Author: Michael Grant
Series: Gone (Book 6)
Publisher: Egmont UK
Release Date: 1st April 2013
ISBN13: 9781405257589
Synopsis
It’s been more than a year since every person over the age of fifteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California. In that time, countless battles have been fought: Battles against hunger and lies and plagues and worse, battles of good against evil, and kid against kid. Allegiances have been won, lost, betrayed, and won again; ideologies have been shattered and created anew, and the kids of the FAYZ have begun to believe that their new society is the only life they’ll ever know. But now that the Darkness has found a way to be reborn, the tenuous existence they‘ve established is likely to be shattered for good. Will the kids of Perdido Beach even survive?
My Review
Here we are at last, the final book in the 'Gone' series, it's been a long time coming and over 3000 pages in content over the series. This book was a bit shorter than some of the others at 435 pages but still enough.
We are straight back into the action, Gaia is walking free and ready to kill, Diana is trying to find a way to escape from the monster she ahs created. Sam is struggling to know where to turn next, how to fight and win or whether to face facts that fighting means he will probably die - but in doing so he will save everyone else.
Caine is back in the battle and finally stepping up to his role, though still with selfish intent at times. Edilio is still trying to keep everyone calm and in place whilst worrying about those dying around him. Astrid is still Astrid and basically the whole thing is reaching a crescendo pitch that you know is going to lead to it all shattering - the only questions is - who will actually make it out alive?
I found Gaia to be very annoying, it was good that she had her weaknesses, but overall I found myself really bored of reading her parts and would end up skimming over them. She was either moaning that she was hungry and then finding truly gruesome ways to get food sources, or she was walking along murdering people and laughing. It was all just a bit too sick for me. And I didn't see any reason for a lot of her actions, it again seems like Grant was just trying to shock us with the levels he could go to, but he just goes too far - it didn't really further the plot at all, it was just unnecessary.
I kept reading through this series as I wanted to know if they would get out, how it all came to be in the first place and how the characters cope. I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of it and quite frankly was not blown away by the whole reasoning of where the 'darkness' came from - I actually let out an 'oh really' when reading and rolled my eyes.
I think my favourite part of the book was actually the 'Aftermath' chapters at the end that described how most of the kids (those that survived anyway) were adapting to life now they have been released from the FAYZ, this tied up a lot of questions overall and was actually more interesting.
I am glad that I saw the series through to the end, but honestly think that it could have been told in half the time, a lot of it is unnecessary and just elongated for effect. I don't think they are the sort of books I will be picking up again in the future, and will be donating them to my school library - though with caution as the content is definitely only suitable for the older teens. There is sex, drugs, cannibalism, violence, blood, gore, monsters. Pretty much anything unsuitable is in there. So warning for those giving these to children.
My Rating
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