Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

I've been wanting to expand my bookshelf with a new post apocalypse series so I decided to pick up the first instalment of the Monument 14 trilogy, which is about the weather taking an unexpected turn for worse and causing chaos for the world. Somehow through all that chaos fourteen kids survive the deadly hail storm and take refuge at their local supermarket, but without adults how will these kids cope.

The book takes place within twelve days, so we get to see how the kids survive as each day passes by, especially since the kids range in ages from sixteen to about six. This meant that there was a lot of tension between the big and little kids because of how they treated each other and dealt with heavy situations. I also really liked the fact that it included a map of the supermarket, so I could use it as a reference when the characters would mention a part of the store.

The beginning was quite difficult to get into because of all this new terminology I was given and to be honest I was kind of bored but I persevered and kept reading, which was an excellent choice because of how everything leads up to an ultimate decision and well... cliffhanger.

The main protagonist is Dean who is one of the older kids, however he is known for being a loner at his high school which he is determined to change by being involved in the decision making process by voicing his suggestions and concerns. Though at times I did find Dean to be quite annoying but it kind of subsided over the course of the book.

Sometimes I would forget about the existence of some characters and even merged some together, so I'm hoping they'll have more involvement in the upcoming books.

I was completely surprised when Astrid made her shocking reveal at the end, I was not expecting it at all. I wonder how that will play into the scheme of things over the next two instalments.

In all I think I will stick around with this trilogy as I really want to know whats going to happen with these characters in the next stages of their survival adventure.

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You can get Monument 14 online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy from The Works.