Gone

People you've known for a long time, or forever, sometimes just disappear from your life.

This is metaphorically speaking. But what if, say, all the people of your family, all the adults in your life, just vanish? Poof! 

That is what the novel series Gone is all about. Life in Perdido Beach, dubbed Fallout Alley due to a recent nuclear radiation leak from the nearby power plant, is totally normal. Sam Temple, the protagonist, is totally normal, too. In fact, he blends into the crowd as perfectly as a chameleon. And then suddenly, poof! Everyone above the age of 15 is gone. No explosion, no flashing light, no searing sound, nothing. Just gone. Now you see them, now you don't.

Havoc breaks loose, what with children running home from school to search for their parents at home, a fire breaking out right at the centre of the town and the official town bully, "Captain" Orc deciding to take charge ( umm.. actually, his sidekick, Howard, makes the decision. Orc is not really very smart, you see.)

Sam Temple, just an average kiddo, finds himself caught up in way too many troubles to explain right now. Let's just shorten it. Perdido Beach is surrounded by a barrier, an opaque sphere that gives you an electric jolt when you touch it. It can't be crossed or broken down or drilled into or anything like that. So all the kids are just stuck inside the FAYZ(Fallout Alley Youth Zone) with no adult to tell them what to do, no parent to tell them everything was gonna be okay and no idea how to manage the resources of the town.

Through the series, Sam Temple develops great powers, protects the children from one disaster after another, gets into a lot of life-threatening situations, but escapes alive. 

And every second reading the book, I knew one thing for sure - This ain't any hero's tale, with everyone getting out alive, the main characters being always right, and everyone somehow knowing just what to do. All of them out there are kids, and no one knows what's going to happen next, no one cares about anything except staying alive and no one wants to take the responsibility for anything unless it gets them something (not excepting even Sam).

I don't know how else to describe this book but as spine-chilling, thrillin' and killing!