Today's first review is for Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
Imagine you get ready for school in the morning, rush through breakfast, and forget, or choose not to, say "I love you" to your family. Knowing those may be the last words you ever speak to your family may change how you react to your family.
On the way to school, hail starts pouring from the sky. Only, this hail breaks the windows of the school buses, puts dents in vehicles and causes one bus to crash on it's way to the superstore to try to save the kids. Fortunately, Mrs. Wooley has the bus for the younger kids, and just as the last high schoolers make it onto the new bus, the old one explodes in a fiery ball of hail and gasoline.
When Mrs. Wooley drops the kids off at the superstore and heads out into the unknown, no one is sure when she will be back and what extremes they will have to go through to survive. Complicating things are earthquakes that shake the foundation as well as the leaking of biochemical gas that turns those infected into monsters, makes people feel high, or makes people sterile.
The kids have to seal the store and fight every step of the way to survive. When they hear about a safe place in Denver, they have to decide, who will stay and who will go?
This book was such a quick read due to the constant action, drama, and emotion shooting through the pages. This book will appeal to both males and females--you get a little bit of everything. From zombie-like attributes, to love stories, to survival, the story has it all, and it won't leave you out of anything. Laybourne sets up the story at the end for a sequel, and as it happens, there are already 3 books of the series.
Pick this one up and be transformed into a world where YOU may be the one saving everyone around you!
and The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Switching gears, The Pianist is historical novel telling the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a real musician, and one of Jewish faith, as he tries to survive during the Warsaw Ghetto occupation by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. Wanting to stay with his family, Szpilman will not buy certificates to ensure his safety unless he can get his entire family safe.
When his family is taken, and by luck, he escapes the train cars, Szpilman must survive on his own, hiding in attics, empty apartments, and living on pieces of moldy bread for weeks. While no picnic, this lifestyle, only we know at the time what Szpilman is truly avoiding at the hands of the Nazi concentration camps.
This story is so intense, so true, and so incredibly moving that it is difficult to get through. The Holocaust is a huge part of our history, and this book tells a kind of story we don't usually hear, but it just as relevant as any other Holocaust account. You will see the blatant cruelty of the Nazis and wonder why someone could shoot a child in the head simply because he forgot to take his cap off in front of the Nazis to show submission. You question the humanity of our world, and if something like this could ever happen again.
This story is gruesome, and you need to be aware that this story is not a happy one--there is detail you will not find in your average story. The blood, the fighting, the starvation is all real. This happened less than one hundred years ago. Can we be sure we will never be this cruel again?
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