Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Your mother hollers that you're going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don't stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don't thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not -- you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner. Only, if it's the last time you'll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you'd stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus. But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran ... Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. In this novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world -- as they know it -- apart.

3.5 stars. Easy read. I'm intrigued enough to read the sequel to see what happens.

I need the next book RIGHT NOW! OHMYGOSH

I could not wait to get my hands on Monument 14, and it totally lived up to my expectations. To begin, who doesn't walk around a department store and think “If the world ends, I could make a nice home here?” Me, I'm heading to IKEA. So dibs.
In this thriller, kids are trapped in the local Greenway (which I imagined to be Walmart with booze). Outside, the world is crashing down in the form of hail and monster storms. Then a chemical leak with rather interesting side effects is released on Colorado and the kids are trapped. They do have each other, and some of them prove to be heroes. I loved the edition of smaller children and they were represented realistically. I think the age spread of the trapped really mixed it up a bit. Also, there was a decent ratio of girls and guys. Some of the characters are real stand outs, and some were not fully developed. I didn't get Astrid. At all. Josie, I loved.
Dean is a good narrator for this story. He is not stoic or mature. He is just very, very real and because of that, the reader feels as though they are right there with him.
I recommend this for fans of Trapped, Hatchet, Lord of the Flies, and other adventure/survival stories.
Great read for summer.