Monument 14 (Emmy Laybourne)

***

         Monument 14 is the kind of book that - at first glance - seems like a kid's dream.  After all, who hasn't thought about being stuck in a department store at some point?  But the experience Dean, his little brother, and twelve other kids have trapped in a store is anything but fun.  On what starts out as a normal ride to school, giant hailstones start falling.  Dean's school bus crashes and most of the kids on it are killed.  A few of the teens, including Dean, are rescued by the elementary school bus driver and brought into a Target-like store where a group of younger kids are waiting.  While the bus driver is away trying to find help, the gates of the store close and everyone is locked in.  At first, Dean and the other high schoolers are worried about getting along and taking care of the little kids for a few nights.  As the hours and days go by, however, more disasters strike and they face the possibility that they are stuck in the store for the long run.

         As far as apocalypse books go, this one was pretty good.  It was kind of a milder version of Michael Grant's Gone series - freaky in a lot of ways, but not freaky at that level.  I picked this up because I had five minutes to grab a book for English and I happened to know what it was about.  Unfortunately I wasn't really in the mood for an apocalypse book.  Even so, it was a pretty quick and suspenseful read.  If the apocalypse genre is your thing, you'd probably like Monument 14.

Rating: 3/5
Completed: November 10, 2012

Sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks.  There are only a few weeks left in the semester, so my teachers are really piling on the work.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more over winter break, which starts next weekend.  In the meantime, what have you been reading lately?  I've been rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for about the millionth time.  I swear it gets better every time I read it.