Grace Caadiang Caadiang itibaren Ujung, Arimop, Boven Digoel Regency, Papua, Indonesië
Michael Grant's envision of a world without adults, without phones, televisions and Internet is simply eerie. Gone has the feel of Lord of the Flies combined with Lost. Kids are forced to grow up quickly, create rules to avoid spiraling into anarchy, and find ways to survive. The struggle to create some semblance of society and foster some understanding of their familiar and yet unfamiliar surroundings creates an intriguing novel that piques one's interest and keeps one reading throughout its many pages. As with any novel that is the beginning of a series, most of the 558 pages of it is spent setting up this new world, establishing the major players in this battle for control while hinting at a more mysterious Big Bad. Mr. Grant does not shy away from making a point about the harshness of this new world, and many stories do not end well. The powers and other mutations are fascinating and establish an element of the unexpected that is scarier than normal dystopian novels. Nothing is as it seems, and one never knows when this is going to make itself apparent. While the battle between Caine and Sam is interesting, Gone's major fault is that it is simply predictable. The reader knows the outcome of the battle, just like the reader knows there is more to the Darkness than meets the eye. In future novels, one can predict that the FAYZ is going to get worse, and one can almost predict that Caine and Sam are going to have to find a way to work together to beat the mysterious green monster. In Gone, this predictability crosses every aspect - from Sam's burgeoning relationship with Astrid to his questioning leadership to his friendship with Quinn. It doesn't make it a bad novel, just one that does not leave much in the way of surprises.
I suppose this book was meant to be funny, but i really hated her sense of humor. To me her jokes were a bit on the tired side and I feel like I gained nothing from her reflections. Not even a laugh.
David Peace’s 1977: even more dark and brutal than 1974 January 3rd, 2011 Posted in 52 Books in one year challenge, Crime, Kelly, Mystery 1977From 1975 to 1981, the Yorkshire Ripper preyed upon women, murdering thirteen and injuring seven. While the majority of his victims were prostitutes, some were ‘ordinary’ women with regular jobs and lives. One murder victim was just sixteen years old. David Peace’s 1977 is a fictionalized account of the hunt for the real life serial killer. The novel follows two characters: a slightly corrupt cop, and a jaded journalist. Both characters are present in the first novel in the Red Riding Quartet, 1974, although this novel brings them into focus. Jack Whitehead, the journalist, is haunted by crimes he’s covered, and by the actions of his coworker Eddie from the first novel. Detective Sergeant Bob Fraser seemed like he was on the up-and-up in the first novel, so either the corruption of his fellow police officers has rubbed off on him, or he was always morally ambiguous. Both make questionable moral judgments throughout the novel, with surprising consequences. Like its predecessor, 1977 has unresolved plot threads that will hopefully be tied up in the final two books of Red Riding Quartet. On a side note, the real life Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, is in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and has challenged his life sentence in court: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov... Sutcliffe was caught 30 years ago, and the young journalist who “unmasked” Sutcliffe has written about the experience: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...