Hunger by Michael Grant (Gone Series #2)

It's been about three months since every adult in Perdido Beach, CA and the surrounding 20 miles was gone, just like that. Poof. The survivors' living Hell is just begining. The Darkness, a monster who lurks in the depths of the FAYZ, is growing in power and is begining to test the boundaries of what he is capable of. Testing his hold on Lana and Caine, the Darkness haunts their dreams, urging them to do his bidding. It's not only the unexplainable who are a threat to the children of Perdido Beach. Hunger is sharpening tempers and clouding reason as starvation becomes a looming threat in town, and tensiosn arise between the normal humans and the mutated kids with powers, exploding into lethal conflict. The FAYZ is a pot of water, in danger of boiling over.

It's both thrilling and terrifying to see the order Sam is working so hard for crumble around him while he tries to salvage whatever he can. Everyone looks to him and expects him to come up with all the answers, which I find is an unfortunate side effect of being a leader. The fact that he has superpowers isn't helping. People might not want to mess with him, but they think he should be able to do anything. This makes his frustrated, and frustration leads to anger. There aren't enough people to do everything that needs to be done to keep the town running because kids are being lazy now that there aren't any rules. Sam is overworked, leading to him being tired and angry. I respect and admire that he wants to keep everyone togwther and is trying to deal with the problem of hunger, which Canie didn't adress, but the kid needs a break.

Because of (well, he's part of it) Drake, the books continue to keep me on edge. Now that he hash is whip hand, he's even stronger than he was and capable of inflicting more pain than before he got his new arm. Drake knows it, too. He's not afraid to use it. He wants Sam to pay for what he did to him, but it's no longer keeping his anger towards Diana at bay, and Sam's not enough of a target for him to not seriously consider killing the girl despite Caine's orders. Caine is too blind to see what Diana, and I, can. Drake is testing the boundaries of the other boy's power, and it's only a matter of time before he defies Caine or maybe even attacks him.

Speaking of Caine, he's not in great shape. The Darkness, which we now have a name for, Gaiaphage, found a way into his head and torments him with nightmares. Caine's not himself, tortured by the Gaiaphage, who commands that he do as the monster wishes. I don't think that means he's dumber or meeker than he was before he met the Darkness, though. He's still his arrogant self, unwilling to see when Diana may have a better idea than he does and that Drake is very close to snapping.

One new charactet thatvworries me is Zil, a normal human who is the first and loudest voice to express a hatred of the freaks, which is what the kids with powers are being called. Everyone is hungry, tired, and scared, so the normals are looking for someone to blame. The freaks are the logical answer. Many normal humans think the freaks don't care about them, althugh Sam is the perfect example to show that that's not true. Zil has power now that people are listening to him, and he's giddy with it, not seeing reason. He's creating a rift between the freaks and the normals, and they need to work together to survive.

I enjoyed this sequel. The book had brutal and terrifying moments, from gory fighting scenes to mobs of angry kids. It was facinating in a horrible way to watch the FAYZ fall into chaos, and I can only expect things to get worse. Hunger wasn't so bad of the violence front with only a couple major scenes that were very bad. I was on my toes the entire book, nable to see what could happen next and frightened for the characters with both new and old danger surrounding them. As the Gaiaphage grows stronger, he also added a level of creepy chills to the book as he slowly revealed more of himself. Dolls coming to life? That would freak out anyone! I'd like to read the third one soon to continue the series. 4/5 stars.

#survival #monsters #scifi