Book Review: GONE

Review: Gone by Michael Grant

The first book in the Gone series, Gone is set in the fictional English town of Birmingham Beach. At the start of the book, every human who is fifteen or older vanishes, leaving behind everyone who is younger than fifteen, and the town and surrounding areas are encased in a dome (later named the Fayz) that hurts to touch. As the novel progresses, several of the youths in the town are found to possess superpowers, such as super speed and telekinesis. Not only that, other animals are also found to be mutating – coyotes gain the ability to speak and snakes grow wings and start flying. The town children’s problems multiply when children from the Coates Academy, a school for troubled kids, start to take over the town.

The idea behind Gone is intriguing, and there are many crucial questions that we find ourselves asking and reading on to find out, such as why was the Fayz created, what is causing the children to develop powers and the animals to mutate, amongst others. Some of the questions are answered, while others are not – up to the end of the story, we are still not told why some children have powers and others do not. We are also introduced to a mysterious, malevolent force, the Darkness, that rules the Coyotes. This being the first book in the series, I find the pacing quite appropriate, as Grant answers enough questions to satisfy us, but leaves others unanswered so that we are interested enough to read the following books.

I also enjoyed the characters in the book, especially the protagonist Sam Temple and his brother and antithesis, Caine Soren from Coates Academy. Sam is a reluctant but believable hero – throughout the book he never wants to take charge. Instead, he hides his powers and would rather stand aside for Caine at first. But when things start to get worse – Caine and his sidekicks start to abuse their power and even end up beating a girl to death – he finally steps up and takes charge of the town, leading the town children against the Coates Academy students and eventually winning. His journey to becoming a leader and hero is believable, and filled with many tough challenges that he has to strive to overcome. As a character, he is someone whom we can root for and like.

Caine Soren, on the other hand, is literally the opposite of his brother – he starts off as the charismatic, convincing leader, but is later revealed to be a cruel, selfish and insecure person who only wants power. He’s not a likeable character. Nevertheless, he is interesting and the brief flashes of humanity he shows make us hope for his redemption. At the same time we can understand his anger towards Sam – their mother kept Sam and abandoned him to foster parents, which explains his hatred and desire to take revenge upon Sam, and this lets us feel sorry for him.

Another intriguing character is Drake Merwin, a violent, cruel psychopath, and one of Caine’s underlings. He is perhaps the most fearsome character – even Caine, despite having incredible telekinetic powers whereas Drake has no powers, is afraid of him. While Caine does things for his own benefit and does not go out of his way to hurt others, Drake enjoys hurting others. Despite being Caine’s underling, he also has an obvious dislike for Caine and a clear desire to take over. He is an unpredictable character, and that makes him especially exciting to read about, since we cannot tell what he will do next.

One problem I find with Gone, though, is the secret of Sam and Caine being brothers. I have no problem with the secret itself, but it seems a little too convenient that, out of the whole wide world of people, it has to be Caine, Sam’s rival and enemy, who is his brother. There are no hints of it previously – the secret is revealed abruptly and without explanation. This makes the truth rather jarring, unrealistic and unbelievable.

Another problem is that Gone is too ambitious. The book touches on a range of issues but only briefly. One example is the chaos that arise in the town after the adults are gone, as the children are free to do whatever they want. Or, near the end of the story, where the children are forced to use weapons to fight and kill each other. These issues could have been more explored in greater detail, leading to a more impactful tale. However, Grant merely glosses over the details, mentioning them briefly. This reduces the impact and makes me feel that there is something lacking in the story. Perhaps it’s because this book is targeted at tweens and teens. However, Grant might have underestimated his target reader group’s ability to grasp the complex issues that arise in his book.

All in all, despite its flaws, Gone is still quite a satisfying book, and is definitely worth a read.

Rating: 4/5

For ages 9 and above