Monster

By Michael Grant

The GONE series may be over, but it's not the end of the story …

MICHAEL GRANT'S ACTION-PACKED AND MUCH ANTICIPATED NEW BOOK, SET IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BESTSELLING GONE SERIES.

When the dome came down, they thought it was the end of the troubles. Truth is, it was just the beginning.

Shade Darby witnessed events that day, with devastating consequences, and vowed never to feel that powerless again. Now, four years later, she gets her hands on a part of the meteor that began it all – and that’s when she changes.

Trouble is, Shade’s not the only one mutating, and the authorities cannot allow these superpowers to go unchecked …

First of an explosive three-book young adult series. Once again Michael Grant creates a compelling young cast of new characters for readers to love, hate and debate, as well as a host of unimaginable creatures. This happily stands alone from the GONE series, while also featuring some fan-pleasing appearances from previous FAYZ inhabitants.

Michael Grant lives in San Francisco with his wife, Katherine Applegate, and has written over 150 books – with Katherine, as himself, under pseudonyms and as a ghostwriter. He is best know for the international multi-million-selling young adult six-book GONE series: GONE, HUNGER, LIES, PLAGUE, FEAR and LIGHT.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780317663

Michael Grant

Michael Grant, author of the Gone series, the Messenger of Fear series, the Magnificent Twelve series, and the Front Lines trilogy, has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His fondest dream is to spend a year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. Yes, even Antarctica. He lives in California with his wife, Katherine Applegate, with whom he cowrote the wildly popular Animorphs series. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com and follow him on Twitter @MichaelGrantBks.

Reviews for Monster

[adamwolf_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you liked the first, you'll like the second.

[wb4ever1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sequels are the price we pay for loving a story and its characters. Even though I was most definitely not in the demographic for Michael Grant’s YA dystopia series, GONE, I really enjoyed those books, which were a modern day variation of LORD OF THE FLIES. The plot concerned the ocean side town of Perdido Beach, California, where, in the middle of the day, a dome descends over the town and the immediate surroundings, and everyone over the age of 15 vanishes, leaving the remaining children to fend for themselves. More than that, some of the kids develop super powers, and become aware that there is an evil entity inside the dome with them. A war of survival, fought on many fronts, ensues. The final book in the series, LIGHT, appeared to wrap it all up well, but in 2017, Grant put out a new series that picks up the story a few years later. It seems that there are more meteorites filled with a mutagenic virus on the way to earth just like the one which caused all the problems back in Perdido Beach. Only this time, they are landing all over the earth, and causing a new rash of mutations, affecting people both good and evil. This completely separates the two series, the former being a classic teen dystopian horror story with scifi overtones, while the sequel is most definitely a super hero universe origin story. If fans pick up the first book of this new series, MONSTER, expecting the old magic, they may be in for a disappointment.First of all, MONSTER contains few of the characters from GONE; Dekka Talent being an exception, and for reasons not quite satisfactorily explained, uber villain Drake Merwin (whom we saw disintegrate in the finale of LIGHT) also makes a return. Drake was a big fan favorite, so I understand why Grant might tweak things to make his appearance possible. Which brings up the second thing: the new characters, some of whom lack the instant likability of the original cast; right off the bat, we are introduced to Shade Darby, a young woman who though not a member of the FAYZE, has a definite and tragic connection to the events at Perdido Beach. The problem with Shade is that she is something of a YA fiction trope: the headstrong, smart and determined young woman who goes and gets what she wants. Try as he might, Grant never quite makes her that compelling. The opening chapter, where we meet Shade and her trans Latinx new friend, Cruz, involves a lot of unpacking, and explaining, as though everything was written carefully as so not to offend. It does not get the book off to nearly as fast a start as the original series. Grant is much more successful when introducing other characters such as Armo, a spoiled kid of Hollywood who has a bad case of ODD and who becomes part of a government experiment, and his villains who begin as Justin DeVeere, Tom Peaks, and Vincent Vu, messed up humans who become very big and bad and very nasty monsters. It does feel that Grant is going all in on diversity box checking with his characters, and some will find that his treatment of minorities leaves something to be desired. It is worth noting that nearly all of his antagonists suffer some kind of mental and/or emotional illness, or personality disorder, which I think Grant uses as character defining shortcuts. It is also worth noting that it is all but impossible to write about race, gender, or any form of disability, be it mental or physical, in fiction today and not rub someone the wrong way. Which brings us to the third thing: a superhero origin story has to have a great moment of transformation, where the human becomes superhuman or man becomes monster. I’m thinking of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON; or Bruce Banner being doused with Gamma rays and bursting through his cloths to become The Hulk; not long ago, I read Stephen King’s DESPERATION, which had a demon possess humans and physically swell their bodies to gigantic size. Such scenes can make a book or movie, and to be honest, I felt Grant’s metamorphosis’s were lacking somewhat. Grant describes his transformations, which almost all of his characters undergo, as “morphing,” and writes them in a way that makes one think of a CGI effect. Bodies that grow and change, sprouting tentacles and claws in the process, should not sound quite so mundane. And certain details should be consistent: a character who has just transformed back into a human after going on a rampage in the form of a giant starfish monster would be stark naked in the middle of the street, yet he is waved aside by the arriving police as though nothing is unusual. Furthermore, Shade, Bekka, Cruz, Justin, and the others appear to master their new abilities and bodies almost instantly; even Peter Parker had a learning curve. Another noticeable change from the first series: the kids are older here by several years. Maybe Grant wanted to make sure the junior high boys and girls who fell in love with GONE back in the early 2010s would relate to these new books now that they were about to enter college. But despite all my criticisms, I was satisfied with MONSTERS when I finished the last chapter. As a GONE fan, it was still a kick to go back into that world, and the book has more going for it than just nostalgia. After the slow beginning, the action kicks in, and Grant’s skills at writing a compelling narrative take over the story, delivering a couple of great action scenes, including a battle on the Golden Gate Bridge with the transformed Justin that plays out like something James Cameron would direct. The finale, where all the heroes and villains come together at last to take part in a battle featuring a couple of Godzilla sized creatures laying waste to the port of Los Angeles, is Michael Grant at his best. And Grant does not forget his flair for inserting large amounts of gore into his books. The parts dealing with a secret government agency determined to get possession of the meteorites and create an army of monsters of their own is a trope right out of the X-Files, but Grant makes it work, especially in a chapter where Bekka and Armo escape an underground facility filled with horrifying creatures. As a the first book in a new series, MONSTER ends with the stage set for the next installment, with plenty of plot threads dangling. That is how it should be, and I am looking forward to VILLAIN to see where Michael Grant takes his characters next. And fans of the old series that might not be sold on this new one, keep reading to the last page, you will be rewarded.

