3 out of 4 stars
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Going Gone is a dystopian book unlike many I have read. The book contains a series of vignettes. Each is separate, yet all work together to tell the story of a collapse of a society.
The Prime Minister of Israel has been assassinated. Unfortunately, he was the unifying force for much of that area and was well-liked. Somehow, the United States is blamed for his death. This, of course, results in (or is used as an excuse for) retaliation. What ensues is a catastrophe unlike the world has ever seen. Follow along for this journey of epic proportions.
I found one of the most interesting stories in this collection to be the one entitled Jessie and the LARGOnauts. LARGO is a cult, and the acronym stands for Legion Above, Reaping God Overseer. Jessie is an investigative reporter who goes searching for a missing Senator believed to have joined this cult. Jessie is an atheist; and, against her better judgement (believing the story will win her a Pulitzer), she joins this cult by convincing them that she is searching for something more in her life. How does this tie in to the overall story of destruction? I guess you'll just have to read the book and find out.
As hard as the plot of this book is to sum up in one paragraph, it was an easy and quick read. There are around 250 pages (depending on which format you download) with 12 chapters. In each chapter, we are privy to a different person going through this tragedy. The stories, however, all seem to connect in some form or fashion forming one continuous view of the world during this disastrous time. I found this to be a very unique and interesting way to tell the story of a country's demise. It captured my attention from the very beginning making me not want to stop until I reached the conclusion. The story as a whole moved along at a good clip without a boring moment.
The one drawback to this style of storytelling is that you don't get the full scope of any one person. I enjoyed seeing glimpses of these characters, and the author provided enough back story in each vignette for me to get a true sense of who they were. Therefore, this really only added to my sense of enjoyment because I got a better sense of the world as a whole this way. Unfortunately, I realize that there will be some that are driven crazy at not knowing what becomes of each character.
I very much enjoyed reading this collection of stories and was sad when it ended. Therefore, I rate Going Gone 3 out of 4 stars. Sadly, I was unable to give the book a perfect rating due to the grammatical errors sprinkled here and there throughout the book. Most of these errors were minor and consisted of missing words or incorrect tenses. While these did not occur frequently nor did they take away from my enjoyment of the book, they were regular enough to make me think that the book needed more editing. I recommend this to all who enjoy a good dystopian novel especially one that stands out a bit from the crowd.
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Going Gone
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