Review: Plague by Michael Grant

Title: Plague
Author: Michael Grant

Published: 2011
Pages: 525
My Rating: 5/5

Eight months after everyone over the age of fifteen disapeared from the town of Perdidio Beach, California, the stakes are still rising. The kids in Perdido Beach are still starving. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach.

But enemies in the FAYZ don’t just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate as sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they’ll escape—or even survive—life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love?

May contain spoilers from previous books.

This book was undoubtedly one of the books I'd been most looking forward to coming out. After reading Gone, Hunger and Lies, the Gone series shot up to one of my favorite books series of all time. Everything from the writing and characters points of view to the adrenaline filled survival plot just blew me away. After the amazing first three books, I had high expectations for Plague. Fortunately, I wasn't let down.

The book starts off with Astrid's younger autistic brother, Little Pete's, point of view. He is the only character, who's been present during the whole series to not have had that yet. By the end of Lies, you know that Little Pete has a huge part in the mystery surrounding the FAYZ, and that he has a big role to play yet. His chapters are dotted about during the book, giving teases of what his abilities hold and his perception of the outside world. These chapters were deliberately written in a vague tense that just had me begging for more.

The next big problem that the kids of the FAYZ have to deal with is the oncoming epidemic causing people to develop potentially fatal coughs, as well as a new rapidly evolving parasite that grows under the skin and gives life to thousands of metallic bugs that cause devastation wherever they go. This is by far one of the grossest problems that have come to light during the Gone series so far. It gave me shivers right down my spine. At first, I did find the bugs to be a little too far-fetched but as the book went along, I realized how well they fitted in with the whole 'plague' theme of this book.

Even though conditions in the FAYZ get worse and worse in each book, Grant still managed to find a way to bring light and humor at excellently timed points during the book. I was extremely pleased to see that our hero, Sam finally gets a little bit of a break in this book. But that's not saying he doesn't play an important role in it either. 

Unlike the last book, where one of the biggest problems is how the inhabitants of the FAYZ have to survive each other as gangs and rivals form, this book brings opposites and past enemies together as they learn it is the only way to survive what is occurring in deep in the FAYZ.

I had to spread out reading this book over a few days so that I could savor it, rather than reading it in one night, which is what I nearly did. I was not disappointed in this book. It was just as exciting, mysterious and heartfelt as the last three. I was also surprised to see that this book even tackled religious themes, as well as giving us one huge clue that could lead on to explaining the cause of what is happening in the FAYZ. 

If you haven't read the Gone series yet, I really can't recommend it enough. The writing is brilliant. The characters and their actions are completely believable. The story is beyond epic and a must read for any sci-fi fans. As you can see I have given this 5/5, but I would give it 6/5 if I could. It's going to be torture waiting for the next installment of the series, Fear.