"Gone" by Michael Grant

"In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.
Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else..."-goodreads

There are some books that just suck you into the pages, make you want to find the whole story, figure it out NOW, but at the same time, never have it end. They keep you turning the pages and the suspense can become almost unbearable. If you had a day where you didn't have to do anything else those are the type of books that you'd want to just tear through and not WANT to do anything else. "Gone" is most definitely one of those. I mean, just read the description. CAN YOU FLIPPING IMAGINE THAT? Everyone 15&over suddenly disappearing. *Something* cutting you off completely from the outside world?! Kids and teenagers running the town, trying to prevent chaos as all kinds of it presses in on them? (Has anyone read Lord of the Flies? Hello!? Yeah, I think we all know the whole situation is going to turn to heck eventually.) And each of the characters are still battling their own problems, too. Sometimes in post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, it seems like the characters are all perfectly content people living in their perfect little world until disaster strikes, but in "Gone", much more realistically, the characters were never living perfect lives and they deal with that as well.

Michael Grant's storytelling is amazing. There was never a dull moment and constantly questions were raised, and surprises thrown in. It's filled with action and suspense, and I could see everything vividly in my mind. The characters were great too, a grand cast of them ranging from likable, and hatred like the type everyone has toward Voldemort. I really liked Sam. While still seeming like how a teenager (albeit a natural born leader type of person) would deal with a crisis, he was complex, thoughtful, and dealt with the situation admirably. Astrid was very cool too, the brains of the situation, but not overly so. All of the characters were realistic in that none of them were able to stay strong ALL the time. They all had their emotional moments that they needed to make them seem human, and not magically immune to their surroundings and conditions.

An awesome book all-together. I see there are four more out in the series and a sixth due next year. I must say, these books are kind of long and I'm not quite sure how the story to span six books, but I could be wrong about that, it is pretty complicated. Looking forward to seeing how the story continues!