Gone by Michael Grant

     I was having a lot of trouble deciding what book I should read for my last book. Finally I decided to read Gone by Michael Grant. I got the sample for my Nook a long time ago but I forget why I never downloaded the full version. So, I thought it would be a good book to read. I really liked how it had many things going on and didn't focus on just one thing, like how instead of just one problem it had Caine trying to take over, how to get through the barrier, what caused the FAYZ, how will they get food when they run out, and what is the darkness? Some of these were similar but it still kept me interested in the story and what will happen. Overall, this book is not my favorite, but I still liked it and it was worth reading. 

     One thing I didn't really like or understand about the book was why everybody over fifteen disappeared. I think it would have made a lot more sense and be easier to write a story about if the author had made everyone over eighteen disappear. First of all, then it wouldn't just be a random age and it would actually really be all the adults disappearing. Maybe there's a better reason for it later in the series, but I still think eighteen would have worked better. Also, some of the things that the characters did in the story I found very hard to imagine a fourteen-year-old doing, no matter how crazy the kid was or even if they had super powers. My sister is fifteen, and I can't see her doing half of the things that happened in the book. I can imagine everybody going to the main part of town and trying to decide what to do and trying to find all of the food and search the houses, but I can't imagine them trying to take over. I agree that some kids would step up and be in charge, but I don't think they would really try to be the boss. I can see people being leaders, but not bossing people around like Caine was trying to do. There were many times while I was reading that I forgot the characters were fourteen, which I didn't really like. I think that if the author was going to make the characters fourteen and under, he should have made it obvious. I really didn't see the point of fifteen and not eighteen. I'm sure there are a lot of people who like how it was fifteen and over, but for some reason it just didn't work for me. 

     Whenever I read books about people with super powers (Which isn't many, since I usually go for fiction books), I always try to decide which power I would like to have. I wish I could say that Sam's fire/light power is my favorite since he is the main character/good guy, but I can't. I guess it might be the most useful as a weapon in a world like the FAYZ, but with the way we live in real life, I would much rather have Caine's telekinetic power. I think it would be really cool and fun to move things with your mind, and it would really freak people out. Then I started to think that if everybody had telekinetic powers, they would probably all get overweight, like in the movie Wall-E when people just rode around in chairs while machines did most of their work for them. Still, I think it would be fun to be able to move things without being near them. Reading about the powers in books like this one is probably my favorite part. 

     Thinking about this makes me realize I probably should give more books a chance. If it's not fiction, I usually figure I wouldn't like it. Still, the Harry Potter books are my favorite books ever, and they are definitely not fiction. I'm also a Twilight fan (which isn't fiction), which made me read The Host since it was also by Stephanie Meyer which is science fiction, which I absolutely thought I hated, but I really enjoyed. I made my family watch the movie to The Host and my mom even commented that she enjoyed when she doesn't like science fiction either. So, even though I had a problem with Gone with the whole age thing, I kind of appreciate the fact that it made me realize I should really give more books a chance. Anyways, I still have my complaint about the age part of this book, but I'm still glad I read it and I'll probably finish the series. And I'm glad I decided to do this book for my blog because it was when I was typing this that I thought I really should give more books a chance. Basically, I think this book would have been perfect to me if it had been eighteen and older that disappeared, even though I still enjoyed reading it. 

The Giver

     Earlier this summer I was having trouble deciding which book I wanted to read off of our reading list. I really had no idea what a lot of them were about. So, I just randomly chose The Giver, and I'm glad I did. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I was surprised when it turned out the book was set in the future. It reminded me a lot of the Matched series by Ally Condie. It wasn't exactly the same, but some things were like how jobs were chosen for the people. I also didn't really expect the Giver to be a person. I should have guessed that it would be when Jonas was called the Receiver, but I didn't even think of it. 

     Whenever I read books about a future like this (Basically just this book and the  Matched series.), I can't help but wonder how their society could come to be like that. Even if our government did fail, I don't see how anybody would want their choices taken away. To enforce those new rules, the new (Or maybe our government now would eventually attempt to become like those societies.) government would need followers and an army, which are made up of the common people, and I don't think the common people would agree to a life where there is barely any freedom. I guess it is possible that people could be lied to and maybe they won't know what they're working towards while they're working towards it. Plus, if those people in that community had never known life before then, they wouldn't know what they were missing out on and have no reason to not just go with it. Also, once society gets to be like that, it would be near impossible to go back as the people living there have no way to fight back, if they'd even want to. Still, although some things about that type of society would be easier, I'd rather have to make hard choices than have no choices at all. 

     When I read the ending to this book (Spoiler Alert), I just figured that Jonas had reached another community and that it was the same sled as in his memory because the memory had been of the place where he was. Then I thought that the music he heard coming from his old community was the people singing because they had been exposed to those memories when Jonas had left. I didn't even know there were other interpretations until I was seeing what other people thought of The Giver and saw the other thoughts of how it ended. Until I saw those, I didn't even think of the possibility that the last scene was a dream or a hallucination of Jonas' old memories, but thinking about that now, I see that it is very possible. I don't like to think that Jonas and Gabriel die, but it could be just a memory that Jonas is seeing. Or, as one of the reviews of it brought up, it could have been Jonas and Gabriel entering an afterlife instead of a dream. I know that all of these are possible, but since I like happy endings, I'm just going to hope that Jonas and Gabe reach a new community while back at their old one, things were changing since Jonas left.

     All together, I liked The Giver. Books set in the future aren't really my favorite, but I still like them. I saw somewhere that it is a series, but I'm going to have to make sure. I still wouldn't say this is my favorite book ever, but I definitely enjoyed reading it and I would like to read the series, especially because I can't stand not knowing how a book or series ends, unless it is absolutely terrible or I just don't like the type of story it is, but so far that's never happened to me before and hopefully never will!