Review : Hunger

Posted by kay on February 26, 2010 3:23 am in 4 stars reads | 5 comments

Hunger by Michael Grant
Pages : 590
Genre : YA, Speculative Fiction
Series : Gone, Book 2
My Rating :

From the Back of the Book :

It’s been three months since everyone under the age of fourteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ. Things have only gotten worse. Food is running out, and each day more kids are developing supernatural abilities. Soon tension rises between those with powers and those without, and when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, chaos erupts. It’s the normals against the mutants, and the battle promises to turn bloody.

But something more dangerous lurks. A sinister creature known as the Darkness has begun to call to the survivors in the FAYZ. It needs their powers to sustain its own. When the Darkness calls, someone will answer — with deadly results.

I was amazed and completely fascinated by Grant’s previous book, Gone, and as soon as I turned the last page of it I grabbed Hunger and started reading it. While this second novel doesn’t have as much impact as the first one, it was still a captivating read.

So problems abound in this one, and Sam Temple is in over his head. I felt for the guy, even though he annoyed me at times. He has so much responsibilities in this new world – as they all do, in fact, except that he’s the one in charge – kind of – and we all know the one in charge is always the one to take the blame. At this point in time, not everyone agrees that he’s the one who should rule on the FAYZ, and Sam and his little group now have a lot more to deal with than they did in the first book.

I felt Hunger wasn’t as much of an action novel as Gone was. In a way, it felt like a transition between Gone and whatever is coming next with Lies. There was some follow-up from Gone‘s stoylines, and a lot of the time was spent trying to fix the FAYZ’s main problem, which also gave its title to the book : hunger. Different kids have different solutions to the problem, and along with Sam’s problematic leadership, this makes Hunger a much more political/social novel than an action one.

This is even more true considering the opposition that grows stronger between the “special” kids and the “powerless” ones. Gladly, Grant never gets preachy about tolerance and accepting difference : the idea is there, but it’s the reader’s role to understand what’s going on. I appreciate an author who can be subtle.

The cast in this novel is huge. So many kids, with so many powers, that it does get a little confusing at times. I think Grant managed to make each of them very unique though, not only by gifting them with special abilities (some of them, anyway), but also by giving them such different personalities. The narration changes point of views, too, and all of it was done to a pace that kept the story moving, interesting.

In conclusion, I found Hunger to be a great follow-up to Gone, and I can’t wait to read the next book in May!

Series Reading Order :

1. Gone
2. Hunger
3. Lies (coming May 2010)