Fear (Gone series #5) by Michael Grant

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. 

Twilight series thoughts

As I'm waiting on the last book on my Mark Twain list to either show up in the library, where I'm 2nd on the list, or else I ordered it into the store I work at, I went ahead and dove back into New Moon in preparation for the movie release next week. Of course, once you begin, well, once I begin, I can't put them down, and am now all the way through to Breaking Dawn. As I read New Moon, I also began listening to the Twilight movie soundtrack in my car again. The song Supermassive Black Hole reminded me of probably my 2nd favorite part of the movie, the vampire baseball scene. It begas as such a fun scene, just kind of no worries, good music, enjoy the craziness. I began thinking that I can't imagine any scene in the New Moon movie fitting quite the same feeling. Don't get me wrong, I have never in my life been as excited about seeing a movie as I am about seeing New Moon. I love the book, and the previews look like they've done a hundred times better than Twilight. I haven't bought the soundtrack yet, waiting until I see the movie. The songs on it are probably not my "normal" type of music, but once I can "see" the scene in the movie that they're from, I'll love them for bringing those feelings to my mind.

Also, I'm totally Team Edward, that is who Bella belongs with. But I don't understand how anyone can hate Jacob. He makes me smile. I just love him to death. In fact, I really couldn't wait as I was re-reading New Moon until Jacob began being a big part of Bella's life. And as for the actors playing Edward and Jacob, while I think Rob Pattinson is much cuter in the face, Taylor Lautner looks hot without his shirt!!! Can't wait for that.

So right now I'm on pins and needles just waiting for next week. There's a good possibility I may get to see New Moon on Tuesday night with my friend Kim and her mom, because her mom works for AMC and they have these special previews. Plus, I already have tickets for the midnight show a week from tonight. So by this time next week, I could be just about ready to see it for the 2nd time. I also have a friend I'll be going with the weekend of Thanksgiving because she doesn't want her friends to know because they'll make fun of her, but she wants to go. So I of course agreed. I'd really like to do my once a week showing of the movie again, but now sure I can afford it this year. So broke right now, not even funny. I'm just really looking forward to tax return time. Guessing due to money issues I may not attend the MASL conference, can't really afford it since I have to pay for it all myself. That's kind of sad since I'm reading for both Mark Twain and Truman lists, but what can I do? It doesn't seem like it's been a very good investment for my money seeing as how I'm still not a librarian and don't seem to be any closer to getting that type of job. Oh well.

Hopefully in the next week I'll be back giving my final review for the Mark Twain books.

Book Review 49: thank you, Lucky Stars by Beverly Donofrio

This was a pretty good book about girls and their friendships. I have to admit at first the whole, Lucky Stars, being capitalized and said constantly was kind of annoying. But I got used to it. I also at first had trouble because the girls were so young to me, 5th grade, and totally behaved that way. However, since the Mark Twain books are for 4th-6th graders, a book about 5th grade girls is about right. It starts at the beginning of the school year when Ally realizes her best friend Betsy has left her for a girl that they both used to hate. Betsy has gone on to be a part of the more mature girls, while Ally is still very imaginative and young. A new girl moves to the school named Tina, and she's weird. She keeps trying to be friends with Ally, and Ally at first doesn't want to be seen with her. But soon she learns what a good friend Tina can be. The big talent show is what Ally had always been so excited to perform in with Betsy. And it doesn't look at first like that's going to happen. But soon another chance comes up for Ally to start hanging with Betsy and the cool girls. Ally must decide if she'll keep Tina as a friend, or line up with the clique and become one of them.

The sadness and loneliness Ally feels is written so well, that I can feel it, and the book got me emotionally. So, all in all, a pretty good book.

Only one book left on the Mark Twain list for me to read. Unfortunately I am still on a waiting list at the Mid-Continent Public library for it. It is called Bringing Home the Boy by Nelson. So, while I had hoped to be completely done with the list by the middle of this week, it may be a few more days. So I picked up New Moon and decided to go ahead and get to reading the series again to get ready for the movie in 3 weeks.