David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion

Meaghan, DeAnna and Jenny are going to start a buddy read of Gone by Michael Grant on Wednesday, April 17th!! Anyone else who wants to read and discuss are more than welcome! Or if you've already read and just want to jump in, come on in!!

We keep things pretty relaxed, you can read at your own pace. Please post what Chapter or % you're up to and use spoilers for anything that might ruin it for someone else who's not as far along :) And most of all, have fun!

Thanks Karen!! I'll watch along too so I'm ready for the Hunger buddy read :)

I might have to join a little late. I'm only about halfway through The Immortal Rules, and I probably should read The Eternity Cure before Gone, but I'm not sure yet. Either way, I'll probably be a little behind.

8%. Everyone being under 15 seems so young! Not really sure what to think of it yet, I'm thinking Lord of the Flies type of story right now. Oh, and... (view spoiler)[ Just found out that Sam has special powers. So strange! (hide spoiler)]

I just finished The Immortal Rules and decided to postpone The Eternity Cure a little bit, so I'll be starting Gone some time today, probably after the kids are in bed.

Meaghan wrote: "8%. Everyone being under 15 seems so young! Not really sure what to think of it yet, I'm thinking Lord of the Flies type of story right now. Oh, and... [spoilers removed]"

Meaghan, that's exactly what I said in my review. Read this when you are further in, maybe 50%. (view spoiler)[It was Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point, Lord of the Flies, Stephen King's Under the Dome, the TV show Heroes, and the X-Men movies all mashed together. (hide spoiler)]

Karen! That's like telling a kid here's a big, shiny, red button that says Don't Push but when you turn 25 you can push it SO STAY AWAY!!! lol :P

I will resist the urge tho...

Hahahah.. you'll see that in all of our buddy reads. I'm at 85% - spoiler. Kills me everytime so I read even faster just so I can read the spoilers... hehehhe...

I'm now 18 % in to the story, and its so intriguing! (view spoiler)[ So it seems to me that they are under a big dome, and it all has something to do with the power plant. No idea where all the adults went! very crazy and creepy! The kids are already dividing into factions--its like high school in the real world! Pretty scary! (hide spoiler)]

Just about to start...

I'm at 9%, and I think this is going to be a tough one for me. I'm dying to know what on earth is going on, but it's a very long book. I'm afraid it's going to take forever to find out! lol

I'm about 18% in and I feel the same way DeAnna. I want to know but I can't possible fathom how this is a six part series. lol.

It didn't feel like a long book to me. :-). Looks like I read it in 3 days.

Meaghan wrote: "I'm about 18% in and I feel the same way DeAnna. I want to know but I can't possible fathom how this is a six part series. lol."

There are so many things going on, it will take 6 books to get all our questions answered! ;-)

I read the first two in the series but gave up after that. I just couldn't commit to 6 books of it!

I'm about a quarter of the way through now and I'm enjoying it but I don't know that I'm loving it yet. (view spoiler)[ I'm mostly interested with the seagull with the talons, lol. I feel like there are more important things going on but that seems to have my focus for whatever reason. (hide spoiler)]

Meaghan part of my issue was that more and more characters and plots were introduced so that by the end of book two I was like what the heck is going on?!

I will add that I liked book one enough to read book two so for me that is saying something!

I want to ask a stupid question...

Is the countdown going on the time until Sam's birthday?

I'm going to make a prediction! (view spoiler)[ The kids of Coates Academy have those special powers. (hide spoiler)]

Ooohhh... I love predictions, and seeing if you're right!

42% (view spoiler)[ Caine and Sam are brothers?!? I didn't see that one coming... (hide spoiler)]

Meaghan wrote: "42% [spoilers removed]"

Ditto, Meaghan!!

Thomas wrote: "Just finished it today i only took 1.5 days but if you are going to read its second part too please inform me"

Hi Thomas! We will be reading book 2, you'll have to watch for when we create the new thread for it in the next few weeks :) Hope you can join us!

So one thing that I guess confuses ame aboutthis book (not sure if this is really a spoiler but I'll put in tags to be safe. (view spoiler)[ If Sam is supposed to disappear in 5 days (and Caine for that matter), what's the point of them trying to kill each other? (hide spoiler)]

Meaghan (view spoiler)[ I would guess Caine doesn't want any competition with Sam. Sam didn't want to kill him until they threatened Astrid. (hide spoiler)]

I'm now 55% in! I'm definitely hooked with this one! (view spoiler)[ I can't believe how quickly things turned so crazy! I also didn't see Caine and Sam as brothers. It makes sense since they both have "the power." And what's with the crazy animals--a teleportating cat and a flying snake??? Crazy stuff!
I'm wondering when Sam and Astrid and the gang will meet up with Lana--she has to be important! (hide spoiler)]

lol I have so many spelling errors when I try typing on my kindle.....

