4 Rated Books Book Reviews

Book Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Title: Monument 14

Author: Emmy Laybourne

Genre: Apocalypse, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: June 2012
Paperback: 294 Pages

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.

Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.

But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

Stand alone or series: Book one in a series

How did I get this book: ARC from the publisher

Why did I read this book: I am a sucker for apocalypse novels and have been in the mood for a good ‘end of the world as we know it’ book. Monument 14 looked like it could deliver. (And, on a completely superficial note, I like the cover.)

Review:

The day begins like any other. Dean hears his mother calling out that his bus has arrived to take him to school, and he rushes out the door to make sure he gets on in time. The bus ride is uneventful until impossible large hailstones start falling from the sky, destroying hapless cars and causing the bus to crash in a spectacular wreck. Luckily for Dean and his fellow bus-riding high schoolers, they’re picked up and saved by the elementary and middle school bus, and find shelter from the bludgeoning hailstones in a Greenway superstore (the fictional equivalent of a Super Target/Walmart/Costco). Left to fend for themselves while the only surviving adult, the bus driving teacher Mrs. Wooly, goes to find medical help for the battered students, the group awaits for the authorities and their parents in the store.

When Mrs. Wooly doesn’t return, however, things start to get ugly. The Network (think internet) is inexplicably, impossibly down. The group – an assortment of six high schoolers, two eighth graders, and six children – is finally able to catch a television signal that explains how a massive volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami that wiped out the east coast of the United States. Further environmental catastrophe soon followed – including the terrifying hailstorm and supercell storms stretching from the kids’ location in the Colorado Rockies down to the Southwestern US.

While the kids try to soak up this information and figure out their next move, a massive, unprecedented earthquake hits Colorado – and shortly after, the kids hear the most terrifying news to date. The earthquake decimated NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), causing the breach and leak of top secret biochemical weapons. Panicked and terrified, the children sequester themselves to the store, sealing off exposure to the contaminated air outside. And within the confines of the superstore, they wait. They fight. They struggle to survive.

So. Monument 14. Where do I begin?

Let’s start with the good: Emmy Laybourne’s debut novel is an undeniable page-turner. I love the underlying cause of the apocalypse in this novel – which, unlike most contemporary apocalyptic books, does not directly blame the demise of the planet on human action. Instead, Monument 14 is frighteningly plausible.

The book is written competently, narrated in the first person by the bookish junior Dean, who is refreshingly neither a hero nor a planner, neither a jock nor a genius. Dean is, simply, Dean – fallible, flawed, but ultimately a relatable character. I also enjoyed seeing how the kids within Greenway organize themselves, figure out how to ration power and resources, how to delegate tasks, and the struggles they face both internally and externally, amongst themselves, and later amongst outsiders.

This is where the praise ends, however, as some MAJOR un-ignorable problems crop up.

WARNING: This next section of the review contains some SPOILERS. If you do not wish to be spoiled, skip ahead to the “END SPOILER” tag.

My main beef with Monument 14 concerns the alarming, deeply disturbing portrayal of the three main female characters in the novel. Allow me to elucidate where these three characters are concerned:

Astrid – is the first main female character we meet in Monument 14. Our narrator carries a huge, burning torch for Astrid, who is (as her not-so-unique name would suggest) blonde, athletic, beautiful, and generally kickass as a camp counselor and potential leader for the kids. She also is romantically involved with Jake, the dumb asshole jock (of course there is one of these). Essentially, Astrid is our archetypal Hot Strong Female Character. At one point in the book, she is exposed to and affected by the chemical compounds and reacts violently (as a side effect of her type O blood) and she nearly strangles a kid to death. At this point, Astrid decides to completely withdraw from the other kids in the book and lives in hiding, sequestered from the others in the store, and she refuses to come out or be a part of the group. BUT, she does come out occasionally to talk – and at one point to sleep with – Jake, in secret. (There’s a particularly creepy scene where Dean vouyeristically watches the hookup in progress.)

Josie – is initially in shock for the first half of the novel (while Astrid is being our Strong Female Counterpoint), but when Astrid disappears, she awakens from her coma of shock and starts being Mother to all the kids. This is not exaggeration – at one point, our narrator compares the two girls saying that Astrid is a kickass camp counselor, while Josie is a sixteen year old middle aged mom. THIS is Josie’s archetype. She is the one that sings songs and tells stories to the children; she is also the one that suggests the group have a ceremony for the dead, and hold elections to stop the boys from fighting.

