Light by Michael Grant

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia

Publishing Info: May 2015 by Egmont Books (first published 2012)

Pages: 464

Star Rating: 3.5/5

Back Cover Summary:

All eyes are on Perdido Beach. The barrier wall is now as clear as glass and life in the FAYZ is visible for the entire outside world to see. Life inside the dome remains a constant battle and the Darkness, away from watchful eyes, grows and grows …The society that Sam and Astrid have struggled so hard to build is about to be shattered for good. It’s the end of the FAYZ. Who will survive to see the light of day? A tour-de-force from global sensation, Michael Grant, Light is the final heartstopping installment in this bestselling series.

Light is the final book in the Gone series and, although I enjoyed it in some ways, I’m also glad I’ve now finished it. Spanning six books, this series just felt too long for me. The plot was stretched out too much, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if there had been less books. The fifth book was a bit of a miss for me, but I’d come so far, and only had the last book left, so felt I needed to finish the series and see how it all ended.

Overall, I think this was a good ending to the series. It was satisfying, but not altogether surprising or shocking, in the sense that it played out as you’d probably expect. But it was fast paced and there was plenty of action. There are, unsurprisingly, quite a few character deaths. The death toll in this series is huge. I continued to enjoy the characters and how morally grey most of them are. They’ve been through a lot, and their experiences shape and change them over the course of the series.

This book also explores the issues around what will happen when the kids eventually get out of the FAYZ and into the real world, considering how many crimes were committed inside the dome. Especially since the dome is clear in this book and, for the first time, the world can see in and witness the events unfolding.

The Gone series is brutal. It’s graphic, gory and quite often disturbing. There were passages I had to skim read because they were just too graphic and horrifying for me. It nearly put me off multiple times, but something kept drawing me back to these books. The list of content warnings for this series would be massive, which you should absolutely be aware of before diving in.

There is also some questionable representation of autism throughout this series, with regards to how Little Pete’s character is presented and treated, but I’m not the best person to comment on this. An internet search will find a lot of articles about this, by people in a position to comment on the portrayal of autism in these books, who have written really informative discussions on this subject.

So would I recommend this series? Although there are a lot of things I did like about these books, I wouldn’t recommend them for everyone. And I would definitely suggest doing some research into this one before you start reading so you can decide if it’s right for you.