Book Review: Plague by Michael Grant

Plague (Gone #4)

Michael Grant

Review of Lies (Gone #3)


Publication Date: April 5th 2011

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 497

Genre: Horror, Scifi, Young Adult

It's been eight months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.

They've survived hunger. They've survived lies. But the stakes keep rising, and the dystopian horror keeps building. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach.

But enemies in the FAYZ don't just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate. Sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they'll escape - or even survive - life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love?

Michael Grant is a master. Specifically he is the master of making me cringe, gag and freak out over a book. And yet, I can't put down the series for the life of me. Although Lies gave us a bit of a break from the mutation horrors of the FAYZ, Plague comes right back with it in full force. You thought the Zekes were bad in Hunger? Yeah, this book has much worse. I feel like Grant sat in his room pondering what kind of sicknesses were the most horrifying for kids without parents or doctors to rely on, and he came up with two: fear of coughing one's lung up and parasites. Then he decided, why just have one? Once again I had FAYZ related nightmares.

The thing is, is that this series of books has got a serious hook into me. I can't stop reading it and I'm truly worried about when I finally get my hands on Fear, because after that I have to wait. I keep reading and reading in hopes that we might find more clues to what's going on outside of the FAYZ, what the gaiaphage wants to do to the planet, if the kids can kill it, and sickeningly enough what new horrors Grant can come up with.

What's great about this series though is that Grant amps it up every book. Everytime the kids think they may have their lives under control, some new problem pops up. Sometimes it's just an expected environmental problem like food or water. Other times the problem is directly related to gaiaphage and the mutations. Then of course there are the societal problems.

This series is book is honestly one that makes you sit and wonder what would you do if you were in the FAYZ.

I developed a cough while reading this book. Do you guys know how scary that is? Every time I coughed I had an irrational fear of coughing up  my lung. Grant's writing style has a way of sneaking its way into your subconscious and sticking.

Speaking of Grant's writing style, I have to say he does an amazing job writing both teenaged male and female perspectives.

I'm also very interested in the fact that Diane is now pregnant and how this will affect the FAYZ. I suspect that the book is going to be a lot longer chronologically than the last few has been since apparently the birth is in Fear. I also wonder how Perdido Beach is going to change with Caine finally in charge like he's wanted since the beginning.

Keep reading this series, don 't stop, it just keeps getting better and better, the stakes getting higher and higher. And honestly this is the series that feels like a good A Song of Ice and Fire comparison for young adult with the politics, horrors and not always does the good guy win feeling.

4.5 Bookmarks