Sahalia – is thirteen years old and her archetype is “Lolita Wannabe” – or, in the less generous thoughts of our narrator, she’s objectified and reduced to being “hot” and a girl that dresses provocatively and throws herself at older men. Resentful of being lumped in with the elementary school kids (because she’s in 8th grade), Sahalia becomes increasingly provocative over the course of the novel – at one point when the kids are washing eachothers’ hair because they have lice, she shows up in booty shorts and a white tshirt with no bra, and puts on a wet tee show for the sixteen-eighteen year old boys. This is addressed in the book by the narrator (who is turned on but looks away – the other boys of course don’t), and by Josie who thinks Sahalia is acting like a child trying to get attention (which is true). Later in the book, Sahalia dresses up in the revealing halloween outfits over lingerie, and tries to get the older boys interested in her again (Josie, ever the mother, breaks it up).

BUT the coup de gras is when ADULTS come into the store and one of them – a Latino gardener/mechanic, of course (one of two characters of color in this very homogeneous cast) – is beloved by all the kids and spends a little too much private time with Sahalia. Cut to a few chapters later when she is discovered in his sleeping bag, crying in a thong.

OH YEAH and later? At the end of the book? ASTRID IS PREGNANT and decides that she must stay in the store while the other kids go out to get rescue because…well, she’s too scared to go (blaming the chemical compounds outside). Our narrator decides to STAY WITH HER because of this. (EVEN THOUGH HE KNOWS HIS PARENTS ARE ALIVE and waiting for him at the evac site. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME.)

So we have the grand tally of female characters: the “slutty” little girl is raped (though of course there’s questioning around what happened to Sahalia because of her behavior), the Strong Female Figure is made powerless because she can’t deal with the trauma of attacking a kid and then she is also made PREGNANT and too scared to go outside to seek rescue.

The Good Mothering character is the only one that gets away and a chance at rescue (you know, because she’s the chaste one that acts like the mother to the children and is the only one that doesn’t put out or god forbid ask for it in this book).

I know that the manner in which I’m framing these different characters is very dramatic and overt – in reality, the way these characters are presented in the book is far more…subtle. It’s a testament to Ms. Laybourne’s skill that I was able to read the full book cover to cover and want to know what happens to these characters at first blush. But then, I started to really think about the subtext of the novel and what kind of message is being conveyed, particularly where these characters are concerned.

Needless to say, the subtext is incredibly disturbing.

Compounding these problems of character are some other problematic overtones: everyone in the store – except for one small Latino boy named Ulysses – is white (and of course, our villainous pedophile/rapist is also Latino). Everyone is Christian and believes in the same God. These aren’t bad things, or even unbelievable things – but the subtext, combined with the portrayal of female characters, exacerbates an already iffy context.

END SPOILERS

My experience with the book is certainly not going to be indicative of anyone else’s, and perhaps others will interpret the characters – particularly the portrayal of the female characters – in a different, more favorable, way. For me, I had a visceral negative reaction to the subtextual message offered by Monument 14. I might stick around to see how the next book plays out, since this novel ends on something of a cliffhanger with no resolution, and I did appreciate the chilling novelty of the chemical agent affecting different people in different ways based on blood type. But ultimately, can I recommend this book? No. I certainly encourage others to read it and form their own opinions – I’d be interested to hear what you think, if you’ve read the book – but, unfortunately, Monument 14 did not do it for me.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

As I raced down the driveway I heard my mom yell for my brother, Alex. His bus was coming down Park Trail Drive, right behind mine. His bus came at 7:09 on the dot. Mine was supposed to come at 6:57 but was almost always late, as if the driver agreed it wasn’t fair to pick me up before 7:00.

Alex ran out behind me and our feet pounded the sidewalk in a dual sneaker-slap rhythm.

“Don’t forget,” he called. “We’re going to the Salvation Army after school.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

My bus driver laid on the horn.

Sometimes we went over to rummage for old electronics after school. I used to drive him before the gas shortage. But now we took our bikes.

I used to drive him to school, too. But since the shortage everyone in our school, everyone, even the seniors, took the bus. It was the law, actually.

