Summary:

When Sam looks up in his classroom, his teacher is gone. After he found Astrid “The little genius” and his friend Quinn, the teenagers have to face the truth: all people above 15 years old have vanished from the city. The Zone, whose center is the nuclear reactor, is surrounded by a barrier that no one can cross. The town becomes a bubble cut off from the rest of the world. No more grown ups, and some weird powers seem to appear among the kids. They begin to divide into groups, and the kids from a private school become agressive... Sam has also a secret... And he realises that he’s not the only one. Pete, Astrid’s autistic younger brother has a big connection with what happened. Friendships are tested, and tensions grow. But the main worry is: what happens when you turn fifteen?

Review:

Gone is writer by Michael Grant, the husband of Katherine Applegate (writer of the great Animorphs, Everworld, Remnants). Immediate best seller, Gone is great from the beginning until the end. After a few dozens of pages, I found myself feeling close to some of the kids (which might have been hard, since I’m no longer a child!). The story is great and we are eager to learn the truth. No wonder it was a hit with the teenagers! The characters are complex, even though they seem quite smart for kids. The truth is raw: we find anorexia, cowardice, autism. It never gets boring: the first words are describing the moment where every adult went missing. One weird thing happened: the animal mutations... Where is the explanation ? (same problem in Remnants, actually). But the others explanations were great and quite logical. Now I want to know where all these powers came from ! Let’s hope the other five books of the series are as good as this one!