'Plague' by Michael Grant

Synopsis:

It’s been eight months since all the adults disappeared. GONE. They’ve survived hunger. They’ve survived lies. But the stakes keep rising, and the dystopian horror keeps building. 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. 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?

SPOILER ALERT!

My Take:

It took me a while, but I've finally got the review of the fourth book in the addicting Gone series up and Adam. Despite my nasty review of the third book, it is impossible for Michael Grant to ever let a devoted reader down. I found Plague to be very pleasing in the sense of tying up a couple loose ends. That was my biggest problem with the third book, Lies, that I felt so bad for these kids, on their own, starving, and killing each other. And Grant never cut them a break! My power went out for an hour today, and I was pretty miserable. It's just hard for me to wrap my mind around their situation, is all. Anyway, this review is on the fourth book. Not the third. :)

Still, the situation remains quite the same. They've got 'plenty' of food, or more like edible mutated animals and cabbage. The FAYZ kids' current dilemma is of water and the fact that they have basically none of it. There is a lake where they have previously been retrieving their fresh water from in a water truck. But remember, there is no fuel!! So how is a water truck supposed to run with no fuel? Besides, it wouldn't matter anyway, because the lake has about 6 inches left. For about 300 or so kids. Because of the severe lack of drinking water, Sam, Dekka, and Jack set out on foot to find the 'half-lake' that was cut in half by the barrier at the far end of the FAYZ.

Caine, Diane, and Penny are still living the life on the movie stars' island they inhabited in the third book. 'Living the life.' They are so better well off than the FAYZ kids, yet even on a secluded island the controversy continues.

This book is fast-paced and obsessive. I would recommend it to anyone who can take having their nose stuck in a book 24/7.

Rate: 9 out of 10

P!nky