Hunger (Gone series)

Title: “Hunger"

Author: Michael Grant

Pages: 608

Genre: Dystopic

Rating: 4/5 stars

Hunger Review

“Hunger” is the second book in the riveting Gone series written by Michael Grant. This book is a fantastical combination of mystery, drama, and all things sci-fi. This dystopian novel takes place in a small beach town, in southern Alabama. Perdido Beach is the perfect setting for this book because they are on this tiny peninsula, so it makes you feel like they’re really trapped within the barrier. Sam Temple, a 15 year old boy, is left to run a town full of kids. He’s the appointed mayor of the small town, and he has to find a way to stop the mutations of animals, keep the normal kids from rebelling, and make sure no one starves. Caine, on the other hand, only has one mission, and it’s to stop his twin brother, Sam. He runs the group of muties (mutants) at Coates, the elite private school for juveniles. Between his controlling temper and his fascination with the Gaiaphage (the reason they all have mutations) , he has little time to think about  ruling the other kids.

When all the food has gone to waste, Sam, asks a group of kids to ride with him up to the cabbage patch to collect more food. While they are up there, a kid called E.Z. picks up a head of cabbage and is devoured by “zekes”, which are man-eating worms. Now Sam has to worry about these creatures killing his kids  and his veggie crop. Meanwhile, back in Perdido Beach, Hunter, a mutie, has killed another kid by accident, when his main target was Zil,a normal. Now Zil has created the Human Crew, who will kill and mutilate any mutie that steps in their way. Meanwhile, Caine has woken up from his 3 month coma and is ready to destroy Sam. He takes over the power plant with Drake”Whip Hand”, Diana, and Computer Jack. While Caine is trying to break open the heavy door, a brave girl named Britney, has a gun locked and loaded for the intruders. Caine finally breaks through and Drake wrecks the girls to pieces yet, Jack keeps on working to get the power shut down in Perdido Beach. While this is happening, Edilio and Lana go to the mine to blow up the Gaiaphage. But the Gaiaphage has a different plan for her. He possess the healer and she goes and shoots Edilio and then, with some control, walks back into the mine and attempts to blow it up. Sam has gone up to the power plant to where he is met with Drake. Drake beats him to a tiny pulp and Orc shows up, a half rock, half human mutant, and kills Drake. Orc then picks up Sam and takes Caine also to the mine. Caine, Orc, and Sam come upon the mine and there they find Duck, who can suck things into oblivion. Caine and Duck go into the mine and find Lana. In order to stop the Darkness, Caine throws Duck at the Gaiaphage, which pushes it deeper into the barrier, but kills Duck in the process. Lana is snapped out of her daze and heals Sam and Edilio and then they all go home to hope to survive another day. In the cliffhanger of the book, you realize the girl that was beat by Drake, Britney, is still alive. The normals hate the muties, so they lead other kids in thinking because they are different, they are bad. Some kids still think that the muties are okay, but with all the events that are occurring, they are going to need more convincing. Sam’s friend, Quinn, is often ridiculed by the normals for being friends with muties, but he realizes that if the the normals want to kill the muties, they are not better than the mutants.

I liked the book because it was and wasn’t like The Hunger Games. I liked that it’s still about kids fending for their lives because it shows that sometimes they may seem tough on the outside, but on the inside they are all scared kids. For example, after their meet at the power plant, Sam goes home and breaks down crying because he is just a kid and he doesn’t know how to deal with it. This showed that they are all terrified of the environment they live in. Even though the book is 590 pages, you get immediately sucked into this mysterious world.(I) I would recommend this book to anyone that is 6th grade and up. If you like The Hunger Games or Divergent, you are sure to this fantastical spin on the genre.

Contributed by Elise Hillebrand