Gone by Michael Grant

Gone
Michael Grant
ISBN 0061448761
576 pages
Katherine Tegan Books, 2008

Genre: Supernatural

Readers Annotation
When everyone over the age of 15 disappears from their California coastal town, the teens who remain must figure out how to rebuild society. As some of the teens reveal that they have psionic powers, the teens divide into two factions who fight for control.

Plot Summary
In the middle of an ordinary school day in the coastal California town of Perdido Beach, everyone aged 15 and over suddenly disappears without a trace. In the chaos that follows, students turn to 14-year-old Sam, already a school hero for saving his fellow classmates after a school bus accident, as their leader. The teens try to create a new society and struggle with fulfilling all of the roles a successful society needs.

Sam, his best friend Quinn, and brilliant Ingrid--Sam's love interest--set off to search for her missing younger brother, who is autistic.  In their search, they learn that the entire town is surrounded by an invisible force field: they're trapped.  In their absence, teens from the local boarding school, led by a boy named Caine, show up to stake their claim on the new society. While at first the two groups try to work together, a chasm soon grows between them when the boarding school teens show themselves to be bullies. Some of the teens start developing psionic powers, such as telekinesis or the ability to shoot laser-like beams from one's hands. Sam confesses that he had these powers before the incident, and Ingrid realizes that her brother did, too. It becomes clear that the teens from the boarding school had also been working to perfect their powers prior to the incident.

The two groups, led by Sam and Caine (who are revealed to be twin brothers), eventually move towards a war against one another. But as they both near their 15th birthday, what will happen to them? Can the nascent society survive without them? And can their society, already decimated by some strange force, survive a war?

Critical Evaluation
Many reviews of Gone describe it as Lord of the Flies meets The Stand, which is a fairly apt description. The book's strength is its plot--breakneck and exciting, it will keep readers turning the pages. (The abrupt cliffhanger ending will only make them hungry for the sequel, published earlier this year.)  The descriptions of how the teens figure out what has happened and how they decide to recreate society on their terms are compelling; one teen organizes a daycare for the babies and children left behind; another learns how to operate the town's McDonald's, so as to feed everyone.

However, the characterizations are fairly shallow. Most of the teens are stereotypes, stock characters that will be all too familiar. Readers who are looking for a plot-driven action book will be satisfied, while those looking for a more thoughtful exploration of what it means for a society to be destroyed and then rebuilt will be disappointed.

Other Books in the Series
Hunger, published in 2009, is the sequel to Gone. Eventually Grant plans to write a total of six books in the series.

About the Author
Michael Grant is the co-creator and co-author of the Animorphs and Everworld series of books, which were aimed at middle-school readers. (His wife, Katherine Applegate, received name credit for the books.) Gone is the first book published under his name.

Curriculum Ties
While this plot-driven book is an entertaining read, the shallow characterizations make it unsuitable for use in a curriculum.

Booktalking Ideas
1. Talk about the disappearance of all adults and how the teens need to recreate a society.
2. Talk about the psionic powers and their role in the new society.
3. Talk about the character of Sam: his interest in Astrid, his brother Caine, and his struggle to be a positive leader in the new society.

Reading/Interest Level
The book would be of interest to those in junior high and up, but the intense violence might make it more appropriate to recommend to high school readers.

Challenge Issues
The book might draw criticism for its scenes of violence. There are some disturbing scenes at the beginning of the book where the teens find babies who died in their cribs after their parents disappeared. Should the book be challenged, the librarian should be aware of the library's selection policy and be able to explain and defend it to the challenger. The librarian should point to the many positive reviews Gone received, including starred reviews in VOYA and Booklist.

Selection Criteria
While searching for books on psionic powers, I read a very enthusiastic review of this book by a teen reader.