Hunger

This is a sequel that I love, as it takes what made the first book so good and then builds upon it and makes the reader Hunger for more. (See what I did there?) As far as the first novel was concerned, Gone was a good book about kids trying to deal with the immediate situation of no adults whatsoever. I liked the powers that we saw, and I also enjoyed the main villain in this situation, as Cane seemed to be someone to hate. However, the characterization needed to be expanded upon and I also wanted the hunger to be explored in the next book. Well, with this book being titled ‘Hunger' I got my wish in more ways than one.

This book begins a few months after the events of the previous story. Sam is now Mayor of Perdido Beach, and he is finding it more and more difficult to lead the remaining kids. Firstly, there is the problem that these are kids without any parents. They tend to run around getting into trouble and arguing, and that leaves Sam in charge to handle every little thing that comes his way, from who stole whose toy to “Why can't I play on the Xbox, it's my turn!” But there is a bigger problem on the horizon, and it is approaching fast: hunger. The kids spent most of the last book chowing down on junk food and whatnot, so they are now forced to eat whatever they can. Sam wants to help solve the problem by having the kids farm their food, but they have no concept of time and hunger, so when Sam asks that they work in fields, he only gets a handful of volunteers.

Meanwhile, Cain has finally woken up from a coma in the last book, and for the last few months he has been delusional, raving about someone who is hungry, and needs to be fed. Now awake and coherent, he takes Drake and Diana and forms a plan to not only feed this...thing... that has been telling him he is hungry, but also to get revenge on Sam in the process.

One of the most important problems of this book was the hunger that the kids are facing. With everyone having eaten their way through all the junk food, and through all the conventional stuff like apples and gram crackers, they are now reduced to old canned goods, and soon, even that will be gone. One truly gets a sense of the near starvation that these kids are going through as Grant writes it as heartbreakingly accurate as he can without going too dark into the situation for the YA crowd.

Another way that this book works out the idea of hunger is for the main villain of the story. We soon learn that the power (or entity?) that gives the kids their abilities demands to be fed and he is willing to use Cain and Drake to get it done. These boys have an obsessive drive (one could say, hunger) to feed this entity. It is very satisfying to see this reality unfold in the book, as we get more details of who this thing is that gave the kids their powers, although we will see if what we know holds true in the rest of the books.

Hunger also drives the theme of this novel, with Sam being the most important example. He hungers for a bit of normalcy in his life, as everyone comes to him to solve their problems, no matter how small or insignificant. This made his eventual mental breakdown under the pressure understandable, and something that I sympathized with, as no one should have to go through what he did alone. Many teenagers who may be going through something similar (feeling like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders) can see that they need a break, and may now have the feeling that they need to reach out for help. This is a quality of this book I find important.

Then there are the new powers of this book. While I have some problems with them (which we will get to in a minute), most of the time, I felt like they were fun to see and experience. We have a student who can run extremely fast, and a kid who can make himself either extremely heavy, causing him to sink through the earth, or extraordinary light, making him fly through the air. Another boy can turn himself invisible, while another can take away the gravity of a chosen spot. All of these powers are cool and can lead to some fun moments and action scenes.

Yet there are some problems with the powers that are introduced in this book. Grant has an issue where the characters have very plot specific powers, even to the point where they appear in this book, and then they somehow go away by the end (I'm being vague for spoilers sake). This makes the powers feel a little too convenient for my taste and I hope that there are more opportunities for our heroes to creatively solve problems with their powers, rather than them being so situation specific.

Yet, I still found this book to be fun and action packed. This is one series that I will keep reading as I cannot wait to see how the story will evolve and continue. I give this book a four out of five.