Author:
Emmy Laybourne
Publication Date:
June 5, 2012
Publisher:
Feiwel & Friends
Format:
304 pages
Price:
CAD $18.99
Source:
An ePub ARC was provided by Raincoast Books and NetGalley for review! Thank you!
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Description
Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not-you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world-as they know it-apart.
About The Author
Emmy Laybourne is a screenwriter, lyricist, and actress. She has acted in movies, television, and improv groups including Chicago City Limits. She lives in Chestnut Ridge, New York, with her husband and their two children. Monument 14 marks her fiction debut. Visit her online at www.emmylaybourne.com.
Review
What caught my eye about this particular novel was that it was set in a time where the world went into chaos. Imagine a volcano erupting causing tsuanmis, earthquakes, storms, and even wiping out the entire east coast. Millions of people dead, injured and missing. In the light of the world, children survive. With the help of a bus driver, she gets them to safety, secure at a super store called Greenway. They have every amenity they could possibly have and still last for years. Only 14 of these children and teens have survived. The main character being Dean, a lanky boy who loves to read, we follow his story of being trapped inside a store with others and finding the will to survive when adults are not there to take the lead.
I quite enjoyed this take of a post-apocalyptic novel with a whole new twist. What happens when chemicals in the air and water turn different blood types into savages? An insane suborning of violent ensues. Most of the book was the day-to-day musings of life inside the store which wasn’t as boring as I thought. The teens helping the children, keeping them calm and safe. I happen to enjoy the fact that Dean was the dependable one and wasn’t the leader, just because it felt better to read his point of view.
If you enjoy Lord of the Flies, you’ll find similar occurrences in this novel. What happens when adults aren’t around to take charge? Find out by picking up Monument 14.
Rating 3/5
Quotes
“Sometimes, when you’d least expect it, the grief would chops your legs out from under you.”—Dean
“She gave me a smile. A shining golden smile, flashing in the center of our dark, lost world.”—Dean
This sounds like a very enjoyable read! The synopsis is a bit vague so I really didn’t know what to expect, but this review cleared a lot of things up! Sounds like a ton of post-apocalyptic reads I love, and can’t wait to read it!