[jeeps-4 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It had a few moments (mostly concerning the appearances of familiar and beloved characters) but overall a disappointing mess of a book that really does a disservice to the ones that came before it. This didn't need to be written and I won't be reading the next one. I will, in fact, be trying to forget I even read this one.

[majesdane-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It wasn't quite as good as the original Gone series books; it's missing a little bit of the magic, and that mostly means it takes a long time to warm up to any of the new characters, who the book spends a good deal of time on.

New characters include: Shade (a teen girl with fellow friends/sidekicks Cruz and Malik), Tom Peaks (a government agent), Justin (an "art student" who nicknames himself "Knightmare"), and another boy, Vincent.

Peaks, Justin, and Vincent are all shades of Drake and Cain, two of the original villains of the original Gone stories. And they're not very interesting, to be honest. Peaks is motivated by, well, peak white male entitlement. Justin is just another sociopath (who channels the whole, "it's not my fault" whine that is reminiscent of every celebrity's fauxpology ever). And Vincent is ... something ... mentally ill, though it's clear that he's being manipulated by the gaiaphage (once again being referred to as "Abaddon"). I mean all of these things are valid villain material, but it just feels like we've been here once before. And these villains are just not as love-to-hateable as Drake and Cain.

Shade, Cruz, and Malik are all tolerable, but they grated on me very hard at first. Especially Shade, who is incredibly reckless and endowed with a guilt-driven sense of righteousness. It was interesting to see how the new characters are very attached to the concepts/identities of "hero", "villain", and "monster", whereas someone like Dekka, has no such desire to cling to those kinds of labels.

Dekka does get her time to shine, though, and it was nice to see her 4 years post-FAYZ, especially as she was one of my favorite original characters.

As we learn, Dekka is the most "well-adjusted" of all the kids from the FAYZ ... or so it seems. Dekka is left severely emotionally stunted from the events of the FAYZ and a good portion of her sections of the book deal with her feelings regarding Brianna. It hurts Dekka to hold onto those memories, but she can't let them go either; they're a festering wound. It's clear that one of Dekka's struggles in this series is going to be about her finally learning to heal.

Which is fascinating to read, especially when Dekka returns to San Perdido and unexpectedly (re-)connects with Diana. There's a nice bonding moment between them and I really hope we get to see more of their relationship later on, especially considering the circumstances of their uneasy relationship in the FAYZ.

Touching upon that, I was absolutely delighted by Dekka finally turning to Sam (and Astrid??) at the end of Monster. It really felt like a whole "the gang's getting back together" moment. The number of people who Dekka can reach out to for real understanding is incredibly tiny and I'd love to see Dekka re-join forces with Diana, Sam, Astrid, etc., in order to deal with everything).

You can see the makings of a new good series here, with Dekka becoming the new reluctant hero (after playing the sidekick in Gone). This book isn't perfect, but fans of the original series will definitely love all of the callbacks to the original events/people/locations/etc. Additionally, like with Gone, Grant makes sure the cast of characters is refreshingly diverse. In this book we have lead characters of color (Dekka, Malik, Cruz), lead queer characters (Dekka, a lesbian; Cruz, genderqueer/trans) -- not to mention Dekka and Shade are the lead characters, and many more female characters are minor characters in positions of power.

All in all, I'm excited to see where things go.

[olegalca · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I felt like I needed a spreadsheet to keep track of everyone's powers and what side they were on. As excited as I am to return to the Gone series, I felt this one was too complicated.