I vaulted up the bus steps.

Behind me I heard Mrs. Wooly, who has been driving the elementary–middle school bus since forever, thank Alex sarcastically for gracing them with his presence.

Mrs. Wooly, she was an institution in our town. A grizzled, wiry-haired, ashtray-scented, tough-talking institution. Notorious and totally devoted to bus driving, which you can’t say about everyone.

On the other hand, the driver of my bus, the high school bus, was morbidly obese and entirely forgettable. Mr. Reed. The only thing he was known for was that he drank his morning coffee out of an old jelly jar.

Even though it was early in the route, Jake Simonsen, football hero and all-around champion of the popular, was already holding court in the back. Jake had moved to our school from Texas a year ago. He was a real big shot back in Texas, where football is king, and upon transfer to our school had retained and perhaps even increased his stature.

“I’m telling y’all—concessions!” Jake said. “At my old high school a bunch of girls sold pop and cookies and these baked potatoes they used to cook on a grill. Every game. They made, like, a million dollars.”

“A million dollars?” Astrid said.

Astrid Heyman, champion diver on the swim team, scornful goddess, girl of my dreams.

“Even if I could make a million dollars, I wouldn’t give up playing my own sport to be a booster for the football team,” she said.

Jake flashed her one of his golden smiles.

“Not a booster, baby, an entrepreneur!”

Astrid punched Jake on the arm.

“Ow!” he complained, grinning. “God, you’re strong. You should box.”

“I have four younger brothers,” she answered. “I do.”

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Rating: 4 – Bad, but not without some merit

Reading Next: The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

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31 Comments

  • Yeh
    July 17, 2012 at 2:35 am

    This is the second review I’ve read of this book highlighting the exact same issues. So maybe you’re on to something…

  • Helen
    July 17, 2012 at 5:39 am

    I don’t tend to deconstruct my reading much. Usually I just enjoy a book or not. I really enjoyed this one, in fact, I thought it was riveting and a page turner. The circumstances were very realistic for an apocalyptic story. Reading your review I would agree that there were specific stereotypes presented by the female characters; however, there were just as many stereotypes amongst the male characters. The “mean jock”, the peacekeeper, the nerd/smart kid, etc… If I were a guy I would probably take exception to the way the author portrayed the male characters (if I pulled apart the characters that is), it was just as unflattering as the portrayal of the female characters…and I think that was the point. I think we can all imagine what would happen if you threw a bunch of kids together without adult supervisor in a situation where they were under stress and scared. It would look pretty much like the kids in this novel.

  • Thea
    July 17, 2012 at 7:39 am

    Yeh – Really!? That makes me feel a little relieved – all of the reviews I’ve seen for this book have been overwhelmingly positive and don’t really mention these problematic issues.

    Helen – That’s fair enough, and to your point I do think Monument 14 is a page-turner. I respectfully disagree with you, however, on two fronts. First, my issue with the female characters isn’t with stereotypes so much as it is a problem with the broader archetypes (with historical tradition of denigrating/misogynistic connotation) of female characters – warrior, mother, slut – as presented in this book. Second, to your point about the male characters being stereotyped, this is true to an extent. We have two dumb jocks, one “nerd” (I suppose he’s a nerd because he wears glasses). We also have one Genius that figures out All the Problems and Solves Technical Issues that lead to the survival of the group, and one Hero Leader that makes all the right calls and leads our poor flock of kids to safety (even when they second guess him, he’s right all along). Needless to say, the male characters are presented in a slightly different light than our female characters – the “promiscuous” females are raped or impregnated, while the virginal caregiving figure gets to survive and leave. This is incredibly problematic to me.

    Finally, to your point about the group of stereotypes in a situation, that’s fine and good but in my opinion – and just my opinion! – writing a bunch of stock/stereotype characters does not a good novel make, no matter how competent the pacing.

    Obviously, your mileage may vary, and I do agree with you in that I’m being hyper-critical. This book simply did not work for me. I am glad that your experience was different, and thank you for your comment!

  • Kate
    July 17, 2012 at 7:43 am

    Ouch.

    I mean, stereotypes/tropaic characters are inevitable. It happens to the best of us – it makes it easy to connect to a character if you know what’s expected of that character, especially in the survival/horror genre.

