Hunger

Title: Hunger
Author: Michael Gran
Series: Gone (Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction



It's three months after that adults "poofed" and food is running low. No more candy, cookies or ice cream for these kids. Now it's a jar of Relish or Can of gravy if you're lucky. Unfortunately, this doesn't look good for the neighborhood pets/strays. Although it's not described or mentioned directly, there are enough hints to know that just about all pets/strays have also been eaten.

In addition to the food shortages, it appears that the normal kids are getting powers as well. Most seem to be for defensive/survival reasons. Not to mention the continuing mutation of the animals in the area.

There is a little less of Caine vs. Sam in this book, but it does come up again, giving this book a suspenseful ending.

There is a quote on one of the books' cover that says this is like a modern day Lord of the Flies. To me this was a huge turn off. I hated that book in high school. It's one of the few books that I just can't stand. Although I had such strong feelings about that book and such mild ones about the Gone series, after this installment, I totally see why it is marketed as that.

I highly enjoyed learning more about the FAYZ and why exactly this is all happening. It has a fairly reasonable (as reasonable as a science fiction story can be) explanation behind it all. Again, I had somewhat of a hard time getting through the book - it was interesting enough that I wanted to continue to read it, but not so much that I couldn't put it down or would go out of my way to read it.

At the end it appears that the kids are trying to start to recreate some sort of civilization in the FAYZ. I'm guessing their world will continue to crumble in the final story - Lies.

Gone

Title: Gone
Author: Michael Grant
Series: Gone
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction



Imagine if in the middle of one day, everyone the age of 15 and over just disappeared. "Poofed" right where they were, didn't "die" just poofed. Well, I guess I can't imagine, because I would have poofed too.

That's what happens. One day Sam was sitting in class, the teacher was teaching and then he just wasn't. The worst part about this over 15 poofing? On your birthday when you turn 15 (to the second when you were born) you poof too.

The main kids at Perdido Beach try and put some order together. In the midst of this Caine and his posse from Coates Academy show up in an organized car procession and proceed to take over. He creates his own rules, and delegates jobs. Children are replacing the roles of: Mayor, Fire Chief, Deputy, Caregiver and even someone to run the McDonald's.

Caine runs the city in a very dark, you'll be beaten if you disagree way. There isn't much that anyone can do about it, until they discover "the power." Select children have different abilities. They can suspend gravity, run at a super speed, telekinesis, an ability to shoot green-white light, teleport and others.

Add into the mix talking coyotes, flying snakes and other oddities and you have a world filled with new and strange things. The kids start to fight for control that centers around twin brothers, both with major power. Caine wants a world of fear and punishment, where Sam wants to run things in a nicer way.

It's a race to their 15th Birthday, and the hope that they can beat whatever causes them to poof on that day.

About a year ago I read The Girl Who Owned A City I had anticipated Gone being similar, although I don't think it was too much. Gone had a much more Science Fiction feel to it.

I enjoyed the book overall, but did feel that it was a little repetitive and I felt like it could have been a little shorter. I'm definitely going to move on with the series, I'm highly intrigued with "the darkness" and want to see if what they think caused the disappearance, really did.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Series: None
Genre: Science Fiction



At some point when poking around the internet I came across this trailer:

The Time Traveler's Wife

Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite actresses. I knew I had to see this movie, and then I learned it was a book. I was worried about reading it because I had read someone's comment in regards to the movie. The commenter was wondering what happened to all the Scientific information from the book (based on the trailer) . This made me wonder if I wanted to read the book or just watch the movie and love that.

Well I gave in and picked up Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife.

Wow - what an amazing book. I loved it. I'm so happy that I read it before the movie came out and now I am that much more excited. I didn't think that there was really that much of scientific information the way the poster had mentioned. I just thought it was a beautiful love story, and that's what the movie (hopefully) will be too.

I know that I need to bring tissue to the movie because the end of the book made me cry. This is a whole lot of not explaining what the book was about, but I think the trailer gives the needed information. All I can say is...Go read the book!

The Host

Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Series: None
Genre: Science Fiction



Reading the Twilight books and enjoying them immensely, I was excited to learn that Stephenie Meyer had written another book for adults, The Host. Apparently I wasn't the only excited, and I have spent the last three months on the waiting list at my local library.

It's a long book - at about 625 pages I knew I needed to set aside some time and read it. That happened to be the last two days. I read the story of "Wanda" and Mel and their lives in an earth that has been taken over by parasites that infiltrate your body and mind and live your life while you waste away.

Now when I was younger I enjoyed the Animorphs series. This series includes aliens, Yerks that crawl into your ear and do exactly what these aliens in The Host do.

I must say, although I enjoyed the story, I was hoping for more. The Twilight series (for the most part) reminds me of teenage sexual frustration. I thought - she wrote a book marketed for adults, maybe there is a reason it is written for adults. As far as I can tell - I don't see a reason. There is probably less physical togetherness in this book then in the Twilight books. Now I wasn't looking for a romance novel...but I was hoping for an adult novel.

That said, I enjoyed the struggle between Wanda, Mel, Ian and Jared, as well as the overall love and joy that came from Jamie. I definitely cried a few times in this book.