Monster

Set four years after the Fayz and Shade Darby, whose mother was a scientist on the outside of the dome, still has nightmares about the day the Dome came down. now her father is tracking more meteorites from the same place as the one that caused all the trouble in the first place. Shade finds one first and this time instead of just special powers people begin to mutate and an all out war begins between mutants and the U.S.Government. Everything and more that i expected from the Author. Sure to be a hit!

Grant never disapoints. This journey back into the world of Gone is perfect for fans and new comers both.

4.5* - Well that was one hell of a ride, I was literally exhausted after finishing!

eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for honest review!

So, going into this I'd only read the first in the Gone series so was aware of what the Fayze was but obviously had no idea about how it all ended. If you're at all inclined, even slightly, to read that series then definitely go do that before you get to this one. Monster goes straight in with what I assume is an account of the happenings at the end of the Gone series from the perspective of Shade, someone outside of the Fayze. It also recounts some of the Gone plot throughout the book, so major spoilers are involved!

Equally, this can also be read from this point without having read the Gone series as it provides everything you need to know.

Monster had all the feels of Steelheart (by Brandon Sanderson) at certain points and had me engrossed from the very start. The writing was great, it was humorous and it flowed really well even with its many POVs and little sub plots.

I love superhero stories and I especially love seeing how characters acquire and adapt to their new abilities. We certainly saw some of that but I think my only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more experimentation to see the characters master their abilities more rather than the crazy hot mess it accumulated into at the end.

I also found that some of the characters went along with certain things way to easily but I suppose when you read a story like this I recommend you forget the realms of realism and just enjoy the ride for what it is.

One of the things I really liked was the diversity of the characters. I read a fair bit of the YA genre but this is possibly the first book I've ever read with a gender fluid character, albeit not an MC but definitely a prominent sidekick. And the characters identity issues were not just mentioned once as a token gesture, it was integrated throughout, always present which I thought was great. As for the representation in this respect I wouldn't really want to comment and recommend you try to find an own voices review for that. There was also PoC and lesbian rep included too.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a fun and frantic ride into superheroes, villains and monsters. Forget about about how realistic some of it is and I'm sure you'll love it too.

Michael Grant, you once again stole copious hours of my day I will never get back. What an excellent, brilliantly gripping story! I’ll always love Rio and the girls a little bit more, because Front Lines was unbeatable in my eyes, but superheroes (and SuperMONSTERS!) came pretty close.

This story is very obviously a new spin on the World Grant created with the Gone series. Whilst it definitely helps, and probably adds to the reading experience, to have some memory of the Gone characters, as some characters feature fairly prominently, it really wouldn’t matter if this was the first book you’d read in the series – you get a run-down of what’s been going off in the Gone World very early on in the book to give you enough perspective and background.

Monster is very different to Gone; it introduces new characters who have been mutated by meteorites hitting Earth whilst still keeping some old favourites around for more developments. But don’t be fooled into thinking “this sounds a bit like what happened in the FAYZ”. Oh no. These characters don’t just have an extra ability to show off with. These mutations are allowing kids to morph into some pretty horrific monsters – because why should superpowers always be for superheroes? Why should superpowers be a single unchangeable power? Why not have a book about the monsters for once?

You very quickly become acquainted with the various characters and their monster potential which is probably the most fun to read about; there’s endless potential for the monsters to be a creative explosion of just about anything you can imagine which makes for a really exciting read. For some people this happened by accident, but for Shade and her friend Cruz they have a little more inside knowledge about what’s going on in the World right now because of Shade’s family history and so they of course decide to steal some meteorite, as you do, and ingest it. Because who wouldn’t want to develop superpowers if it was that easy?

This book has so much action packed into it and remains true to the standard brilliant writing style I’ve come to expect from Grant’s books. It is utterly addictive and complex - Shade and Cruz are on the run, Dekka (who you might remember from the Gone series) is having some nasty experiments done to her to see if her powers will morph into something else, and a bunch of diverse characters are morphing into monsters - and all of these storylines come crashing together to make one bad ass, super addictive, plot. How could you possibly resist?

I wasn’t sure at first if jumping back into a story which came to a good conclusion was really going to be as enjoyable. Would it be history repeating itself? Would it be similar ideas just with a fresh coat of paint and a new face to the characters? But it was absolutely worth revisiting; I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

I did not finish the whole Gone series but a lot of my pupils have. It did not matter as I had already met or knew of the survivors of the dome and I had some concept of conditions/life within the dome. There are enough clues for you to read this without having read the other series. I enjoyed the concept of the mother rock and the race to stop this rock and the other meteors falling into the wrong hands - which inevitably they do. The creatures that they morph into are suitably fantastical. The characters explore the concepts of hero and monster working for or against a 'corrupt' government. An interesting start with more to follow as it was left on a suitable knife edge!