Customer Reviews

The Big Empty (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A deadly strain of a respiratory illness has decimated the world's population. Everyone is familiar with death as Decontamination Units round up the dead. The newly self-attested President has declared martial law and evacuated all surviving US citizens to the coastal cities to pull their resources. With the lack of a working population, everyone must survive on food rations and protein shakes. A year later, the story to The Big Empty begins. Keely, a former prep-school student, Irene, a medical school wanna-be, and Jonah began their individual treks toward Novo Mundum, a secret utopia nestled in the evacuated zone nicknamed "The Big Empty." Along the way, Keely's path crosses with Amber, a pregnant juvenile delinquent set on catching up to the boyfriend who abandoned her. Irene's path is joined with Diego, a teen recently shot by a soldier for being in the big empty. Finally, Jonah is joined by Michael and Maggie, an odd couple escaping from a crime they did not commit. These seven teens all coincidently end up in the city of Clearwater, avoiding soldiers and the renegade group "The Slash," while trying to locate the safe haven of Novo Mundum.

The plot sounds EXCELENT! I was thrilled when I read the back synopsis... After reading the book, I was disappointed. This plot has so many avenues for twists, turns, surprises, close calls, and adventure. I felt like Mr. Stephens missed all of them. All of the characters winding up in the same city was a little too clean cut. For an area without any supplies, the group never seemed to have trouble surviving without drawing unwanted attention. Most of the characters were two-dimensional and bordering on stereotypical. In developing his characters, Mr. Stephens left little to the imagination. Like the other reviewer noted, he did much more showing than telling. All of the characters thoughts and motives were laid clearly out without leaving the reader any of the excitement of inferring. This constant strand of character thought also resulted in annoying repetition. I was never able to fully believe in the characters or connect with any of them. Instead, I felt it was a distant read and I really didn't care what happened to them in the end.

The underlying concept of this book merits 5 stars...the writing deserves 2.

When a respiratory disease makes all wrong in the world, an adventure is about to begin. The actions starts when a teenage girl, Keely Gilmore, a girl whose mother hung her out to dry, begins to receive mysterious e-mails, but she is not the only one. Along with six other teens, they stride to reach a common goal; a better life.

Strain 7 has taken over half of the human population. About every human being on Earth has lost a loved one. The president is a former sports reporter that has declared an unlimited government. But now, the teens are trying to escape.

The Big Empty was a book for the complex reader. But when I look back, my favorite scenes are very confusing and you have to reread them sometimes to understand them. One is at the beginning when one of the teens is shot on his grandmother's farm. I also liked when all the characters met up. The end left me buzzing for hours after I was done with the story.

My favorite character had to be Michael, a teen whose father was a business man and seemed to know the art of trade. He was a rebel who was a natural leader and stood up for the right thing. My least favorite character is Michael's ex-girlfriend Maggie, a ditsy girl who is totally oblivious to the world around her. She was annoying and reminded me of Dory from "Finding Nemo" and Maggie wasn't funny.

All though this story takes place in an alternate present, many modern day teens can relate to the characters. This book is a killer read.

Could you imagine losing over one-forth of the U.S. population and evacuating many states because of one disease, the Strain 7? People everywhere not knowing what to do with themselves, because many jobs are now worthless. Quit imagining. A small group of people who can't stand the outer world form a town letting people join only to make them stronger.
One of the many things I liked about this book were the different lives all seven people were leading to have all ended up at the same place. Another thing I liked was the drama that happened to each person because there was never a dull moment. One of my dislikes would have to be the ending because it wasn't how I had expected it to end.
I think that if you have ever read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants then this would be a great life drama story for you to try.

I'm now usually a sci-fi reader, but a friend gave me the Big Empty and once i started reading I couldn't put it down. The characters really hit me, and though they live in harsh times, it's doesn't have the weirdness of scifi stuff that puts you off. I can't wait to see what happens to Michael and Amber and Keely.

I'm sorry, I'm confused. Someone actually believes this novel deserves to be called a novel? When I read what it was about, I was excited. I thought it would address the issue of corruption, and maybe go into what the disease was or soemthing. Maybe there would be a connection with the disease and the government? Maybe they could have gone into more detail about the disease? And I'm not some old boring I-read-news-journals-every-day person. I like sci-fi and fantasy and teen novels! but I expected more.

Don't get me wrong, the storyline sounds great. I was genuinely excited about reading it. But the author can't get the idea of showing and not telling. The characters seem cookie cutter and bland. When they are stranded in the middle of a big empty space with some weird cult type thing after them, I would expect (and hope) to feel frightened for them. but I wasn't. Because I was actually kind of rooting for the bad guys. "Go on! Eat them up! Make something happen!" It's not that I don't want the good guys to prevail, but I didn't feel I knew the characters. The author talked about their past and what made them go, but I never felt it in my heart. I felt that the author was telling a heap of lies.

I was also incredibly dissapointed with the ending. I expected some showdown of some sort, but they manage to make it to the "paradise" without ever even facing the dreaded, merciless cult. For a group of seven teenagers, they hide from a great powerful cult rather well.

Stephens goes into the whole entire "I'm depressed. My mom/dad/boyfriend/girlfriend/sister/brother just died" routine before we get to know the characters. Therefore I felt absolutely no sympathy. In other books, like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, I felt great sympathy for the main character and felt sad and angry right along with them. However, I felt strangely detached from Diego and Maggie and Keely and everyone else in The Big Empty. They didn't seem real to me.

Sephens needed to have gone into more detail about the government and the disease. I'm really interested in how the "president" came into power and what this disease is. I think Stephens should have begun the novel earlier and brougth us through the pains of the character instead of dropping us off in the middle of their crisis.

Maybe this book will work out when combined with the rest of the series, but it doesn't work alone. And I doubt many people are going to read the second after reading this.