Book Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Book: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
Genre: YA... sort of a dystopian feeling, but not a real dystopian
Rating:★★★★☆  
For: Fun
From: Bought at the Fierce Reads Tour event

It's hard to plug this book into a particular genre... I guess maybe apocalyptic would be a better term than dystopian. It's set in the very near future and life is pretty much simlar to what we have today (Ipads have taken over the world!) but one day, the kids are going to school when a massive destructive hailstorm occurs. It causes their bus to get in an accident and the other bus following close behind them, drives right into the Greenway (think Walmart) to get out of the storm.

So before they know it, a bunch of kids, without any adult supervision (what happened to the bus drivers you may wonder? Well, stuff happens!) end up hiding out in the store. They find out that not only was there the hailstorm, but all sorts of other disasters that mess with the climate and world... and which in addition, cause a terrible chemical accident.

So the book is about how these kids deal with it all.... sometimes it's very impressive and sometimes not so much.

The book feels like a mash up of several other books. The Mist by Stephen King (where a bunch of people are trapped in the store from the scary monsters in the mist) and Lord of the Flies by William Golding (where a bunch of kids are trapped on an island and have to determine how to survive) and Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts (where a homeless girl lives in the Walmart) and Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (where an event causes havoc and people are suddenly without everything they used to know)

I did really enjoy it .... it was extremely page turning and fun to read. Be warned, however, that the ending is not an ending, but basically a "to be continued". Argh, painful!

Bottom line: I really liked it!

Other Reviews:

Miss Remmers' Reviews
Small Reviews
Annette's Book Spot
Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf