Book Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Title:  Monument 14
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Series: Monument 14
Genre: Dystopian novel
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Publication date: 05 June 2012
Author’s website: http://emmylaybourne.com/
Source:  NetGalley

Goodreads blurb:
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 hurdle 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.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

My thoughts:
I just love dystopian books and was ecstatic when I got my hands on a copy of this book. 

This is the story of 14 kids that take refuse in a superstore complex when disaster strikes.  No adults, no rules and lots of pizza.  Unfortunately it doesn’t remain a party for long and soon the little kids want to go home.

The story is told through the eyes of the writer of the group, Dean.  For most of the book, he is just an outsider telling the story – he does not really get involved. 

I must admit that none of the characters really grabbed me and I felt as if this is just a prequel to the real story.  In this book we get to know a little about each character and the background of the disaster.  And off course the ending just feels like the beginning . . . I can’t wait for the next instalment.