Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Book: Monument 14
Author: Emmy Laybourne
# of Pages: 294 (Hardcover)
Rating: 4.5 stars

Goodreads Summary
Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

My Thoughts:
There is never a dull moment in Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14. A series of natural disasters occurs and 14 kids varying in age from kindergarten to high school take refuge in a Greenway superstore. To make matters worse, a chemical compound has been released into the air which has negative effects on humans.

Though the 14 kids have everything they need in the superstore, food, water, clothes, medical supplies, things are far from perfect. There are arguments, bouts of jealousy, and difficult decisions that have to be made.

For such a short book, I was surprised by how well we get to know all of the kids, though I do wish we could have seen more of Astrid.

Overall, I really enjoyed Monument 14, and I can't wait for the sequel.