A Review for Monument 14 (Monument 14 #1) by Emmy Laybourne

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: April 4th, 2013
Finished Date: July 29th, 2013

Publishers: Hachette
Source: For Review

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong ...

Fourteen kids stranded inside a superstore. Inside they have everything they could ever need. There's junk food and clothes, computer games and books, drugs and alcohol ... and without adult supervision they can do whatever they want.
Sounds like fun?

But outside the world is being ripped apart by violent storms and chemicals leaking into the atmosphere that, depending on blood type, leave victims paranoid, violent or dead.

The kids must remain inside, forced to create their own community, unsure if they'll ever be able to leave. Can they stop the world they've created inside from self-destructing too?

The Review: Monument 14 isn’t the type of book that I would normally pick up, I’m not really into post apocalyptic reads but I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this and read it all in one sitting. The synopsis says it all – 14 kids end up stuck in a superstore when the bus they are riding to school in crashes & later blows up. Only the quick thinking of another school bus driver saves them from dying but then she abandons them in search of help and the children are left to fend for themselves. It seems as though they are safe from the devastation happening outside but are they safe from each other?

So, as I said I ended up really liking this and it was a nice surprise. I liked the whole set up and how it was brought about. The scenario which brought about the devastation was very believable and shows how easily thing can go from normal to chaos and that all disasters leading up to something like that aren’t always going to be natural, it definitely gave me food for thought and definitely about what secrets could the government/pharmaceutical companies be hiding only to lose control of them in this type of situation. This was very character driven as we got to know a diverse bunch of kids, varying in age from kindergarten to senior told through the eyes of Dean, a junior who survived. In the beginning we get all of the usual… jocks, popular girls, bullied kids, overlooked kids etc. who must shed their own preconceptions and survive - together. I loved how their community came together, how the perception of people in the beginning, were not what you thought about them at the end. I loved how the bigger kids came through for the younger kids, how maternal/paternal instincts shone through and they took into consideration what was going to benefit the little ones the most. I loved how they understood what was at stake and some had the forethought to plan, to ration, to prepare for everything and when the bizarre was thrown at them, they rose above but it was also interesting to see some of them become the opposite of who they were because in a situation such as this we can see people at their best and their worst and I also liked how even though they weren’t always on the same side, they were united when threatened. I think I was more intrigued by this book than anything, I find that this genre always leaves me with something to think about and I certainly did, putting myself in their shoes, imagining what I would do in their place etc. it endears the reader to the characters and I definitely need to know what happens to them all, so the sequel will be going on my TBR list for definite.