Gone again

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Is anybody still reading the Gone Series by Michael Grant? Anybody like to discuss them?

I'm currently reading 04 "Plague" and I have to say, although they are anything but perfect, and although they are pretty distubing, I still like them a lot. Michael Grant has such a compelling way to write, that I couldn't put them away once I started to read.
What I don't like is that that the books focus on far to many different characters. I get that Drake is the big bad but his scenes are often the ones I'm least interested in (like the part where he went into the mine to find the Gaiaphage). Also some of their relationships and developments come off badly. e.g: I totally didn't realize that Sam and Dekka were such close friends until Sam said "I love you" in Plague. That came out of the blue for me, but I liked it anyway.
I also hate that some of the characters get neglected because of the sheer amount of main characters. Like Quinn. He was a big part of Gone but was barely in Hunger and Lies. Then he was sort of important in Plague again. I also would like to see more of Edilio. Although he is one of the more normal people in the FAYZ, he' s still one of my favorite characters. I did read an interesting spoiler that he turns out to be gay in book 5 and that he even has a boyfriend. I think it's great that he finally is getting some love, but it totally came out of nowhere. I get that he didn't want to tell anyone but to make it credible there should have been some hints for the readers. (Didn't he even have a little crush on Lana in Gone?) But that's just me being pedantic - I hate inconsistency in book series (and in TV shows for that matter).

What do you guys like and hate about these books?

Comments

[1111-am.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh it's been a while since I read the last one so I might be a bit rusty in remembering stuff. I like them. They're interesting to read and I'm looking forward to the last book, but overall idk it's not really one of those series that I get really really into y'know? I agree with a lot of the things you said. I still can't decide if I hate or love the fact that they have so many characters in them. On the one hand I like it and I feel like I have the chance to get to know each character fairly well, but on the other hand I feel like we miss some character development. I really hope Quinn and Sanjit have a bit more "screen time" in the last book.

In book 5 I personally find the whole Little Pete thing kind of weird. I read some spoilers for the last book that I'm really kind of hoping don't turn out to be true too :/

Idk, sorry I'm going to have to come back with more of my own thoughts about things I liked and hated about this series. My brain is fried and I can't think of anything :3

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

I have Plague, but haven't read it yet.

I guess my problem is that the end of the third book seemed like it had the solution to the problem--when the kids die, they end up outside the bubble. And then what's-her-name was about to lead them to their deaths/escape, and then it didn't happen. It would've been great if it happened and that was where the books ended.

It just seems to be draaaaaagging. There are too many characters, so no one gets enough face time.

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

Ugh these books. I am so obsessed with them and yet they are so, so bad.

For the record, imo the gay character was totally written to be Howard, and Michael Grant changed it at the eleventh hour when he decided he wanted to go in a different direction with Howhow. For which I am bitter, because I ship him with Orc like burning.

Fear actually made me throw a book across the room, but I admit I love Plague.

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Oh I can totally relate to you. I am very obsessed with them too and I don't even know why. I don't necessarily find them bad, but like anijen21 said, they are very flawed.

I think the decision to make Edilio the gay character was also made because MG realized that Edilio was such a fan favorite and thus wanted to give him a more interesting story. MG seems to correspond frequently with his GONE fans on gaiaphage.com so I guess I have to give him credit for actually trying to write in favor of the fans a bit. It doesn't always benefit the story, though.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

yeah they're pretty entertaining but they're very flawed.

I think your crits about the characters are spot-on. It's really, really hard to write a story with a huge cast of characters, and the way Grant writes them...like I get what he's trying to do, there's so many and more than half of them are disposable to create a sense of tension and danger about the main cast (I guess) but he has to spend time introducing those characters and then you think they might be important so you try to remember them but it just makes everyone bleed into the background.

And since he's got to spend so much time on those characters, his main cast kind of plinko into really archetypical roles that he sort of defines by picking like the teen-issue-of-the-moment. So yeah, Edilio turns out to be gay, which was fine but it was shoehorned into the story in such a weird, distracting way that it didn't feel like a natural part of the character. I mean, Dumbledore's homosexuality was an afterthought, not even part of the books, but it was integrated into the story and character way better than Edilio's was.

And Drake, idk, I feel like he was vicious in the first book and then Stephen King said he was a great villain and now Grant is trying to make him continuously threatening instead of just a crazed, wild card Dragon sort of thing. Caine was the "main villain" in the first book, but since Drake took off Caine is sort of just flopping around feeling sorry for himself.

idk. I'll read the last one but yeah these aren't great.