Plague

March 15, 2011

Readers who have stuck with the Gone novels up to now will perhaps find enough in this fourth installment to satisfy them on the road to the conclusion that's likely another 1,000 pages away. Others, not so much. With very little recap of life in the FAYZ, it's easy to become mired in the tedious goings-on of the endless cast of nearly indistinguishable, unlikable, power-hungry characters who are beset by dual plagues—flu and an infestation of parasitic insects that become giant, metallic killer bugs on a rampage. Clunky writing is at times reminiscent of a B movie, at others of a romance novel: "Yes, yes, she wanted him. She wanted to be in his arms. She wanted to kiss him. And maybe more. Maybe a lot more." The distinction in the FAYZ between Freaks and Normals is not made clear, at least not before this dialogue: " 'You and me, we're normal people. We're not black or queer or Mexican And we're the ones digging toilets'...'Astrid's a normal white person'... 'Sam's a freak, and I think he might even be a Jew.' " Pete, an autistic boy at the heart of the battle with the Darkness, is referred to as a "mutant retard," "freaktard," or just plain " 'tard." Utterly missable. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011
Grades 7-10 Though the desperate, dirty, starving teens of the Gone series look decreasingly like the clean-cut hotties on the book jackets, Grants sf-fantasy thrillers continue to be the very definition of page-turner. Nearly out of water and beset with two types of plagues (one like a flu, the other a horde of flesh-eating bugs), the FAYZ community of superfriends and superenemies must once again band together and fight. Being dumped into this populous soap opera, with all its powers and vendettas, will doom newcomers. But whod be crazy enough to start here? Great fun for fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)