Michael Grant Books

Sam Temple was in history class when the teacher disappears. Moving out of the classroom, the class discovers everyone aged 15 or over has vanished. Exploring a world that has become suddenly eerily quiet, the kids discover they are trapped by a mysterious wall that surrounds their town and, with the telephone and internet down, no means of communicating outside of it.

Many of the kids look to “School Bus Sam” to lead them, but he has a secret that keeps him from wanting to step up. Then the arrival of the kids from Coates, the strange school from out of town, leads to gangs forming and the discovery that some of the kids have developed strange powers adds to the layers of mistrust. All the while, the question of what has happened and why is pushed into the background while they wrestle with what will happen next.

Gone is the first of a series that portrays a dystopian life at the hands of those controlled by “the Darkness”. Sometimes graphic in its portrayal of violence, it is most suitable for those who can happily separate fiction from life is a wonderful first step into the literary world of action and horror. Described on the cover as a “Lord of the Flies for the 21st century”, Gone has its fair share of villains and heroes but space is given for those characters to be humanised and provides thought for the potential reasons as to how and why they may have developed as such and can still change for better or worse.