June 06, 2012

Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Monument 14 (Monument 14, #1)
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Pages: 294
Source: Galley from NetGalley/Publisher

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.

Review: I loved this book! First of all, I haven't read many dystopians that are told from a male POV and this one was! I enjoyed the male perspective! I loved how the story started out with a freak hailstorm out of nowhere. I mean, it was so bad it caused a bus to lose control! During the whole bus scene I was scared! I didn't know what was gonna happen to those kids and how many of them would ultimately survive! Though I must say it is a brilliant idea to hide out in a supermarket! I mean you have all the supplies you could ever need there. It has totally changed mine and my best friends post apocalyptic survival plan. We are now going to over run the local Costco (or Walmart), whichever one's closer depending on where we are! Lol!!! I thought it was funny when Dean was trying to cook stuff and then him and his helper (I cant remember which kid was helping him that day) suddenly realized they were in a store and could go find appliances to help them. That made me laugh a little. I liked how most of the kids worked together to get the store clean after the quakes! Even though they were stuck in there when most of them just wanted to leave they still tried their hardest most of the time to make it a liveable environment.

The chemical spill, this was the main problem causing them to have to stay in the store! First of all, if there was a chemical spill, I'd want to stay inside anyways! You don't know whats in those chemicals and how harmful they could be! Second, how could a government seriously engineer chemicals that did what they did to people? Making people with Type A blood get blisters (that were really gross), Type AB have hallucinations, Type O pretty much go nuts if they were exposed to it too long and the least harmful Type B having Reproductive Failure or Sterility. Why would you engineer a chemical that can affect so many people in different ways?!?! I thought it was so sad how most of the kids found out what type they were when they went to wash their hands after going to the bathroom! Stupid chemicals getting in the water (Don't drink the tap water!). I felt so bad for Astrid, she attacked one of the kids because of what the chemicals did to her (which was even worse than what happened to Dean). I understood why she disappeared for a while. I also felt for Dean when some of the other started doing bad things, not contributing, and just making situations worse! And then when he even said that he didn't want to let people in the store in the first place because he had a bad feeling about it and everyone else did anyways! What do you know, Dean was right with his feeling but did you guys listen to him? Of course not. When will people learn? Lol. I was most shocked with the ending though! Niko deciding that they were going to leave and try to get to Denver and then Astrid's HUGE announcement tossing that idea into the air!!! I can definitely say I didn't see her announcement coming! I'm definitely excited for the next book! I need it!!!!

5 Stars!