    But there’s tropes and then there’s tropes, and then there’s hideously problematic tropes that need to have been abandoned thirty years ago. It sounds like this is a case of the latter.

    I think I’ll end up reading this novel and seeing how all that works, as you say it’s subtler than indicated…but I’m going into this one with a wary eye now.

  • Phoebe
    July 17, 2012 at 8:00 am

    Interesting review! I’ve seen that criticism of Sahalia before, and I disagree with it, personally–I thought that her behavior (acting out sexually in order to be thought grown-up by the tribe) was realistic for a character of her age. The possibility that she “asked” for the behavior is raised by some of the characters (also a realistic reaction, given the fucked-up social mores of our society), but it seemed clear to me that Dean and others accurately felt she was a victim. These threads seemed present to negate that reading, if that makes sense. Though I can see why someone would read it differently.

    I didn’t read Astrid’s pregnancy as punishment, but rather an eye-rolly, overly convenient way for her to end up with Dean.

    (In many, many ways, this novel reminded me of the NZ show “The Tribe,” which I’d really recommend if you like teen disaster stories. It did many of these plotlines with more depth.)

  • Thea
    July 17, 2012 at 8:38 am

    Phoebe – Interesting, and I see what you’re saying, but I have to emphatically disagree. No matter how you cut it, no matter how the other characters have reacted, the subtext – at the simplest level, based on the facts and progression of events in the story (Sahalia is raped, Astrid is 4 mos pregnant, the chaste Josie gets away) – is deeply disturbing and very problematic. I don’t think there’s any negating or getting away from those very basic story facts.

    That said, it’s really interesting to see the different opinions – thanks for sharing!

  • Phoebe
    July 17, 2012 at 8:51 am

    Well, that would be the text, then, not the subtext, right? 😉

    I suspect it comes down to how you feel about something I’ve seen referred to as “narrative punishment.” A really great example is whether or not you feel John Donovan’s classic I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip. “killed the dog,” a practice in which GTLBQ characters face violent “narrative punishment” for their homosexuality. Donovan’s book is the first of many where, textually, that would appear to be the case. He has a gay hook-up, and then his dog dies. But the death of the dog is present so that the characters can openly discuss his feelings of guilt and negate them–telling him that it’s not his fault, and he didn’t do anything wrong.

    When it comes down to it, I’m not sure I personally buy “narrative punishment” as something that needs to be always summarily dismissed. While I wish there were better ways of raising and negating, say, the topic of slut shaming and “she asked for it” rhetoric, I’m not sure how, other than to have characters act promiscuously and deal with the aftermath of pedophiliac rape. Of course, presenting these behaviors (judging girls for their sexuality) has the side-effect of reinforcing their presence in our culture, too.

    Personally, I still feel a bit torn about these aspects of Monument 14. I suspect (though who knows!) that Laybourne was going for verisimilitude–hence Dean also calling writing poetry “gay.” That moment made me cringe, deeply. But teenagers also (unfortunately) sometimes pepper their language with gender policing and hate speech. These kinds of questions straddle several thin lines: between the honest reporting of behavior and celebrating those behaviors; between modeling positive language/behavior and didacticism; between presenting attitudes so you can negate them and just plain presenting them. Writing is tricky business.

    Thanks for listening to me ramble, in any event.

  • Stephanie Scott
    July 17, 2012 at 8:58 am

    Interesting discussion; not what I expected to see when I first clicked your review given how positively reviewed this book has been.

    Like Kate said in the comments, stereotypes are rife in literature, and often exist as a writing device so readers can keep track of a larger cast of characters. But plenty of books manage to defy convention and turn stereotypes on their head; especially through the character’s story arc. I don’t mind if a character starts out stereotypically (“slutty” girl for example) but the better book chooses to show the girl is not actually a slut and she learns about herself and is empowered somehow to make better decisions or take control of her life — whatever. It’s more a matter of what is done with those stereotypes.

    I love discussions like this, it’s why books matter.

  • Phoebe
    July 17, 2012 at 9:01 am

    (And I wanted to say that I agree with Stephanie completely. Hi-five, Thea! These conversations are what make reading in a community so awesome.)

  • April Books & Wine
    July 17, 2012 at 9:46 am

    I could be wrong, but I thought Sahalia was Indian?

