Author: Michael Grant

This book was hard for me to read.

At first, it intrigued me because it looked like another Lord of the flies style of novel. A dystopia that my students really enjoyed, except with a more fast-paced narrative style.

However, getting into it required a lot more of my willingness to make it happen. It started off with an intriguing premise: all at once, for no reason, everybody over the age of 14 disappears.

The problem is… I’m a parent.

So immediately I start to think of my own children and how would they survive given this situation. Then I think about other children and infants and… you get it.

Putting aside the fact that this would be a dark reality, I realize the author hooked me in. Even though the scenario was frightening, I really wanted to know where it was going. For that—this book gets top marks.

It really is a fast-paced action novel, full of adventure, intrigue, and mystery. As cliché is that sounds, this book does have it all.

My only contention is that it does get kind of repetitive near the end and there were a few times and I was rolling my eyes that certain situations kept repeating themselves.

In other words, I was predicting a lot what was going to happen.

Given that I blasted this whole thing in one weekend, it still kept me going and I will eventually get to the rest of the series. Overall, great read… but tough at first as a parent to get through the first hundred pages.