The premise of Gone is pretty extreme - one day everyone over fifteen in the small Californian town of Perdido Beach completely disappears. Into thin air. Instantly there are countless problems: fires from untended cooking, babies left on their own in empty houses, and hundreds of car accidents. The kids that remain (that is, everyone under fifteen) have to figure out what has happened, and how to organise themselves in the resulting mayhem. Gradually the kids begin to form gangs and coalitions, and work out some basic rules. Gone focusses on two main groups in Perdido Beach: the elite students from the posh Coates Academy, and the town kids, led by a reluctant Sam Temple. The situation is given even more urgency by the fact that the older kids start disappearing on their fifteenth birthdays.

Author Michael Grant does well to help the reader believe that this could happen. He answers all the logistical questions that come up, and throws in some doozy extras, like an invisible but electrically-charged barrier that keeps the kids cut off from the outside world, and the mystical powers that some kids begin to develop. Gone is snappy and violent and gripping. The writing isn't flowery and pretty, but the characters are believable and interesting, and the plot unfolds in a very intriguing way, somewhat like the TV shows Lost or Heroes. I really enjoyed this book, but I was interested to read Mal Peet's views in his review for *The Guardian*. Peet also enjoyed parts of the book, but thought it was a bit of a 'games novel' - designed to appeal to kids who want a computer game in book form.