• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
  • Reviews
    • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
    • Comics/Graphic Novels
    • Fantasy
      • Alt History
      • Coming of Age
      • Debut
      • Epic Fantasy
      • Fairy Tales
      • Grimdark
      • Heroic Fantasy
      • LitRPG
      • Paranormal Fantasy
      • Romantic Fantasy
      • Steampunk
      • Superheroes
      • Sword and Sorcery
      • Urban Fantasy
    • Historical Fiction
    • Horror
      • Debut
      • Demons
      • Ghosts
      • Gothic
      • Lovecraftian
      • Monsters
      • Occult
      • Psychological
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves
      • Witches
      • Zombies
    • Science Fiction
      • Aliens
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Alt History
      • Cyberpunk
      • Debut
      • Dystopian
      • Hard SciFi
      • Mechs/Robots
      • Military SF
      • Space Opera
      • Steampunk
      • Time Travel
    • Thriller
  • Interviews
    • Book Tube
    • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts Podcast
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2022
    • TBRCon2023

Review: Gone (Gone #1) by Michael Grant

May 3, 2021 by Manny Henri Leave a Comment

Amazon
Barnes & Nobles
Goodreads

Rating: 8/10

Synopsis

In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what’s happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It’s a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: on your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else. . . .

Review

Gone was one of those books where the premise, the buzz (I mean Stephen King on the cover—it must be good right!) and the book itself was exciting, engaging and stress-inducing until the last chapters. It literally was 10 stars until it got to the climax of the story where my rating deflated to an 8 like an untied balloon left flying. 

Let me explain spoiler-free. Many writing teachers/books speak of promises—again we’re talking for a single book—where you establish your questions and promises and answer them in the final chapters. A good example is how Brandon Sanderson (in Mistborn) set many promises early on and literally covered them all in the last pages. You could read only the first Mistborn book and be satisfied and not have to purchase the second or third book to fulfill those promises. The first book worked on its own. This is not what Michael did in Gone, he created several elements—some dire—that needed to be resolved in the first book, teased us in the final pages and said no-no, you’ll have to wait for the following books to get this exceptional climax. To me, that is a frustrating experience as a reader and something I’d avoid at all cost in my writing. It feels like a ploy for selling more books or lazy writing (not knowing how to end this specific thread). 

Besides this, everything else was great; I mean it was a 10 until the climax. We got an in-depth view of each character and exploration of their motivations, their background story and some subtlety around who possessed powers and why. It was impressive to see how 10-14-year-olds would react to events typically handled by adults, such as being the local firefighters, managing a daycare, etc.. And if you read this book on audio, the narrator truly goes wild with voicing each character. 

The plot was well paced, always bringing new mysterious elements to the story to enhance the sci-fi, mystery or testing our characters. What I really loved about Gone was how detailed the settings were and how immersive they made us truly get into the story. It felt real, it felt current. 

Michael’s prose is accessible and totally allows anyone to read these books as they’re probably meant as YA or middle grade literature. Therefore, you don’t get lost in the complexity of verbiage or terms created for the story certain books delve into sometimes.  

If you know this book is meant as a series, and you’ll have to progress through for the big conclusion, then Gone will bring you on a mysterious and appealing journey meeting all the checks of urban dystopian sci-fi. 

Filed Under: Dystopian, Reviews, Science Fiction Tagged With: Katherine Tegen Books, Michael Grant

About Manny Henri

Emmanuel Henri grew up in Chambly, a city in the tail of Quebec (Canada) near Montreal. He’s an established technologist with 25 years of experience in the world of programming and design, and also published 125 courses on several platforms such as Linkedin Learning, Pluralsight and O’reilly. Since his teens, he always had a knack for storytelling, especially monster-driven tales, and has compiled a boatload of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and horror ideas he’s thrilled to put into words. To keep his head sane and healthy, especially after his close call with cancer in 2020 (now in remission), he’s pledged his body to a strict diet and rigorous exercise plan. He’s currently working on his novel “Ashes” and editing “From the mist” and several short-stories, such as “The Agency”.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Review: Blindspace (Book #2 of The Common) by Jeremy Szal

Review: New Yesterday by Frasier Armitage

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

Follow FanFi!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Recommends

Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book

Recent Reviews

Recent Comments

  1. Adrian M. Gibson on Author Roundtable: Indie Marketing (with Kian N. Ardalan, Ryan Cahill, Aparna Verma & Gourav Mohanty)March 23, 2023
  2. zidane on Review: A Fractured Infinity by Nathan TavaresMarch 14, 2023
  3. Gary Weston on Bender’s Top 10 Fights in Fantasy BooksMarch 14, 2023
  4. David S on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 13, 2023
  5. Komikinime on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 11, 2023

Archive

Copyright © 2023 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In