1.5.

Great concept but not well-executed or developed.

Dean, his brother Alex, and 12 other kids (ranging from elementary kids to high schoolers) are stuck on their school bus when crazy hail begins falling from the sky. They seek shelter at the local Greenway -- think Walmart -- and are essentially cut off from the world falling apart around them. This is set in a future world, not ours today.

The idea of a group of people being trapped inside a store is what hooked me. They're going to have to depend on one another to survive. Except, by being in a store, they have every single convenience there for them. Food? Got it. Utilities to cook? Got it. They have electricity here, for the most part. But no running water (view spoiler)[ which didn't work for me, especially given how it could have been a huge part of making the story stronger. I also found reading about how they dealt with things like going to the bathroom bizarre (despite their methods for bathing being pretty okay). (hide spoiler)]

It was interesting to watch the characters figure out how cushy they had the end-of-the-world thing but this was in and of itself the entire problem: there was absolutely no external threat.

(view spoiler)[ Sure there were a couple crazies, but they were outside the store. Even when two men came inside, they didn't offer much threat. There was also the realization they could last weeks on the store's supplies. Oh, and they had no idea what was going on outside but were too scared to figure it out. Which in the end, it turned out potentially nothing bad was going on outside? I'd like to say my assumption is wrong on this but because the book ends on the most uninteresting cliffhanger, I can't say I'll be compelled to figure it out by picking up book two. (hide spoiler)] There was nothing going on to make these kids have a real story. Obviously, they wanted to leave and find their families but there was nothing stopping them from doing so except themselves. It didn't make an interesting story. They just...did nothing and had no real fears except the ones they made up in their heads. That's boring to a reader.

In addition to having no external threats in the book, there were too many characters, and they weren't compelling. I did appreciate Dean and his brother Alex's relationship, but beyond that, there wasn't much in the way of character development. Dean fixates on a couple of the girls, but he doesn't advance on them. There's one scene, actually, where he does fixate on Astrid, and reading it reminded me of another book I read this year about kids trapped together in a building. (view spoiler)[ Dean's watching Astrid and Jake become intimate, except it doesn't DO anything for him or the characters involved. We find out much later that Astrid is 4 months pregnant, which is why Jake leaves her before full-blown intercourse, but this development made no sense in the plot. This scene of voyeurism was jarring and unsettling where it could have been much more about character development/relationships. It wasn't even desperation sex or end-of-the-world sex. It was boring for everyone involved. (hide spoiler)]

Which brings me to another thing about the characters that didn't work and a plot point which made me uncomfortable. (view spoiler)[ Sahalia is 13 and she's portrayed as a slut. There's an entire scene where the characters are taking baths in the kiddie pools and rather than don a bathing suit, Sahalia wears a white shirt and short shorts. Dean tells us about how she chooses to bathe: it's done so that she bends over in front of the boys and they get a view of everything (we're talking description of what's between her legs) and then when she turns around, he shares just what her nipples look through her wet shirt. At this point, it's clearly Dean-speak and it's not inauthentic to him or to a teenage boy. The problem emerges when he continues to describe her as a slut and when she's called out by another character as being too young, too dumb, and too attention-seeking. Not a biggie. Characters are allowed to be that way. Except -- later in the story, when the two adults have joined the kids, the characters walk in on her naked and beside one of the men. The initial thought was, of course, she instigated something. That Robbie was the innocent man with whom she'd seduced. When it turns out that he, in fact, raped her, there's still a lot of questioning from Dean and the other characters. They don't TRULY believe she was a victim because, well, she's a slutty character. (hide spoiler)] The entire portrayal of Sahalia left me cold and bothered, particularly because this was the only advancement of her and it was the strongest advancement of any of the secondary characters (aside from (view spoiler)[ the pregnant Astrid. Huh. The two female characters who got the most page time both were identified by their sexual proclivities (hide spoiler)]).

Additionally, there was no development of a future world at all. There was the catastrophe and the mundane detailing of life in the store, but never did this story feel like it was set in the future. What I needed to know was what was causing the world to collapse? Traces of government conspiracy existed, but it was minimal.

This is the first book in a series, and the ending isn't a conclusion. While that in and of itself isn't a problem, the fact the story doesn't set up external threats, under develops the world, and offers little in the way of compelling characters doesn't leave me interested enough to pick up book two. Other books have taken this sort of story line and done it so much better by offering characters who are fully developed and interesting, as well as well-written worlds. Monument 14, however, settles is much more about the mundane details of life inside a big box store, which is boring. There's not an emotional investment on the part of the reader because there's not an emotional investment on the part of the characters. If they're not going at this with their heart, I'm not going to, either. I think had this story cut out the unnecessary day-to-day stuff and instead focused on the story, there would be no need for additional books.

Also, the blood-type disease issue could have been it -- the driving force and the threat -- but it's so overlooked and understated that it felt like it was tacked on, rather than an important plot element.

Pacing was inconsistent because of the focus on the mundane. The story sped up at the instance of change and of threat, but because those moments were few and far between, the pacing was otherwise slow. Not a standout book.