Hunger (Gone, #2)

by Michael Grant

An uneasy calm has settled over Perdido Beach. But soon fear explodes into desperation as starvation sets in and the mob look to place blame. For the ‘normals’ the buck must stop somewhere - with the ’freaks’. More and more kids are developing strange powers and, just as frightingly, so are the animals in the FAYZ: talking coyotes, swimming bats and deadly worms with razor-sharp teeth are just the beginning. For Sam Temple the strain of leadership is beginning to show and he’s got more that just dwindling rations and in-fighting to worry about. Caine is back with the psychotic whiphand, Drake, by his side. And in the background lies the greatest danger of all - and he needs to be fed.

• ISBN10: 1742979912
• ISBN13: 9781742979915
• Publish Date: 1 April 2014 (first published 26 May 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 February 2021
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: Hardie Grant Egmont
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 576
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

3½ Stars.
Buddy review with Gina
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/08/buddy-read-along-with-gina-hunger-by.html

[Chelsea]

Initial Thoughts

Going into this book it seemed like it was going to be a pretty typical dystopia. I had an idea of what was going to happen and I was mostly right. The book is called Hunger, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to run out of food. Pretty boring right? Well that's what I thought too.

My New Best Friend

I do think I'd like a best friend from this book. I didn't find the characters as interesting in this book as the first. Astrid got boring, Sam was a baby, and even the Breeze was annoying. I did like Edilio though. He was always entertaining. He seems like he's way older. He doesn't have any special powers but he doesn't care. He's just trying to survive the best he can.

My Crush

Definitely no crush in this book. I liked Edilio but he wouldn't be a character I'd fall in love with. None of them are. I think it might be because they're younger characters and their age really shows.

Writing Style

His writing was technically really good. I just found that it was lacking something. I didn't see very much character development and the plot was really predictable. Not the greatest. I will still be moving on with the series though because the first book was really good.

Closing Thoughts

I was a little upset because this book had a lot of good reviews. I just found that it wasn't up to the same standard as the first one. It was really predictable and the characters got really annoying. Sam worked too hard and then complained about it. Astrid just kept keeping secrets from everyone. Drake was completely insane and it scared me a little bit. The Darkness was a weird villain. We don't really know anything about it except that it wants to eat everything. It was a typical book where the whole time the characters are just trying to stop the villain. The side plots weren't exciting at all. Also a bunch of characters "die" at the end only to be fixed up. He can't even kill of the characters. The only good thing about this book was that they all teamed up in the end. It just wasn't a good sequel for me. I was really disappointed.

Bonus

No bonus because it was too disappointing.

[Stephanie]

There is an old adage that says “Never judge a book by its cover”. A tried and true literal and figurative piece of advice. For a long time, I did not live by this rule. I judged Michael Grant’s Gone series so hard because angsty, wind blown teenagers on the covers bugged me. Their hollow eyes bore into me and every time I thought “well… maybe” I immediately told myself “put it down those kids are freaking me out”. Finally after I gave into the fact that I should not be so easily scared of book covers and kids with shaggy hair, I gave Gone a read and scolded myself for being so late to the game because of an irrational fear of pouty faced children on covers.

Michael Grant’s Gone series is worth flipping past the terrifying kids. Unfortunately, this site is younger than intended, so I never did get a chance to give my thoughts on the novel described as “if Stephen King wrote Lord of the Flies”. Yeah, that’s about right. I like to call it “crazy, wild fun!” So this is a review of Hunger, with thoughts on Gone intermingled.

You can thank me later.

Gone is about a small beach town in California that is suddenly cut off from the outside world. Every person over the age of 15 have disappeared in one mass exodus of the supernatural kind. Not only are these young kids left alone, but some start developing superpowers while battling with other kids for supremacy over the town. Picking up where Gone left off, Hunger does not disappoint.

More at BOOKISH reviews

[jnikkir]

This was a solid 3 stars for me, a solid "liked it", just not enough for 4 stars.

One thing that I find interesting about these books is that I'm not such a huge fan of the main characters (Astrid, Sam, Caine, Diana). I find the secondary characters much more interesting--and overall, much more realistic--given the situations they're all facing.

That said, I will definitely be continuing the series just to figure out WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON.

[Joni Reads]

I can't believe I missed out on this series for so long! I picked the first two up from my library on a whim and I am so in love with this series. In Gone, all the adults disappeared and the feud between the students from the local high school and the students from the prep school up on the hill began. Kids learned how to avoid disappearing on their fifteenth birthday. Things started to get a little better. But in Hunger we learn that all good things must come to an end. With no way outside of the FAYZ food soon becomes scarce. At the beginning they weren't as careful as they should have been and the produce and meat products in the supermarket were spoiled as junk food was consumed first. Now Sam and his friends are have to figure out how to harvest vegetables and even harder, convince the kids in the FAYZ to eat them. Sam is losing grip on his leadership position as he begins to feel weighed down by everyone's problems. Along with the issues with finding food the kids left without powers have started to rise against the "freaks" with powers. Suddenly the community is split between freaks and normals and people start getting hurt. But the kids in the FAYZ do the only thing they can do, they survive.
This series was so well laid out that it's entirely believable. The kids don't automatically grow up and become mature just because there are no adults. They are still kids. Alongside complaints of no food there are also arguments between siblings about silly things like what to name the stray cat that was found or what dvd to watch. These kids are trying to figure out how to survive under the most extreme circumstances but they are still kids, all 15 or younger. I never once thought that they were out of character. I never once forgot that this is a community of children.
I am so excited to read more of this amazing series. And from the information on goodreads, it looks like this series will not be ending anytime soon, with 5 books published and more to come in the next two years.

[Amber]

'Hunger' is set three months after 'Gone' ended, there is little food left and the kids are gaining various different powers, and it's scaring them. They don't know how to cope. The younger ones, as well as a lot of older ones, are looking to Sam to run things, and to take care of them. The Darkness is becoming a more prominent figure, it 'talks' to various characters and tries to lure them to the joining him.
As well as the Darkness imposing a huge threat in the town of Perdido Beach, Sam has to cope with the rivalry of his twin brother, Caine, who wants to take over the town and lead for himself.

This is the second book in Michael Grant's 'Gone' series, and in my opinion it was the weaker of the two. You'll probably want to read the first book first, otherwise you'll feel that you're missing something.

I found that this book was a tad more boring that the first, as Grant seems to have dragged things along for a lot of the book, whereas they could have been over and done with quite quickly. Overall, it was a great plot, but I don't think it lived up to its full potential due to the writing style of this novel.

The characters were, as usual, likeable. There is a vast amount of characters in this book, and I think each of them are being developed very well. Their powers add a very interesting concept to their personalities, and the ones without powers still have a great deal to do with the plot.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5