Book Review: Lies by Michael Grant

Lies (Gone #3)

Michael Grant

Review of Hunger (Gone #2)


Publication Date: May 4th 2010

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 447

Genre: SciFi, Young Adult, Dystopia

It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness--or so they thought.

As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

Lies marks book number three in the Gone Series and I swear it just keeps getting more and more intriguing. Once again aptly named, Lies deals with the fact that you can't just expect a perfect political system to appear overnight, especially considering they are just kids, the Human Crew is making problems, and hints that the Gaiaphage may not be as dead as they all think it is.

For the most part, this book was almost like a boundary book between the last book and the next. There was a ton of foreshadowing for the next book considering it's called Plague, there is an introduction of more characters, which I'll be interested in seeing how they meld in with the society being put together in Perdido Beach.

One of my favourite parts of this series, that came out prominently in this book was the puzzle piece feeling to the writing. From each perspective we learn different things and slowly we see them coming together and realizing things that other characters aren't able to realize till much later. This is something that features in Robert J. Sawyer's WWW series as well, and I love how it makes your brain work without making it overwork. The feeling of things clicking is pretty awesome.

I am so god darn proud of myself for guessing that Nerezza was the Gaiaphage. I knew I didn't trust her at all, and I felt like she must be influencing Orsay's dreams, but as soon as Mary mentioned never seeing her before, in a place where by now everyone must know everyone by now, I started wondering if Nerezza was real at all.

This book was also such a tease about what in the world could be happening outside of the FAYZ. I really knew I couldn't trust Orsay's dreams, it couldn't be that easy, and I don't know if I can trust the brief view that Pete caused, but I can't say for sure that that isn't happening. Even if it's true however, I feel like if they poofed out the FAYZ the Gaiaphage would end up being able to attack the rest of the world as time persists.

I felt so betrayed by Mary's jump, but at the same time I couldn't be all that surprised by it, she was losing it since the beginning and the poor girl was tired and stressed, which certainly wasn't helping one bit. I am worried for the Littles now, John can't do it by himself, who is going to help?

I really want to see this series as a TV series, though I guess it would be hard to cast considering the lack of adult actors and the need for A LOT of child actors. If it could be pulled off though, I feel like it would be beautiful in a visual medium. This one starts out a bit slower than the others, but as things start losing control it goes so fast, and as soon as you realize what the countdown's for you're hooked in my opinion. I recommend this series to book lovers in general, go pick up Gone and read on, there's a reason that these books are talked so much about.

4.5 Bookmarks