Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Title: Monument 14
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: June 5th, 2012
Genre(s): Young Adult Dystopian
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 342
Source: Easons

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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. 

Oh wow.

Well..

Emm..

Yeah.

That's was one hell of a ride!

'Monument 14'.
A pretty fast-paced YA dystopian about a group of kids, who wind up locked inside a superstore after their school bus is thrown off course by hailstones the size of footballs..
What do you think happens next?

All right, well first of all; Monument 14, albeit a cool and catchy name, why on Earth is that the title? Apart from it being the Town in which the kids lived, what real significance does it have? I mean, come on, I read the word 'Denver' more times than I did 'Monument'. But I guess that's just nit-picking because this book was surprisingly really good!

Probably what I liked most about this book, was how much of a quick read it was! I'll end up saying this a hundred times over during this review but seriously, there are very few books I've read as fast as this one! When you look at the book in depth, there's not a whole lot that happens, not really, but the fast pace made it seem as if the exciting things were coming at every other page! As a Young Adult Dystopian, that's exactly what I was hoping to get from this book, and I got it in bucketfuls!

There are a lot of characters in this book. It doesn't feel like a lot having now finished the book, but there are, like, ten. That's a lot. But surprisingly, Emmy Laybourne manages to give them all the attention they need. The book was told from Dean's point of view, but we saw each of the ten characters develop just as much as he did. Some, even more!
I absolutely loved that. I loved seeing everyone react to the situation in which they found themselves. I loved seeing them adapt. I loved seeing them bond. I loved it.

As for the plot, as I said before, there wasn't a whole lot. You understand that the world is ending, and you're kept entertained by the obstacles they face in the superstore, but ultimately you can feel the sense of an over-arcing plot taking place. At least I did anyway, so I didn't expect to learn too much about what was going on. I just enjoyed what it gave me.
There were points throughout the story, at which I wasn't sure where I stood. For example, there was an incident revolving around a very serious theme nowadays, and it took me a while to figure out how I felt about it, but I decided that it was actually handled pretty well.

Okay, so I loved all that, but there was something I wasn't a huge fan of; The ending.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I guess it just happened so fast, and didn't give me a chance to get over the negative feelings I towards it, which doesn't sit well with me. I honestly don't know if that made sense, but I'm trying not to spoil it haha.

So yeah, that's that.
One thing I would say, if you're thinking of picking this up, is that you should expect to be blown away. It's a YA Dystopian, and I mean that in the most respectful way. But it's definitely one of the great ones anyway!