    Anyways, I never even picked up on this subtext at all, but the whole preggers thing kind of annoyed me, mainly, and this is super shallow, because I don’t really like reading about pregnancy — it’s always kind of boring to me.

    Good eye,yo. Good eye.

  • Thea
    July 17, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Stephanie and Phoebe – Agreed! Book discussions are the best, and I’m so very glad to be able to have them.

    Phoebe – I haven’t read I’ll Be There…, so I can’t really comment. But to this:

    These kinds of questions straddle several thin lines: between the honest reporting of behavior and celebrating those behaviors; between modeling positive language/behavior and didacticism; between presenting attitudes so you can negate them and just plain presenting them. Writing is tricky business.

    In my own reading of this particular book, I don’t think there is ANY subversion. We are presented with these character tropes and archetypes, and there is no subversion or negation, as you put it. A young girl is presented as wanting to be sexually desired by older men (repeatedly throughout Monument 14, in many different scenes and scenarios). The consequence is pedophiliac rape. I didn’t read any ‘negation’ or subversion of this very basic cause and effect in the author’s presentation of Sahalia or the other characters following the attack. (In fact, the book ends very shortly after this all happens!)

    As you say in your comment, there is a difference between merely presenting something and subversion. To me, Monument 14 presents, but does not subvert. And that is a big problem when you take into account the overall portrayal of characters.

    Then again…just my opinion. I’ll have to check out your review, Phoebe!

  • John
    July 17, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    I’m glad I read this review. The book didn’t very much interest me to begin with, but I would have been so annoyed with all of these aspects if I had read it myself – so thank you, Thea, for sparing me the pain of trying.

    I don’t want to get into anything about narrative punishment in literature (although goodness knows I have thoughts on it with its frequency in LGBTQ YA fiction), but I *do* want to point out that I personally loved Jennifer Echols’ book SUCH A RUSH because it addressed the major wrongness of slut shaming without resorting to teen pregnancy OR rape. In fact, it’s arguably my favorite portrayal because it’s the only one I’ve seen to realistically address a female character going through that and remaining strong in who she is, no matter the shitty societal expectations.

    Totally off-topic, but I think it’s important to remember that using rape/teen pregnancy/ect. can easily come across as taking a narrative short-cut to express basic themes that don’t often get analyzed further. It’s a matter of opinion, obviously, but I personally dislike when those devices are used in that respect.

  • goodreads
    July 17, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    A fine, helpful and complete review. What would you recommend that is similar, but in your opinion better?

  • Book Review: Twilight Robbery/Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge | The Book Smugglers
    July 19, 2012 at 5:46 am

    […] Book Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne […]

  • Leeanna
    July 21, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I’m torn with this book. On the surface, I enjoyed it. I had fun reading it. But once I started thinking about it, and trying to write a review, I struggled. I’m going to give up on writing my own review, I think.

    The female characters in this did bug me, for a lot of the reasons you mention. And the thing with Sahalia … maybe I skimmed that part, but I read it differently than most people. I didn’t think Robbie tried to rape her. I admit, I could have read it wrong.

  • Book Review: Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne | The Book …
    July 23, 2012 at 2:32 am

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  • Kelly
    August 8, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    I honestly enjoyed this book so much! I thought the teen pregnency and the rape scene just added to the suspense, so I disagree with the people who said anything about those parts. I can’t wait for summer 2013 to get the next one! 😆 to all of you who said something negative about this book ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓

  • Reed Turner
    September 26, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    It annoys me that this is eactly like my two favorite books (Gone by Michael Grant and Trapped by Michael Northrop) combined. It has the exact same plot, characters… the whole deal. If it weren’t exactly the same as them, then it would be a pretty good book. I would’ve been ok to have bits and pieces of “inspiration” from those other books, but Monument 14 is a total copy.

