungry for power, some who wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of, and some people who flat out did not give a crap. It was really cool to see all these different personalities and perspectives clashing and coming together. It was an entire world on a smaller scale, being made sense of by kids and honestly, it was pretty damn interesting. The world of the series is strange because it takes place in a small beach town by some sort of nuclear reactor and it introduces the idea of mutation in both the animals and the kids, allowing for a setting that is doubly dangerous and one that will keep you guessing.

The characters are well rendered and fleshed out nicely. Although we do follow Sam more than most other characters, I still felt like all the characters were developed and unique. The fact that they all had different ideologies and methods for coping with the events in the novel made for some truly amazing moments of understanding and empathy. It felt realistic in a way that could be applied to any world when confronted with a cataclysmic event and the fact that our entire cast is under 15 was such a great idea and provided substantial commentary on the way the world sees and understands (or doesn’t understand) young people. Because I’m 31 and I have no idea how I’d react to something like this, but I certainly saw myself in some of these characters and it made me happy.

There are so many different sorts of relationships represented in these pages and they all go through significant development and change and I found it pretty remarkable. Because most things evolve under different kinds of pressure and this was no different. Sam grapples with the deterioration of his relationship with his best friend, the loss of his parents, the burgeoning romance between him and a classmate he’s had a crush on, and the complicated dynamic between him and his enemies and the people who want to be in charge. The writing itself, though simplistic, was fraught with tension and anticipation and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. In fact, as soon as I finished, I went out and bought the rest of the series. It was that compelling. This book is the kind of book you don’t realize you’re still thinking about days later. It sneaks up on you and at first you think it’s a story about a bunch of kids being kids in a world gone to hell, but that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about choosing what sort of person you want to be and leading by example. I think we all sort of find out what we’re made of when the chips start falling and this entire novel describes that process and it was awesome. If you like science fiction or dystopian novels with a cast of complex characters coming to terms with who they are and the world they live in WITH SUPERPOWERS, check this out. You won’t be disappointed.

[nitzan_schwarz]

A bit of a gif summary of the book (possibly in the wrong order lol)








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It took me a long time to read this - the world seemed against me ever reaching the end, what with Boot Camp (and a month without reading due to it) in the middle.
But now I'm finished. This is one heck of an interesting literary piece. I'm interested to see where the story will go from here, and how it will end. For a dystopian, it wasn't as "horrible" as I'm accustomed to. Or maybe I''ve become used to horribleness, I don't know. 

Anyway, this isn't really a review. So I'm not going to rumble too much.

Bottom line, I liked it, I'm interested in reading farther, and I think the writing was great. 

[Kelly]

4.5 Stars.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/06/read-along-with-my-buddy-gina-gone-by.html
Reviewed along with Gina from http://www.behind-the-pages.com/

[Chelsea]

This is a book where I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it. I think I liked it but some parts made me wonder. The concept was really, really cool. One day everyone over the age of 15 suddenly disappears. Pretty cool right? A whole town full of teenagers and kids. I liked how everyone started taking on a role and there was suddenly all these cliques. It was really cool. What did bother me was that it took forever for people to realize that there’s babies around that need to be taken care of. That part, I feel was a little unrealistic.

The characters were all really good I found. I liked Astrid. She was a really good female heroine. She was really smart and brave, which was a relief. Sam was also really likeable too. Quinn was annoying and stupid, but that’s how the author portrayed him. The others were pretty cool too. Even the bullies had some cool development going on. I especially liked how not everyone had super powers. It made things interesting.

In the end, the plot was good, the characters were good and the writing was good. There was just something a little off for me which is why it isn’t getting full stars. Maybe it’s because it was good but it didn’t blow me away. I’m holding out hope for the next book though.

[Stephanie]

Three starts because I am indecisive. I liked this book, I did. But at the same time, I was also bored by it. Parts seemed excessive, rambling and dragged on, when they could have been shortened and made the book far more dramatic. It was seriously 150 pages too long and it just seemed a bit repetitive.

One of the other issues I had, and perhaps it's just how I read it, but was the massive amount of characters introduced right away. I felt that I spent most of my time trying to figure out who was who and picture them in my mind. There are very few character descriptions (Astrid is blonde, Sam is a 'surfer' kid, Caine had dark eyes) that didn't give me a clear idea of this person. Luckily the cover of this book has some of the characters on it that I used for reference. Maybe these things don't bother other people, but when I have a hard time seeing the character in my mind, I have a hard time remembering them and their importance throughout the book. Lots of cronies, lots of town kids, lots of people in general with not a lot of scenes but had the time to be fully introduce.

Blah, sounds like a rant, but I think if the book is going to 550 pages, maybe not dropping all the characters on me at once would be nice.

