Monument 14: Sky on Fire

Monument 14: Sky on Fire
by Emmy Laybourne
New York: Feiwel and Friends
2013
217 pages



Well, if you read Monument 14 book and my earlier blog post, you will want to read this book which comes next. Compared to the first one, however, this one is more "fluff". That's not to say that it doesn't continue the horror. It just doesn't have as much substance in plot, character development, and descriptive passages as the first book. That's not necessarily a bad thing and I will explain further.

The action of the story has been divided into two viewpoints. We have Dean's, with Astrid, Chloe, Henry, and Caroline left in the Greenway. They are Blood Type O and, when exposed to the dangerous chemicals let loose in the atmosphere, they become raging monsters. With their concern for the smaller children, they have decided that it is better to stay and await rescue than endanger the others who left in the bus.

Dean's brother, Alex, travelling with Nico, Josie, Sahalia, Max, Ulysses, and Batiste, tells the story of the bus rescue crew. This is our first glimpse of the world outside the Greenway and it is scarier than we could have imagined. The bus doesn't haven't a clear windshield and seeing through the plexiglass makes the world look foggy. Someone has placed big, battery-powered floodlights along the highway, so it isn't completely dark. Despite the daytime hours, there is very little light coming from the sun which is obscured by dense clouds.  The roads are cracked, but a sort of path has been cleared for the bus to pass through. Cars are everywhere but there is something strange about them. A white fungus has eaten the tires and is spreading away from the cars. What is it?

Seeing the world so devastated makes it hard to remember that we are only on  Day 12 after the world ended as these kids knew it, less than two weeks.

Of course, we don't expect anything to be easy for either group of children. Back at the store, Dean and Astrid have new problems. Outsiders have seen the light from the opening when the bus went out and they try to get in. They take pity on some other strangers and throw food down to them from the roof, but this only leads to others coming and crashing into the store. The bus is taken over eventually by militant and paranoid older teens, who turn all of our small heroes out and leave them, first finding out where they came from. Of course, this spells further disaster for the Greenway kids and Alex and Nico know it. Somehow they have to walk the remaining 40 miles to Denver, all with masks and several layers of clothing, no food, blisters, and danger everywhere. And three of them are small children.

How do you eat in one of these things?

I said earlier that I felt like this was a "fluffier" book than the first one. Perhaps the main problem for me is that, because of the two story lines, we see more action rather than character development. I feel like I understand the main characters fairly well from the first book, but the new people they encounter just seem bad with no explanation or background behind them. We encounter only two kind helpers along the way to Denver: Max's Auntie Jean and an old man named Mario Scietto who takes the kids in for a couple of nights. I like more background and description in my stories, rather than so much dialogue, but since we are being told this story by the two brothers and they do not have the luxury of reflection time, I guess that could be too much to expect. The action is steady and tense, and I want to see these children come out okay.

Lucky for everyone, the bus kids make it to the Denver Airport and it really is a refuge and not just a rumor. The parents of some of the kids are found, and another parent helps with a daring rescue of the Greenway kids just in the nick of time. The book ends with the possibility of another book to come, since Josie is still separated from the rest. These kids have become a family, to themselves and to me, a fact reinforced by the change in Sahalia from a pouty girl who wants to prove how grown up she is, without really understanding what that means, into a big sister who cares for the others and wants to protect them. I want to see how things turn out for them. I will be watching for Book Three in this series.