  • Kristen
    May 1, 2013 at 10:59 pm

    Heads up!
    “everyone in the store – except for one small Latino boy named Ulysses – is white (and of course, our villainous pedophile/rapist is also Latino).” – quoted by you.
    Just letting you know josie is african american and Batiste is asian and Sahalia might be indian (but I think I said that just because of her name idk), so not all the characters in the book are “white-washed” .
    I agree and disagree on parts of your review but I like how you viewed the book. It’s different from other people’s opinions. And change is good when you get the same positive feedback reviews from other websites. You pointed out the more cons then I realized the book had and I thank you for that.
    Btw, is it just me or are all the characters named Astrid in books and films have the same personality. The ” female character Astrid” is getting overused too quickly. And I find it a bit annoying.
    Example :
    – Astrid from Monument 14
    – Astrid from the Gone Series
    – Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon
    Any thoughts on this?

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2014 at 4:50 pm

    I just wanted to point out Josie is black.

  • BOOK LOVER
    April 10, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    This book series was AMAZING! I loved how she described things so clearly. She painted a beautiful pic in my head.

  • Irisa
    October 12, 2015 at 4:43 am

    I’d just like to add that even though it is commonly suggested that all of the most of the female roles follow common archetypes it is misogynistic to assume that Sahalia is slut because of the way she dresses or acts. She isn’t asking for it because of those aspects of her character. She is raped because the assailant wanted to take advantage of her. Not because she was asking for it. It is merely a coincidence that she is raped and that she dresses and acts the way she does.
    Astrid’s pregnancy was not a way to detract from her character as a ‘hero’ or ‘warrior’ figure. But shows the reader that she was also a victim of somebody just wanting her, sexually, for her body and not for her personality or character. The fact that she was pregnant was just another aspect the author added to the story to make it more interesting and suspenseful.
    Josie didn’t become pregnant or get raped and that is not because of the way she dresses or acts that’s because she was not taken advantage of. It has nothing to do with whether she is ‘asking for it’, like people seem to think of Sahalia and she is not taken advantage of and that was just her luck in the story and had nothing to do with her character as a ‘mother’. Earlier on in the novel she was with Brayden who only wanted her for her body but she doesn’t give in to what he wants.
    This is just the way the story is. I don’t mean to attack anyones point of view but it is misogynistic to assume that the characters ‘asked for it’.

  • buck
    December 20, 2015 at 4:19 pm

    I’d just like to add that even though it is commonly suggested that all of the most of the female roles follow common archetypes it is misogynistic to assume that Sahalia is slut because of the way she dresses or acts. She isn’t asking for it because of those aspects of her character. She is raped because the assailant wanted to take advantage of her. Not because she was asking for it. It is merely a coincidence that she is raped and that she dresses and acts the way she does.
    Astrid’s pregnancy was not a way to detract from her character as a ‘hero’ or ‘warrior’ figure. But shows the reader that she was also a victim of somebody just wanting her, sexually, for her body and not for her personality or character. The fact that she was pregnant was just another aspect the author added to the story to make it more interesting and suspenseful.
    Josie didn’t become pregnant or get raped and that is not because of the way she dresses or acts that’s because she was not taken advantage of. It has nothing to do with whether she is ‘asking for it’, like people seem to think of Sahalia and she is not taken advantage of and that was just her luck in the story and had nothing to do with her character as a ‘mother’. Earlier on in the novel she was with Brayden who only wanted her for her body but she doesn’t give in to what he wants.
    This is just the way the story is. I don’t mean to attack anyones point of view but it is misogynistic to assume that the characters ‘asked for it’

  • Marielle
    January 5, 2016 at 9:39 pm

    Personally – well first let me say that I’m only 14 – but I do agree that Monument 14 was a tad bit shallow and to any reader, the writing looked AWFUL. But After re-reading it, I realized that this is literally how everyone talks nowadays. This book is almost like a diary – it’s written as you’d speak (well, we teenagers anyway). And I also realized that these characters are so real. The people exist everywhere in schools and I think that she did a very accurate job of portraying them. I admit that it was a tad cheesy (once I read classics, I could never look at YA the same way lol) but overall, it was well done in the context and age that it’s in. But it shouldn’t be added to a serious reading list. Monument 14 is way more like a “I’m bored, so I want to read something for fun.” I never think these kinds of books should be looked at too closely; it’s MUCH more fun to read them as an action-comedy *_^

  • Ally K
    April 24, 2016 at 4:49 pm

    I loved Monument 14, so I’d like to add my 2 cents about the characters.

    In times of crisis, you’ll find that people do often assume roles or deal with the turbulence in ways that highlight the best and worst in them.

