Monument 14

Book: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne published 2012
ISBN 13: 9780312569037

How I found this book: School Book Club <3 + Hot YA

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.87 (out of 11,841 ratings)

My rating: 5 out of 5 magic pinwheels


     A couple members in book club had this recommended by their friends and brought it back to us. It's a pretty popular book right now so we all decided to read it. I read this in one day because I was so hooked.
   
      One of the main reasons I love YA is because they're laid back books, you don't have to analyze. They're just fun. A lot of reviews online bashed this book because of ''lack of character development'' but honestly you don't read these kind of novels for tropes, metaphor, and character development. They have lots of action and most times romance two things i'm kind of a sucker for. This story happens when Earth is in the midst of the worst natural disaster in history, which leads to a chemical weapon spill and turning people with type O blood into violent creatures. 14 kids and teens hide out in a superstore -Greenway- during the disaster.

      The only thing I have to say about the characters is the fact that there was a lot of them. 14 to be exact, so I had a little bit of a hard time keeping that many people straight at first. By the end I was pretty sure I could name them all.  Dean, Alex, Astrid, Sahalia, Jake, Brayden, Chloe Niko, Josie,Ulysses, Henry, Caroline, Max, Batiste. Whoo!

       One thing I didn't like about this book was the 'romance' bit. The main character Dean has had a crush on Astrid for a long time. However she loves Jake, the football star and he loves her back. Well, he says so. I didn't much like Astrid and I can see where the ''no character development'' comment comes in with her. Here's the reason Dean likes her: She's hot. That's pretty much it. She's AWOL through most of the book hiding in the ceiling of the store.
 
    *spoiler alert* This book ends with two pretty massive cliff hangers that make me really want to read the next two novels. After Astrid's boyfriend Jake runs off she tells Dean that she's pregnant with Jake's child. Whoah! We also find out that Dean and Alex's father is still alive and heading to Colorado airport. Alex and the rest of the kids want to head to the airport in the schoolbus but Astrid doesn't want to leave begging Dean to stay with her. Dean knows he has type O blood and doesn't want to put the others at risk so he decides to stay. Chloe, Caroline, and Henry decide to stay too but everyone else leaves.

      Arghh! I must know what happens. Dean how could you leave your brother?? The ending made me so sad omg. The next book is called Sky on Fire and I can't wait. *sigh* One more to add to my 'to read' list. Story of my life. lol
   Thanks for Reading!                                                  - R