I have the same problem when I'm trying to type on my phone!

Jenny...(view spoiler)[ I agree but five days seems like such a short time it seems trivial to want someone dead. (hide spoiler)]

I'm 60%. (view spoiler)[ I'm also hooked! The talking coyotes are crazy too. And I feel like this darkness ordeal has a bigger role coming up. I am really interested in Lana's story. I thought by now she'd have met up with everyone but not yet! (hide spoiler)]

I'm so glad you're doing a buddy read. It's a great refresher for me!

I'm loving this so far, Karen! Another good book triplets series I think!

I agree! I look forward to reading Hunger. David and I have been talking about our buddy read for that for forever! So glad there are more to join in! :-)

How long does it take to really get hooked? I think I'm only 10-15%, and I'm not loving it yet. I really wanted to finish it tomorrow, but I'm so far behind, I don't think that's going to happen. :(

I didn't get hooked until maybe a quarter of the way through or so.

I am really interested to see everyones thoughts after they read book two...

I'm at 28% and still just feeling kind of eh.

I don't remember what hooked me or when. Just one minute I wasn't and the next I was. :)

I was pretty hooked from the beginning--more so about 1/3 of the way in!

I'm 38% now, I think, and I'm still not really feeling it. Debating whether to power through, DNF, or just put it aside for a bit.

I'm about 85% in now. It doesn't feel like a 600 page book to me at all!

DeAnna (Mommy's Reading Break) wrote: "I'm 38% now, I think, and I'm still not really feeling it. Debating whether to power through, DNF, or just put it aside for a bit."

I usually give books about 100 pages and if I am not into them I quit EXCEPT for books people have told me to stick with (i.e. Book Thief)

I'm now 86% of the way in, and its getting really intense! (view spoiler)[ The revelation of little Petey was heartbreaking! Although they may be all dead if he hadn't intervened! I'm thinking "THe Darkness" must be the cause of all the mutations. I'm also wondering if it has anything to do with that meteorite that hit 15 years ago? I don't know what to expect next, but I'm hoping Sam can beat the "Poof" factor! (hide spoiler)]

A little over 50% now (view spoiler)[I almost dropped my kindle when they found the dead baby/toddler. Totally not cool at all. Made me sick. Got to the part where Sam and Caine are brothers, and I'm a little more interested, but Drake and Orc totally skeeve me out. These kids are only 14 and completely sadistic! (hide spoiler)]

I'm hoping to finish this today.

Same here. I'll hopefully finish today and be able to start Prodigy!

88% (view spoiler)[ Quinn is driving me insane! He better make an incredible heroic move soon! (hide spoiler)]

My final prediction. (view spoiler)[ Jack will not gt to him in time to tell him the way to beat the poof. I think when Sam thinks he sees his mom he will tell her no anywys bc he has too much unfinished business in the FAYZ and wants to stay to help. (hide spoiler)]

Finished. (view spoiler)[Okay, after all that build-up, I'm really disappointed that Sam let Caine go. I know why he did it, but really? Every time you let the bad guy go, you know he's going to come back. (hide spoiler)]

Finished!

(view spoiler)[ I don't think Sam should have let Caine go at the end. Especially knowing he'll come back. I understand not wanting to kill him but at least find a way to imprison him or something! (hide spoiler)]

I am looking forward to continuing this series and hope there is more character development that occurs as the story unfolds. I feel like he relationship between Sam and Astrid especially needs to be developed more. They've been together for a couple weeks at best and are already confessing their undying love to one another. And they're 14 years old!

This book felt like a modern retelling of Lord of the Flies with powers added in.

I finished it and loved it! (view spoiler)[ I agree with the whole Sam not letting Caine go thing, I suppose its to keep the series going. I was frustrated more with Quinn not being able to shoot Drake, though. Drake was pure evil and he couldn't shoot him? I think it was good that the author was reminding us these are just kids playing war with that scene, but I was just like, "NOOOO!" I was impressed with Sam not going into the Poof thing--Meaghan you had it spot on there! (hide spoiler)]
I'm really excited to keep reading this series! There are still so many questions!