Hunger (Gone # 2) by Michael Grant

Published By: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: May 26, 2009
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Warning: There will be spoilers for book 1 in the series

This book takes place 3 months after the previous book ended. Food is running out and the kids are getting desperate. They are eating anything they can find. Boiling grass and weeds, random mushrooms, the occasional pigeon if one can be caught. Kids will do anything for food, including switching sides. Friends are turning on each other, allies are squabbling among themselves on all sides. Even though the children have figured out how not to blink out on their 15th birthdays, they are now considering giving up and letting it happen just to escape their misery.

Some kids are still developing new and unusual abilities, while normal kids are beginning to take a stand against those with powers. The challenges that Sam has to face, the pressures put on him by all the other children to make decisions and keep order really starts to wear him down. I couldn't help but feel bad for him. With constant threats from Caine and his crew, mutant coyotes and killer worms, there is also a creature living underground, controlling and manipulating some of the children. Getting into their heads and forcing them to do its bidding. 

I read the Maze Runner a while back and I was unable to continue on with that series. The way the teens were portrayed, and how they spoke, was a big turn off for me. I was afraid this series might have a similar style, but despite the children making terrible and very dangerous decisions, I have really been enjoying the books and many of the characters.

 There is no shortage of action in this book! There is so much going on in so many different places with different characters that my biggest complaint is that every time I get immersed in a scene and I need to know what happens next, Grant jumps over to a different group of kids and the second I get invested in the action with them, we are on to something else happening on the other side of Perdido Beach. It does exasperate me at times, but I love that there is so much action. I am never bored.

I'm definitely going to continue with this series. I need to know what will happen next. I recommend this series to anyone in the mood for action packed adventure.

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