Gone by Michael Grant is one of my all-time favorite books (and series). It focuses on a small town on the southern coast of California called Perdido Beach, but doesn’t stick with one singular point of view. Each chapter is written through the eyes of a different character. The “main” character, though, so-to-speak, is Sam Temple. The book opens with Sam sitting in his history class when, all of a sudden, the teacher disappears. Along with the rest of the adults in the town.
Everyone over the age of fourteen is gone. There’s a round barrier circling the town; impenetrable and painful to touch. Kids are mutating and gaining unexplainable, dangerous powers. Sam is forced into a role of leadership when the kids from the private school up the hill come into town and make themselves known. There’s two sides; The Coates Kids and the Perdido Beach kids. And within the sides, things get divided. Half of the Coates kids hate Caine, their leader. The kids down in Perdido beach are splitting up amongst themselves. The “Normal” kids hate the “Freaks”, due to what seems to be a mix of jealousy and fear for their powers.
I first read this book in a reading group in fifth grade and immediately became obsessed with the series. It definitely appeals to different ages because I still love it and I’m about to turn eighteen soon. Everybody who I know has read this book (and/or the whole series), has told me that they liked it.
I love the way that the point of view changes with each chapter; some characters know more than others, some characters are keeping secrets from each other, some are completely clueless about half of what’s really going on. The books are longer, but they’re definitely worth the read.