Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
Series: Monument 14, #1
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 294
Source: Won

"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 Emmy Laybourne's action-packed debut 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.

 

This book was not as awesome as I thought it would be. I expected a lot more action than there was and honestly Dean's love for Astrid really took away from the story. Usually I'm all for a little romance but it wasn't even really romance since he's pretty much just loving her from afar.

 

These children are trapped in a store with disasters happening constantly and all Dean can think of is how pretty Astrid is or how much he liked her. And honestly I really didn't find myself caring too much about any of the characters. The little kids were adorable but at the same time I couldn't relate to a bunch of 5-6 year olds.

I just could not connect with this book. I found myself not being drawn in and honestly I was more than a little bored with the story. Not much happens, and in a dystopian/post apocalyptic/disaster book more things should be happening than what occurred in this book.

Even with all of the issues I had with this one, it was a quick read. When there is action going on the story does move nicely, however not enough happened to really have me interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.