Fear: A Gone novel - Michael Grant

It has been a year since the barrier went up around Perdido Beach, California and everyone over the age of fifteen vanished into thin air.  Most of the kids trapped in the FAYZ have survived, but not all.  The group of survivors has split in two with one group living by the lake lead by Sam, and the other group living in Perdido Beach lead by Caine, Sam's brother.  Astrid, who has been living in the desert for the last four months, notices a black mass growing on the dome.  She heads back to tell Sam and the others about it. She's not the only one who's noticed the black on the dome.  The kids fishing, along with Cain and the others in Perdido Beach have noticed it too.  Outside of the dome Connie, Sam and Caine's mother, works with the Army to take down the barrier.  When she is told that the Army is going to nuke the dome, she comes to the realization that it will kill everyone in the FAYZ.  She really wants to get the word out to stop the nuke from detonating, but if she does her Army friend will go to jail.  Back in the FAYZ the black mass continues to grow and envelop the barrier.  Not to mention that Drake/Brittney entity possessed by the gaiaphage is on the hunt for Diana who's pregnant.  It wants to rise from the underground and plans to use Diana's unborn child to be born.  Is this the end of the FAYZ as Sam, Astrid, Caine, and everyone else have come to know it?  Will the Army nuke the FAYZ and risk killing everyone inside? 

I've been enjoyed this series and book five did not disappoint.  It brings up more and more questions about what the FAYZ really is.  We still don't know the truth about the gaiaphage, which seems to have its own agenda.  All we know is that most of the kids believe it is evil, and the kids under it's control see it as God.  There will be a sixth and final book of the series coming out in 2013.  No publication date has been set yet. 

T.B. 7/17/12