Review of "Monument 14"

"She smashed the bus right through the glass doors of the Greenway."

     In Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne, ordinary kids from all walks of life are thrown together in the most intense survival situation they could have imagined. Dean and his fourteen-year-old brother have been looking out for each other ever since the world started going downhill. Sure, they have their parents, but Mom and Dad can't watch over them around the clock. When a freak storm of giant hailstones destroy Dean's school bus and lands Alex's in the local Greenway superstore, they're on their own. And when Mrs. Wooly, Alex's driver, leaves the two buses of kids alone in the Greenway so she can get help, there are no other grown-ups to calm people down or maintain order. Dean knows he isn't a leader, and so does everyone else. However, as time goes by and conditions grow steadily worse, a leader may not be what this group needs. What they need is glue to keep them together--and that is something Dean can provide.

     As far as apocalypses go, there's something to be said for Laybourne's straightforward approach. By the time the first chapter is through, enormous hailstones have destroyed one school bus, injured a handful of students, and forced a kindly driver into hardcore survival mode. Every few days, things outside the Greenway grow progressively worse, leaving the store's unlikely inhabitants to deal with the consequences. Sometimes this means setting up a work schedule or boarding up a door; other times, it means tying people up to protect the group. There's little explanation of why everything is going downhill, and that's what makes this story so realistic.

     Dean's narrative style is very direct. He tells us what happens, when it happens, and why it happens--at least, as far as he can tell. His personality bleeds through every page, grounding the fantastical work in what could easily pass for reality. Rather than repeatedly note how long they've been living in the Greenway, each page keeps track at the bottom, making narrative jumps to later events far less confusing than they might have been. It also plunges readers directly into the moment, filling them with sights, sounds, and scents that flesh out the setting and characters in a matter of sentences. Every emotion is conveyed convincingly, from heartbreak to sheer terror or even brotherly love. And because the cast is so diverse, finding relatable characters to cheer for is relatively simple.

     Unfortunately, there are a lot of things in this little story that pre-readers should look out for. Language can get heated, and though the strongest terms replace key letters with hyphens, plenty of the medium-level vulgarity is reported as-is. Violence, too, is mildly graphic; while there's no gore, characters pull no punches and leave a bit of a mess after each fight, which they have to clean up later. There's also the minor fact that the apocalypse isn't over when the hail stops falling, and the disasters that follow are extremely dangerous. However, the primary focus is on the Greenway kids rather than the outside world, so this threat is toned down immensely in favor of the more interesting interpersonal drama.

     The biggest factor, though, is romance. From the start, Dean has a crush on a pretty girl he's certain doesn't know he exists. Even with the world falling apart around him, he's excited to think that he'll be spending time near her until everything is set to rights. And he isn't the only one with these kinds of thoughts. Shortly into their stay, a girl from the local middle school decides it's time to spice things up by dressing uncleanly. While Dean views this as a sad sign of immaturity, some of the other boys find this intriguing. At one point, our protagonist walks in on a very private moment that, while not described in detail, is laced with dialogue that fills in most of the blanks. Later, one person tries to take advantage of another. While I'd hesitate to call the latter a trigger scene, potential readers should be wary.

     I would recommend this book to older teenagers looking for a survival tale about smart kids doing their best in a world that's falling to pieces. It features an unusual setting, a highly diverse cast, and a myriad of complicated relationships that contribute just as much to the tension as the catastrophes beyond the Greenway doors. The writing style ties everything together and holds on tight, while the extraordinary intelligence of the characters makes following along an intriguing journey. If it weren't for the heap of flag-worthy content and Dean's never-ending fixation on his crush, this might be a brilliant novel. As it is, Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14 is a great book deserving four stars.