The Gone series continues with a great bad guy.

As I have stated in all of my reviews of the books in Michael Grant’s GONE series, I am many years beyond the reading demographic these YA books are geared toward, but I love a good story, and the original series, centered on the FAYZ at Perdido Beach, California, was a great story with a great premise. The previous book in the series, MONSTER, was a continuation with the action now taking place all around the world, with the introduction of a lot of new characters; it had its faults, with the main criticism being that it simply was not the GONE story so many had fallen in love with over six books. But it had enough of the author’s strong points, namely a knack for creating great villains, staging action scenes, and serving up gore, to make it a decent read.

The eighth book in the series, VILLAIN, continues the story set up in MONSTER, as the group of super powered heroes who came together in that book: Shade Darby, Dekka Talent, Cruz, Armo, Malik, and newcomer, Frances Spector, take on a new mutated threat in Las Vegas. This title character is Dillon Poe, a particularly nasty little narcissistic piece of work, a kid who dreams of making it big as a comedian, and who can morph into a serpent like creature with the power to command individuals with his voice alone. The Ranch, the requisite secret mutant creating government facility, also figures in the story, as do returning bad guys like Justin DeVere, Tom Peaks, and Vincent Vu, although some of them are underused, so too is uber sadist Drake Merwin, a favorite from the first series, though in Drake’s case, he’s clearly being saved for another book.

VILLAIN is noticeably shorter than MONSTER, and that is all to the better, as no time is spent with clunky character introductions and back story. It’s a quick read that plays to Grant’s talent in getting the reader invested in the action and characters with a spare use of words; and the battle of Las Vegas, which takes up the second half of the story, is well written, especially in the way it describes how Dillon uses his power to take over the free will of individuals and twist them to his selfish whims. There are scenes of carnage which are truly cringing inducing in the best way. Heroes and villains still “morph” in underwhelming transformations, and the learning curve when it comes to mastering powers is still way too easy, but I get it that Grant dispensed with anything that might have slowed the story down this time; middle books in a story arc can often end up bogging down a narrative, something Grant manages to dodge in VILLAIN.

I enjoyed VILLAIN better than MONSTER, even the ostentatious diversity played better in this book, while the promised return of some fan favorites in the latter book was teased further in the former, setting things up nicely in the next book, HEROES, the final volume in the series. And if the GONE series never gets that live action TV or movie adaptation that has been rumored for years, then why not an animated series done in the same manner as the DC animated films put out by Warner Brothers? Why doesn’t somebody not pitch that to Netflix?

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