Monument 14

Author: Emmy Laybourne

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia Ciencia Ficcion.

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Year: 2012

Ranking: 4/ 5

 

Synopsis

Your mother hollers that you're going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don't stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don't thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not-you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner. Only, if it's the last time you'll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you'd stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.

But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

The Author

Emmy Laybourne is a novelist, public speaker, screenwriter and former character actress. Before her life as an author, Emmy performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV and VH1; and acted in the movies "Superstar," "The In-Laws" and "Nancy Drew," among others. Emmy loves visiting school and libraries. 

Emmy’s Monument 14 trilogy has earned critical praise ("Frighteningly real… riveting" - New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice) and has been nominated by readers to the YALSA Teens Top Ten in 2013 and won in 2014.

Personal Experience with This Book

I decided to read this book after watching a review of it in Ben’s channel on Youtube. I remember it was one of the first books I put on my TBR when creating my Goodreads. And I cannot remember the specific reason that I put it off until now but I plan to marathon this trilogy because I really liked this book.

The story begins with our narrator, Dean, running to get to his school bus like every morning. Many events happen before the bus reaches its destination and because of these events not only many children die but also, 14 of them are trapped in a supermarket. We have Dean, Niko, Jake, Brayden, Astrid and Josie, who are in high school. Alex and Sahalia, who are in middle school, Chloe, Ulixes, Max, Henry, Caroline, Batista, who are in elementary school. These guys practically do not know each other when they begin to live and try to survive. They start building a deeper relationship as the book progresses and become a kind of family where each one plays an important role.

Dean is the one who tells the story; he is a writer and there is nothing special about him. It's just a guy who is trying to survive his high school unnoticed without problems. By the fact that he enjoys writing, most of the chapters are written as if they were journal entries. I liked that a lot because one the book can be read really quickly and, in less than you think and you've finished the book.

Although Dean is the one who tells the story and we have no other point of view in this first book, I think the author handled well the fact that even with 14 characters, the reader can get to know each one of them. Each character has a unique personality. There is no way that the reader confused any of them and best of all, you get to care a lot for all the guys.

I also liked that the characters feel very real, really behave according to their age. Besides, the story is not only made up of these will to survive and organizing the place and in extreme circumstances, but we can see problems of teenagers and even adults, thanks to Max, within the same.

Although it is an introductory book, because the disaster strikes and other things begin to unravel that threaten the life of this guys, I is accompanied by lots of action. Some early books of trilogies only fulfill the function of putting the reader into the world and become familiar with it. With this particular book I step that not only we get to know some of the very serious circumstances on how things are in the world but also could see how the characters grow up and face life and death situations every few chapters.

I do not have a favorite character at this point. I do not think I'll have one. I love all those kids like they were my friends. And it hurts me to see them suffer and go through hard things. I'm afraid to go on with the second book because I do not know if something bad will happen to them, but the end is so "WTF" you cannot avoid having to start the second book right away that you end with the first.

The book has a solid 4 because although I very much enjoyed the story, I do not feel it has been an epic book to me. Maybe when I complete the trilogy I will feel it was EPIC and I think it'll finish it before the month is over. However, this first book did not make me feel so "WOOW" if someone out there understands what I mean.

I recommend it. It's a different book in my opinion. It's dystopian with science fiction but so far the issue addressed is unique to me. Even I see very possible that something like that happens here, happens in real life. A natural disaster that leads to the destruction of a nuclear laboratory and spreading toxins trigger changes in people according to their blood type. And it all starts with a tsunami. I think it's an interesting topic to read.

Furthermore the author makes one feels really much for the characters. I think it's worth anyone to read. I will not say more because I think my thoughts are more focused now to what's coming in the second book. You guys have read Monument 14? What did  you think? Or, you would like to read it?