"Plague" (Gone, #4) by Michael Grant

*As usual with sequel reviews, the description is spoiler-y, so I haven’t included it. The below review may reveal minor spoilers about the previous two books. YOU ARE WARNED.*

I love this series, I do.  I can’t wait for Fear (April 2012) and Light to come out so I can finally find out the fate of our beloved characters… but (sadly, there‘s a ‘but‘)… Plague. Oh dear. It still had action, it still had different perspectives, and there was still unexpected twists and turns with the punch of a broad cast of characters-- my favorite parts of the series so far, but Plague was a bit of a let down. It wasn’t *bad*. It just wasn’t what I expected, either. At some point in Plague, I’m not sure how far in I was, I started feeling like I was reading about a soap-opera or some other sometimes overly dramatic situation set in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic world (inside a dome!)… Too dramatic at times. And Sam’s self-pity and erratic behavior plus a very selfish attitude kept propping up all over the place and I can’t say I like Sam much anymore which is disappointing as I loved him in Gone and Hunger and somewhat in Lies (by the way, I don’t mean loved like, OMG SWOON IT’S EDWARD CULLEN, which I’m seriously not like, by the way, but I thought Sam was a fantastic character). It didn’t feel like a filler book for me or anything like that, there were still new developments and few things resolved, which is fortunate because I would have absolutely hated that.

ALSO, major warning: KILLER CLIFF-HANGER. Fear doesn’t come out until April. That kills me. I think I’m traumatized by the wait, because I was able to read the first four so close together as they’ve been released for a while. Seriously, the cliff-hanger has launched me into a (hopefully short) stand-alone/completed series only kind of mood so I don’t have to see one of those for a while. But the point of a cliffhanger is to make you want more and be excited for the next book, which I definitely am, so I guess it’s effective!

Bottom line: This book in the Gone series just didn‘t resonate with me, but I still can’t wait for the next one, which I hope I like more.