Monument 14

Monument 14

Monument 14 Book 1

By Emmy Laybourne

 

★★★★☆

Three heavy metal gates were rolling down over the gaping hole at the front of the store. One, two, three, side by side they descended. The two on the sides covered the windows. The center one was a bit bigger and covered the entire space of what had been the sliding doors.

            The gate was perforated so we could still get air and see out, but it was kind of scary. We were being locked in.

            The little kids lost it. “What’s happening?” “We’re trapped!” “I want to go home!” That kind of thing.  Niko just stood, watching the gate come down.

            “We should like get something under it. To like wedge it open,” Jake shouted. He grabbed a shopping cart and rolled it forward, under the central gate. But the gate just pushed the cart out of the way. The three gates settled with a heavy CLANK that rang with finality.

“We’re locked in,” I said.

“And everyone else is locked out,” Niko said quietly.

            It began with a freak hailstorm, or a supercell, as they call it, on a perfectly normal day in a perfectly normal town. An extraordinary hailstorm that killed many and stranded 6 high schoolers, 2 eighth graders, and 6 elementary schoolers in a chain superstore, which, honestly, isn’t really the worst place to be stranded. Then came a chemical cloud that turned some of them into hallucinating psychos and covered some with bloody blisters. Yet others became rage-fuelled monsters when exposed to this toxic substance. Fourteen kids. One superstore. What could go wrong?

            Monument 14 is Emmy Laybourne’s debut novel. Complete with action, tragedy, comedy and even a little romance, it’s a read that is sure to pull you in. I would recommend this book to readers ages 11-14. If you liked this please subscribe!!! J