Gone Book Review



The book Gone, by Michael Grant, is a great piece of literature. Gone is a book about a boy named Sam, who is a normal kid in Perdido Beach. One day when he was in class his teacher disappeared. Later he and a very smart girl named Astrid figured out that every one in Perdido Beach over the age of 15 disappeared. Soon kids from a nearby school come to Perdido Beach and try to make a pact to keep peace. The kids from the nearby school make their leader the leader of everyone. Perdido Beach agrees with this pact, and the kids start to listen to their new leader Caine. Caine creates problems so Sam has to become leader. Fighting breaks out everywhere. Sam is forced to become a leader, and help save Perdido Beach.

The author of the book Gone uses a dystopian society to bring conflict between characters. For example the lack of food has been a problem for kids everywhere. One guy named Albert is manning the grocery store so people don’t steal food and stuff themselves. After the food runs out the leaders of Perdido Beach are planning to grow food, so they need to find a place to plant them. Another thing in the dystopian society is that there is no real leader. Since Sam doesn’t want to step up to be leader, Cain nominates himself as a leader. Since the whole population is kids, they naturally need a leader. Kids everywhere are listening to Caine. Eventually Caine Gets kicked out of being leader. So there is no leader. Without a leader every one goes crazy because they don’t know what to do.

There is often death in Perdido Beach. Every time someone turns fifteen he/she“poofs”. Poof means that they vanish from the face of the earth just like the adults and teenagers over age of fifteen on the day the FAYZ started. The kids in Perdido Beach call the area they live in the FAYZ because Perdido Beach’s nickname is Fallout Alley. The kids naturally call it the Fallout Alley Youth Zone. The first person to poof is a pair of twin girls. The first girl didn’t see it coming. The second girl did because she saw her sister poof. One girl got beaten to death because she broke a law. Another thing that causes the dystopian society is that there is no currency. Since some kids took the money from all the houses there is no money to pass around. Without currency people are just trading and that can sometimes get out of control.

With all of these events and conflict taking place, fighting breaks out and life becomes worse for everyone. Perdido Beach is definitely a dystopian society.