From the second I read the blurb I was hooked. What sounds better than this?

This is the story of what happens when 14 kids are trapped inside a superstore in the town of Monument. Inside they have everything they could ever need, and with no adult supervision can do whatever they want.
Sounds like fun?
It is.
Until they find out that the world outside is being destroyed.


This genre is not one I’m very familiar with so I was a little unsure about what to expect from this book. However, I needn’t have worried for this book completely engulfed me and refused to let go until I’d turned the last page.
Dean and his younger brother Alex are travelling in separate buses on the way to school on what seems to be a very normal day. That is until huge hailstones start falling from the sky, smashing glass, denting the roof of the bus and causing damage to everything around them. Alex’s bus driver speeds her way into a superstore parking lot and crashes the bus through the glass doors. Dean’s bus driver isn’t so lucky and crashes the bus; however, most passengers are brought to safety by the other bus driver. In a deserted superstore, fourteen children and one bus driver are left wondering what has happened and when the bus driver decides to go and get help, the fourteen children are left alone. What ensues is a fast paced, unpredictable plot about fourteen kids and their will to survive.
Told through a day-by-day format, we are drawn into the terrifying world of these characters. Whilst they might have enough food to eat, enough to drink and places to sleep, that doesn’t stop the tensions that arise when the group are forced to choose a leader and work as a team. Nor does it stop the destruction happening outside.
This book took addictive to a whole new level…I couldn’t put this book down. I would have easily finished it in one sitting if I hadn’t had things to do! I was even tempted to cancel plans so I could just sit and finish the book!
Laybourne has crafted a beautiful set of characters who all have traits and tones that make them assets to the group. I never thought fourteen characters would be so easy to recognise and I wasn’t sure I would cope with remembering them all but Laybourne makes this an effortless job: you know who every character is from the beginning. Dean is the protagonist and I felt a lot of loyalty to him as a character, I didn’t feel that he was too biased in his assessments of others and I trusted his account and opinions.
I found the time references (day one, day two etc) to be a really great addition and it felt like I could really keep track of what was going on. It was a very suffocating experience and for them to go through so much in such a short period of time was amazing. The writing is really strong in this novel and is pitched perfectly for a young adult audience. Strangely, very strangely, I almost wanted to be a character in this book. I wanted to be stuck in the supermarket with them and be a part of their makeshift family. Never before did I think I’d want to experience an apocalypse!
This is a gripping YA novel that will have you questioning whether you’d ever be ready to deal with an apocalypse.
This is the first book in a trilogy. I am currently reading the second one called Sky On Fire and cannot wait to read the third called Savage Drift which is out very soon!