Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Source: Purchased
Pages: 294
Series: Monument 14 #1
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.
When I first heard what this book was about, I knew that I wanted to read it as soon as I could get my hands on a copy. I wanted to know what was going to happen to these 14 kids who got trapped in a superstore and had to survive some sort of natural disaster. Although I wasn't blown away by the story, I did enjoy a lot of things that happened in it. It was a really quick and entertaining read.
There isn't a lot of character development which isn't surprising since this book is under 300 pages. However, it is a little disappointing because there are 14 characters in the book and I'd at least like to know the main character a little more than what we know about him (which isn't much!)
There are some things in this book that bothered me, other than not really knowing much about the characters. For example, I didn't really like how we didn't get an explanation as to why these kids were making certain decisions. There were some things that would happen and they would have to make a quick decisions. But after they made it, there was never any reasoning behind it. It just kind of happened. There is another part of the book, which I won't mention because I don't want to spoil anything, but it wad me going "what in the world?!" and literally laughing. Hopefully if you read it, you will know what I am talking about. If you want to know what I am talking about, you can contact me and I will be more than willing to tell you!
Overall, I liked this book. It wasn't the best but it definitely wasn't the worst. I will be picking up the second and third books eventually, just not right away.
