Review: Plague

Plague (Gone, book four)
By Michael Grant
Published 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books

WARNING: Spoilers for the earlier books in the series. Read my reviews here, here, and here.

It seems that things can always get worse in the FAYZ; the list of problems they've faced just gets longer and longer. Now, they're dealing with a sickness that causes kids to cough themselves to death, one that even Lana can't heal. Add to that bugs that eat you from the inside out (and seem invulnerable) and the monster Drake, who has miraculously reappeared.

I'm determined to finish this series before the year is through, so I've taken to checking out the next one whenever I bring one back (I'm still trying to read down the piles of books I own).

I was looking forward to this entry in the series - my fiance, who read them all this winter, told me it was one of his favorites. But he'd also told me that book three, which I loved, was his least favorite, so maybe I should have taken his opinion with a bit of salt. That being said, I think this volume is MY least favorite so far.

I'm pretty surprised to not have enjoyed this one - I generally like plague/epidemic novels. I find them fascinating. I did like that this plague evolved to be immune to the healer - it made it so there was no easy solution to the problem. What's interesting is that, while I liked the plague evolving an immunity to the characters' powers, I was irritated that the bugs were immune to pretty much everyone's powers. Maybe I'm just getting a little tired of all the tribulations these kids are enduring, particularly when there is no way of knowing if they'll ever get a happy ending.

For the most part, I just found this entry in the series kinda boring. Like I said, I might be getting tired of the never-ending list of problems the kids are facing and I'm having a hard time imagining how the final two books will be unique enough to really stand out. I'm still planning on finishing out the series, but I'm a little less excited than I was initially. Well, less excited for book five - I still can't wait for answers about the FAYZ and whether or not the kids will ever get out in the final book.