    Sahalia – I did not see Sahalia as slutty; rather, I thought she was a young girl desperately wanting her opinion to matter in the group. Too old to fit in with the young kids and too young to fit in with the older ones, she’s a true odd-woman-out. She’s actually happy to help (remember the bus fixing?) as long as she’s treated with respect, which she wasn’t getting when she was initially treated as a glorified babysitter. No one – not a single character – claims she’s “asking for it” when the Robbie situation unfolds. That is just outright false.

    Astrid – Blond wonder and love of our narrator’s life, she and the jock character, Jake, are said to be in love. She’s not slutty and her pregnancy is not a “punishment.” If anything, her blood type – and the implications it could have on a future child- is the core reason. In many ways, not only is it not a punishment, but a reward, considering how safe they are in the Greenway and how unsafe the outside world is. Sure, it’s a convenient way for her and our narrator to get closer – I don’t deny that it’s a little cheesy – but not a punishment.

    Josie – How about peace restorer? It’s not just that she’s a mother hen; she’s a diplomat. She understands that the situation needs a united front, and she does what needs to be done. She’s smart and understands each group’s needs and restores discipline and order. In many ways, she and Niko are parallel characters, each corralling the group and shaping it.

    My biggest gripe with the book was lack of diversity. I didn’t like that one of the two Latino figures acted so inappropriately. I think we need other ethnicities to play bigger roles. I did not have significant issues with the female characters though, apart from some minor sexist aspects I thought were sprinkled in the book on occasion.

  • Maura
    June 4, 2016 at 8:21 pm

    Um… On your issue that the kids are all white and Christian (with the exception of Ulysses) Josie is revealed, on the cover, to be black.
    On your issue of the female characters, I think it’s very interesting how Laybourne chose the three main females to be either kick-ass or motherly. (SPOILER ALERT FOR THIS NEXT BIT) In Sky on Fire, Josie is revealed to be type O. She almost kills Max (I think it was) And runs off, saving the group of those who left later, running off again after that. Astrid and Sahalia are some of my favourite characters. Astrid is the misunderstood character who made some bad decisions. I kind of like the bomb at the end with Astrid being pregnant, as it takes away from the events that will happen in Sky on Fire. She proves to be smart and level-headed in situations. When Dean stayed behind with her, I believe it was a true declaration of true love. Dean has a large crush on her, but when he learned she was pregnant, with Jake gone, I believe he wanted to step in as a father and boyfriend character. Sahalia, on the other hand, is my favourite character. She may be a bit slutty, but I find I can relate to her. She’s treated like a younger kid, because she’s in eighth grade. I am treated like a younger kid because I am a year younger than my classmates. I believe that she wears those clothes to try and be noticed. I wear “scene” and “emo” clothes to be noticed. Sahalia and I have much in common, with our crushes on older guys and our need to be noticed. When Sahalia was almost raped, (I personally don’t believe that she was.) Dean and the others stood up for her, with Brayden being injured in the process. After hearing Sahalia’s side of the story, isn’t it a little unfair to call her a slut?
    There are also other girls in Monument 14, such as Chloe and Caroline, the young girls. Caroline is clueless to what’s really happening, and is the very received idea of a five-year-old girl, who is willing to stay behind with Dean because he’s her favourite. Chloe is the stereotype of a second-grade girl nowadays, with her bratty attitude and dislike of the IMPENDING APOCALYPSE.
    Laybourne’s books convey the issues in today’s society mixed in with the apocalypse.
    Anyways, I am open and willing to debate on this.

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2016 at 9:57 pm

    Alex is agnostic.

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2016 at 9:59 pm

    SPOILER
    He says it himself in book 2.

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2016 at 3:56 pm

    Why read the book just for the diversity in characters? Read it for the plot.

  • Carson
    December 21, 2016 at 3:40 am

    I thought this book was really awful, with bad writing. Sure, it may appeal to a younger audience, but it had some questionable scenes for a young audience too (wtf with the narrator watching two people get it on??). I did not see the good of this book. I’m really trying not to be close-minded here but I just didn’t like the writing at all.

  • Anonymous
    December 26, 2017 at 11:20 am

    I would like to point out that Nico, Josie, and Sahalia (I think) aren’t white. But I mostly agree with everything else about this. Like why would Dean stay behind if he could be parents?

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