Bookworms: Monument 14 (2012) by Emmy Laybourne
Posted By Shanna Kopcsik on September 11, 2013
The rooftop is desolate, scarier than in the movies, worse than it would have been on a normal day, had they for some reason made it to this rooftop on a normal day. But it isn’t a normal day and the kids staring out at the horizon couldn’t pretend that it was. The devastating hail littering the ground they stood on would have been enough to send them back inside on a normal day.
But today, in author Emmy Laybourne’s world, they stood transfixed by the horizon trapped, staring out at the great chemical storm cloud quickly heading their direction. On a normal day, they would cry and scream, but today, for just a second, they are all frozen in the moment as the realization hits that this is only the beginning and there won’t ever be a normal day for them again.
It started on a normal day in the vaguely futuristic year of 2024, kids trampling off to barely catch the bus. They never guessed the apocalypse would have started on the way to school with a freak hail storm, fiery bus crash and fleeing to the relative shelter of a superstore. Fourteen kids, ranging from kindergarteners to high school teenagers, hideout and learn how to survive as the world outside falls apart.
It has been a long time since I read a book, especially a young adult book, that intelligently covered all the bases of concept, characters, and story and writing prowess successfully. This could mean I’m reading the wrong books, but I read what catches my eye, and Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne drew me in and even though this tale continues that trend, crafting an entertaining and captivating story while partially succeeding in these more specific qualities, I will be reading the sequels, Sky On Fire and Savage Drift.
The concept of this story holds great potential, with the dramatic background of disasters, survival and the unknown from a young adult perspective. The action starts quickly, which I greatly appreciate, and we learn about the characters as they adjust to their situation, miss how things used to be and struggle with the realization that life will never be the same again.
Unfortunately, with that internal drama comes a great deal of lag time while everyone argues and converses. What brought me down in this is that some really tough issues are brought up and while the characters pull through in surprisingly mature ways, these issues of prescription drug abuse, self harm through neglecting one’s health, the pain of shock and real physical injury, adult victimization of kids, and violence are glossed over. I wouldn’t expect a young adult book populated almost entirely by kids to go too much into depth on these issues, but pushing them to the side in favor of weird peeping tom moments, obsessive attraction between some of the older kids and the younger kids caring more about toys and candy than their missing parents was distracting.
Since Monument 14 does such an excellent job of breaking down the survival of the kids, with realistic situations and mature calculating strategies on food, supplies and safety it’s a little surprising to see the lack of realistic mental and emotional struggle and perseverance. However, with the superficial relationships and ideas now established, since they weren’t given a chance to be before the disaster, I have higher hopes for the next installation in the series as the characters will hopefully be able to move forward as they encounter new dangers and the reality that the world truly has changed forever.
Monument 14 is a great book and despite some of my more critical points on how I wish aspects had been fleshed out more, I highly recommend checking out this story. The idea of surviving in a superstore and of how these kids work together to survive is fascinating and reminiscent of the classic Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I think that the Monument 14 movie that is in the works to be directed by Brad Peyton, best known for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, will really give the story a chance to shine, hopefully highlighting the survival, struggles, disasters and action over the melodrama of superficial attraction in an apocalyptic setting. I have high hopes for both the movie and the sequel, Monument 14: Sky On Fire which I have to catch up on soon. So go check out the first installment so you are ready for the movie in 2015.
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