Gone

Gone by Michael Grant is the first book in YA/Sci-Fi/Horror series that will keep you up at night. First, because it's difficult to put down and secondly, because it's hard to shake the images this book creates.

One second, everything is normal. Kids are in school while their parents work or take care of younger children. Then in the blink of an eye, everyone 15 and over disappears. Gone.

Suddenly these children are left alone to deal with some very adult situations. If that wasn't enough, some of them are beginning to develop some strange powers and frightening animal mutations are starting to appear.

Gone is a nail biting, edge of your seat kind of book. It's disturbing without being overly gruesome. It's frightening without inducing too many nightmares. And there's just a touch of romance, but not too much.

Oh, by the way...I did not appreciate R.E.M's It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) being referred to as an "old" song. Even if it was recorded in 1987 and well before the characters of this book were born. It makes me feel old, ok? So just stop it!