This is a series I began reading back in 2009 when I was reading to help pick one of my state's award nominee list for the 2010-2011 school year. I believe it was the same year I read
Hunger Games. You can read my review of
Gone here. I would say it was probably my 2nd favorite from the list, after
The Hunger Games of course. In fact I belive it might have been the runner up choice in the vote last year, which of course
Hunger Games was the state winner. Anyway, all of the books have been really long, and this one wasn't any different, once again over 500 pages. The main theme of the story is that one day all the adults, or everyone over the age of 14 I think, disappear. Then the kids left soon find out that they are inside a huge dome. As someone else compared it recently to
Lord of the Flies, in a way, that is the type of story. You have all these kids, some really, really young, that must learn how to take care of themselves, as well as those younger. And, to top it off, some of the kids have been developing strange new powers. Really fast, suspending gravity, creating balls of light/fire, etc. Throughout the last 4 books, we've gone through the fight for power between the "good" group led by Sam, against the "evil" group led by Caine, who we learned were twin brothers. But not only are they dealing with kids gone bad, but with an evil being that is also causing animals to mutate, and is called the gaiaphage. The kids eventually get a system going, fishing, farming, etc. The leadership changes as different things occur, and where we left off in the 4th book,
Plague, one of the main players, Caine's 2nd in command, and love interest, Diana, is pregnant. But she has left Caine because he didn't listen to her and just stay out of all the drama, and she now is sorry for a lot of what she did and wants to turn over a new leaf it seems. So she goes to stay in Sam's new camp. We also learned in past books about how Astrid, Sam's love interest, and her little brother, Petey, who was autistic I think, she learned that it was Petey who was somehow controlling a lot of the bad things, and so Astrid had to sacrifice her brother to save others. Where we join in to this story, Astrid has gone off to live by herself in the wild, until she can forgive herself for what she's done to her brother. Caine and Albert are in charge of Perdido Beach, the town where it all began, and Sam has his following out at a lake by the military base they explored in book 4. What's neat is the map at the beginning of the book showing where everything is in the dome, or the FAYZ as it is called by the kids.
Now, I have to say my favorite part was the very beginning, when we FINALLY got a glimpse out the outside, the parents, and what was going on in the "real" world. And then, we have chapters sprinkled throughout finding out what is going on outside, and what the scientists and military think about the dome and what to do about it. And what would you think? Yeah, they want to launch a nuclear bomb down underground at the bottom of the dome. Not caring which happens, either it destroys everything inside, or it could just open it up, and who knows what will happen.
Inside the dome, something is changing, the dome is going black. It is soon going to be completely dark inside. The gaiaphage is losing its power, because without Petey, who was helping it without really knowing it, it has no physical body, and it needs one. And it locks onto Diana's baby, and so sends one of the worst villians from the series, Drake, to get her. Diana knows something is wrong, because she isn't that far along in her pregnancy, but is already bigger than she has read about in the pregnancy books. She also can feel the baby kicking, way before it should be.
Now, I was pretty sure this was going to be the final book. Not that I'd ever heard it anywhere, but come on, 5 books at over 500 pages? That beats even the
Harry Potter books! I think. And I did something I rarely do, in fact don't think I've done since
New Moon, I went to the end of the book. I was looking for two things. First, for a little blurb about the next book in the series. There wasn't one. Second, I wanted to read what was going on at the end, but didn't want to see who was saying what. The lines I read on the last page sounded like a happy ending, like it was all over. But as I got to the end from actually reading it, I don't think it's done. Pretty sure the story will go on. I won't tell you why, I'll let you read on and see.
In conclusion, another great story, kept me on the edge of my seat, and I literally read these 500 pages in 2 days. I couldn't put it down! If I hadn't gotten it done earlier tonight, I wouldn't have gone to sleep till I'd finished. Great book, now I'll just be hanging on till book 6.
