I haven’t read the Gone series since I was a teenager, when I thought the series ended with Light, the sixth book in the series. When I heard there was a seventh book and a whole spin-off trilogy, I was excited but apprehensive. I don’t remember much of the original series, but I do remember that I had liked the ending. As much as I loved the themes, the brutality and gore, the diverse cast of characters and the world itself, I wasn’t sure how to feel about a new set of books in the series. I had a few questions. Would I need to reread the books in the original series? Would I ruin my fond memory of the original books if I reread them and they don’t hold up? Would I enjoy the new trilogy? Would I still feel the same way about the writing, the world and the characters? Without rereading the original six books, I continued onto the seventh book and the first book in the spin-off trilogy. Immediately after the first chapter, I realized how juvenile the writing was in this book and the original books. This book series has the tone of a comic book and is clearly meant for a younger audience that can suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the wacky storylines. The original books felt like X-Men meets Lord of the Flies, while this book feels like a plain monster movie. I recommend reading the first six books before reading the spin-off trilogy to get the full effect. This book has major spoilers for the original series and is meant to be read afterwards. What I loved most about the original series was the diverse cast of characters. The characters in this book are just as diverse, but I can now notice how some of their depictions feel off. In this book, a new trans character’s depiction doesn’t feel as strong as the original characters that I remember. The trans character’s gender expression was kind of all over the place, but I can justify that by saying that she’s young and probably still figuring herself out. I would be curious to hear how trans people feel about the character’s depiction though. Two of the newer characters in this book felt like pale imitations of two of the characters from the original books. The returning character from the original books felt like the strongest, most interesting and most fleshed out character, most likely because her storyline continued and fleshed out what it was like to survive the events of the original books. I just wish there had been more of her in this book. I loved hearing the aftereffects of the original series on this fictional world, and the little mentions of all the original characters who survived and how they were coping. I loved how the setting of this book was much bigger than that of the original setting. I enjoyed bouncing back and forth between POVs and locations, even if I preferred a certain POV over all the others. I didn’t like that this book was about people morphing into monsters instead of developing supernatural powers like in the original books. This book felt like mindless monster action scenes compared to the supernatural survival mystery horror of the original books. I loved the survival horror and nightmare fuel in the original books, but that was severely missing here. The Dark Watchers were also never explained clearly in this book. I feel like this was on purpose to further add mystery to the story but the way they were constantly casually mentioned made it sound like there was an introduction and explanation that I had missed. Even though I had problems with this book and the direction it went, I still had fun revisiting this world after the events of the original series. The mentions of the original characters, both living and dead, kept me going. However, I’m not dying to read the next book in the trilogy in the same way I was when I was reading the original books.

Oke, ik was helemaal enthousiast toen ik erachter kwam dat dit boek uit zou komen. Ik had geen idee hoe het verhaal verder zou gaan, want ik vond de serie al aardig goed afgerond, maar het was een poging waard. Het boek zelf begon ik enthousiast in, ik was blij om weer even helemaal in de schrijfstijl van Michael te kunnen glijden en de wereld weer meemaken zoals ik die toen heb meegemaakt. Maar wat een teleurstelling zeg. Was de Gone serie echt GEWELDIG, is dit boek een slap vervolg op de serie. Ik vind het te ongeloofwaardig op het moment. Ik vind Dekka nog steeds een leuk karakter (maar waarom moet haar kat dood? Wat geeft dat voor extra element?), maar ik mis Sam en Astrid. Ik mis de wereld en de belevenissen zoals die in Gone zo goed zijn omschreven. Het is duidelijk dat er nog een boek komt, die zal ik ook lezen, misschien dat het volgende boek mij weer wat meer meesleurt, iedereen verdient een tweede kans, toch?

It's difficult to get a new series up and going, particularly when it is set in a world that has so much backstory already. As such, I feel like I'm being harsh on this new series from the get-go, but it really was a good book. The characters are interesting, and Grant takes time to motivate the various characters. You get a sense of each person, even if they are the villain. Like usual, there's a ton of action, and the book is easy to read. I found it a fun read, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes next.