GONE, a review (plus LOTS OF CAPITALS)

I just realized that it's 10:30pm on a Thursday and I have not written a blog today. That won't do, will it?

I finished a book called Gone last night at 12am. I don't know what the chances are that either of you have read it but here's a quick summary: One day in the small town of Perdido Beach, California all adults and teenagers 15 and over disappear. Poof. They're all gone. Then they realize that they're enclosed in some kind of dome that burns to touch and is basically a wall that they can't get around or out of. It's advertised as if Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it would look like this. Oh and did I mention that some kids have MAGICAL POWERS?!?! Because it's true.

SO, I read it for book club and if it hadn't been for book club I probably would have given up after the first 100 pages. It was just so lame. After the initial 'OMG, they're all gone,' there was no action. It was dreadfully slow. Plus the characters were really 2002.* They were terrible cliches like Astrid the Genius and Sam and Quinn, the surfer dudes. It was awful. Also the dialogue was often painful. I kept on reading. I am just that dedicated to my book club**.

Then a bunch of stuff happened really quickly and I was hooked until the end.

Sam, the main character, only gained respect from me after he badmouthed the seriously twisted bully (with telekinetic powers, no less) and made a Harry Potter reference. After that I was totally on his side. I felt like I was his motivator and he was my charity case. Every time he did something smart I was totally surprised and enthused and every time he did something stupid I was totally pissed of and yet unsurprised. It was kind of a love/hate relationship.

The dialog was still bad sometimes and when the author tried to add some romance I totally cringed but it was good after those first 100 dud pages.

I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone as there's a lot of other (better) stuff out there but I will be reading the sequel. Let's just hope that Michael Grant talked to a real teenager between writing the two books and realized that we don't actually talk EXACTLY like that.

I'm not sure what's with all the capital letters today. AHA! That was ONLY 17 minutes. 18 by the time I hit publish, I'm sure.

*'That's so 2002' is something I'm trying to make happen. Basically, it means that's so lame or notsome or whatever. I don't know what 2002 did to deserve this dishonour, but it just happened and I'm obsessed with it. Although really, obsessions are so 2002. ;)

**SPEAKING of which, what happened to that?