I honestly think I spent too much time on this book for me to really give a well-thought-out and accurate rating. Normally 558 pages would have took me 2 days or even 1, but since I was so busy with other things it took me an entire week. Or two. I've heard a lot of good things about this book and was pretty excited to read it, because, well. Suddenly, all adults are gone! Doesn't that seem like a wonderful thing?! Just kidding. It's pretty scary, actually, but the main reason I wanted to read this was because it was basically one of my crazy speculations written down in an actual story. I swear the guy on the cover, who must be Sam, looks like Liam Payne. I LOVE LIAM. LOL. The girl on the cover must be Astrid. Hmm. Cuties. The romance between Sam and Astrid was good, actually, better than I had anticipated. My friend told me that the amount of romance in this book wouldn't satisfy my romantic needs but-- actually, it did. Probably because I made that friend think that I liked nothing but erotica... Ahem. Anyways. Sam and Astrid are barely 14 years old and what I find somewhat awkward is that he confessed his love for her. Like, "I love you so so much Astrid." I'm sorry but they're only fourteen. And myself, being that age, am somewhat familiar with the concept of 'love' by reading Nicholas Sparks novels and etc, and I know that Astrid and Sam are just crushing on each other. Well, my point is, I think that 'love' was a much-too-strong word to express their affections for each other.This book reminds me of Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. In M14, all the adults didn't really 'disappear' like in this book. But the kids were just left alone to take care of themselves and those younger than them. In this book, though, all the adults (15 years and older, actually) just go POOF. And then the bullies just decide to go like "Okay we're in control." And 14 year olds who drink beer and get high and shoot guns are just really, really horrifying. What I find alike between Monument 14 and GONE-- is that the main female role is named Astrid. And there's that girl who has to take care of the little kids and change their diapers and console them, telling them their parents will come and get them. (UGH LITTLE KIDS CAN BE SO ANNOYING GOSH) However, the similarities end there. I liked Gone so much better. Like, SO much better. I think I would have loved it even more if I didn't take so long on it. Weird, I know, the amount of time I spend on a book affects how much I love it..One thing that annoyed me, though, is that they say 'brah' and 'man' too much. This is such a teenage stereotype. Whenever someone says man or brah in real life I get really irritated, and do you know how much irritation this caused me. LOL.For some reason I think Michael Grant wrote this book to prove to teens about how parents are so important and to not take them for granted- to prove how hard it would be if all the adults were suddenly gone.So there's this FAYZ (pronounced 'phase') thing that's just basically a huge circle. If you touch the wall of the FAYZ you get hurt. Which sort of reminds me of my own book-in-progress in a way.. But yeah, that's why they couldn't go anywhere because they were trapped in the FAYZ. Fallout Alley Youth Zone.I hate all the characters with a burning passion. Except for Edilio and Lana. Lana is super awesome and Edilio is fantastic. Period.So, basically, it began with Sam's (and his acquaintances) POV and then it was Lana's POV. Both third person, btw. And the whole entire time I was just waiting for them to meet. I actually liked Lana's point of view better because all Sam and his friends really did was run away from the bullies, but Lana actually did stuff. Speaking of running away from the bullies, that's what they actually did for like, 4/5 of the book. And then in the last 1/5 Sam decides to fight back. I was just like, FINALLY GOSHRandom Fact: Michael Grant wrote Eve and Adam too. omg. I was just like WHAT. He wrote it with his wife. So cute. :3I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I am actually looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Okay, that's that.