I quickly became obsessed with this book years ago when I first read it and that hasn't gone away. The thing I like most about this novel is it explains the question: what if? What if there were no adults around? How would kids cope? I love how this book shows that a life without adults would be very difficult. Even though some kids today would probably love a world like that, in this world, we get the reality of it all. Kids are having to work to make their own crops. They have to find shelter and take care of toddlers and younger siblings. All the things kids aren't supposed to be doing. And I appreciate how this book shows how important parents, teachers, and other adults are because we'd be completely lost without them. 
 There are so many characters in this book. Starting with our main guy Sam, who is a natural leader though he doesn't intend to be. As well as his little crush Astrid who is known as the genius out of all the kids in town. And so many other characters that I can't even count. Which leads me to my one problem with this book: the amount of characters is kind of overwhelming. I found that a character would be introduced, then disappear, then show up a few chapters later and I'd completely forget who they were. And at times I felt that some characters weren't even necessary. However, I did really enjoy our main characters. 
 There was some romance in this book but it was very minimal which I appreciated because some books can stray away from the main plot completely and just focus on the romance that is unnecessary and I found that Gone kept the romance, and the main plot of them figuring out what happened to the adults at balance. 
 Overall, this book and its series mean a ton to me because it's the series that got me back into reading. I would give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars and I recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian and mystery and a little bit of romance.