Anyway, I liked it. And I didn't. Good idea, interesting premise, etc etc. Just a little bit cyclical in some parts, or unnecessarily long and they didn't need to be.

[nannah]

This book . . . well, this book was difficult.

It didn't take long for me to know I wouldn't really like Gone but I tried. Oh, I did try. But Gone read like a first draft, clunky and overladen with useless, unnecessary descriptors and details, overstuffed with characters, and with far too much plot. And at the end, the book didn't really come to a close. Everyone in the book kept saying that something was over, but I didn't know what had really happened.

Don't get me wrong, the book does have some really good stuff, and some chilling moments (the Coates Freaks, for one. I seriously was stunned). But it seemed like Grant just had this obsession with going darker, stranger, bloodier, and it just got old after a while. There were also things that happened that were left unexplained and unresolved, the biggest issue of which I had was with Orc and Howard. What the heck even happened? What happened to Orc? I get the whole FAYZ mutating stuff but the thing with Orc was sudden and unexplained, and it was just accepted with no explanation. No anything.

Let me try to get my thoughts into order. First off, there were way too many characters. Sure, some of them were great, but then more characters were introduced. And more. And even more. It's like Grant tried to put every type of personality type and every character trait into his book. It left me dizzy and most of it was unnecessary. Most of them were just to prove how absolutely horrible life in the FAYZ was. Maybe they were there to be a glimmer of hope in the absolute bleakness. I don't know. I felt like 70% of the characters could have been cut and the atmosphere would still be there and raw and evocative.

Where did the plot go? It all seemed crazy. Like Grant had this epic idea for a novel, and just started writing, letting everything take him away until he had no control over it himself. And see, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. On a first draft. After which all the polishing starts to happen and trim away the lumbering pace of the novel. Many of the events left me wondering if they were only in the book to create drama, not to fulfill plot. Actually most of the events made me feel cheap. Made me feel like the book was all glitter and light effects. Everything was a trap, the bad guys were always 100 steps ahead of the good ones. It didn't matter what anyone did, everything turned out to be a trap because supposedly those things make stories epic. Right?

For a novel with 558 pages and about 128 K words, the relationships between characters seemed rushed. Astrid and Sam immediately fall in love. Why? Because it's more epic when there's an "absolutely in love" couple to tear apart later. There really was no reason for them to be so in love, except that Astrid had this magical power of intuition and Sam was the brightest light in her sky. It just . . . it all just felt set up. Everything felt like it was trying to top what had just happened.

It felt like chaos.

I feel like I have to say sorry for posting this review because there are so many rave reviews for this and I keep hearing good things from people I know, but I just couldn't get into it and I couldn't like it. It has the potential to be wonderful, but maybe if Grant polished it up and cut at least 60% of it out (or at least simplified).

[iroshan]

Well. Book was OK, for me. I will read next books also. The problem is it has lots and lots of mysteries and there are not a lot of answers. when you plan to write 6 books in a series it may be OK. but i hoped i may find answers to at least any big thing. And it was bit odd for me that kids less than 15 are capable of this much of mature discussions, acts...
BTW I like sci-fy. so i will read all 6 books to find the answers. just hoping those are not lame.

[Joni Reads]

I was skeptical about this series but I was out of books to read and I have seen them around and had a vague idea of what they are about so I decided to go for it and check the first two out of the library. I am glad that I did. The first book in the series starts with the main character, Sam, daydreaming in class when suddenly, right before his eyes, his teacher disappears. Poof. Gone. Then they realize a classmate is gone as well. Soon students in other classrooms are milling around the hall of the school is tales simliar to Sam's. Teachers, there one minute, gone the next. In fact, anyone over the age of 14, there one second, gone the next. Poof.
There's panic and tears as the characters go house to house and place to place in search of a parent, grandparent or older sibling but it's to no avail, they are all gone. Soon it's decided Sam is in charge and the kids start to form routines and habits to try to go on with life. One guy maintains the local McDonalds, a gir and her brother take over the local daycare duties. Everything is as ok as it can be until out of the blue the students from the private school a few miles away from town arrive. It's clear they have an agenda and it can't be a good one.
The idea of a world ran by kids is obviously frightening. I mean, what did I know about life on my own when I was 14? I couldn't cook, drive, nothing. And yet here are these kids shoved into this world wthout adults and they just have to adapt. Not to mention some of the kids are developing powers such as being able to shoot fire from their hands or being able to run faster than a speeding bullet. The whole ordeal is terrifying. These are books written so well you actually truly get pulled into the story. Ever since I read this book and started the second one I have been dreaming about it, putting myself into the world the author created. I could see this series becoming a television series. One that I would DVR to make sure I didn't miss anything. I am so glad I took a chance on this series.