Gone

Gone Series, Book 1

By: Michael Grant

Narrated by: Kyle McCarley

In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents - unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers - that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: on your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else.

Michael Grant's Gone has been praised for its compelling storytelling, multidimensional characters, and multiple points of view.

©2008 Michael Grant (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[ Gone] will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless." ( Booklist)

Narrator is actually GREAT, but does have a downside

I’ve already read the Gone series, and I’m willing to pay for them over again as audiobooks. Obviously I really like and recommend them, so I’ll just talk about the narrator. The other reviews criticizing him aren’t necessarily wrong, but DAMN did they miss something great about him too.

I’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks with a lot of narrators and out of all of them, this guy absolutely TAKES THE CAKE for actual ACTING. For some narrators/books it almost seems like the narrator just sat down and did each chapter in a single take. For example, when there’s description AFTER spoken dialogue for how it was spoken, but the narrator didn’t speak the dialogue as it was described.

This narrator kills it on that front. Every line has emotion, delivered just the way it should be, he has every scene perfect in his mind and delivers every line of dialogue as it should be delivered. Even his prose has emotion (when it should). On top of that, if a character is described to laugh, or sob, he includes the laugh or sob in his narration. Even voice breaks/falters are perfect. He is really freaking good at VOICE ACTING. I never realized how big of a difference this made until I listened to him for a few hours.


I will agree that the way he says “said” is annoying. To fix this, listen on 1.25x or 1.5x speed. I hate listening to other audiobooks on faster than normal speed, but this audiobook sounds normal on 1.5x for me (sometimes a bit too fast during loud/yelling dialogue). The increased speed makes his “said” less grating, and you do eventually get used to it.

Just stick with him until the climactic moments, because that’s when his pure voice acting skill really starts to shine.

the other reviews are right about the narrator

there are very few audiobooks, for me, where The narrator just ruins the book for me completely and this narrator just about does it. I don't know who directed him to narrate like this but it's just strange how he says "brah" and "said" its so off putting. he would have been good if he just did the voices.

interesting but slow

I picked this up because it's narrated by the guy who reads Supwr Powereds, but this book lacks the balance of action/other things that Super Powereds has.

CHILDHOOD FAVORITE

This was my favorite book when I was in high school. I’m so glad I was able to find it on here. This story is amazing. I am just waiting for someone to make a tv show. Maybe the CW channel lol.

Terrible Narrator

I don’t think I can read the rest if I have to listen to this guy talk anymore. When I first started listening, I thought it was some sort of joke, now after finishing the 2nd book I just can’t do it again. Why on Earth would Audible allow this book to be narrated like this? Book after book after book, don’t they read the reviews? Super disappointing and not great for Michael Grant losing a bunch of readers because of it.

Love this series

fast paced, growing characters, fun concept, very fun to read. it's like you're reading a TV show, there's always a new problem that relates to the main problem. and the titles are all clever. they all have 2 meanings in relation to the plot.

The timer

I wish the speed could go faster but slower and I wish there was pages so you could follow along.

Elephant in the room

Like most of the reviews you see here, I had a very hard time trying to get over the narrators presentation of the word SAID. It is absolutely obnoxious and really pulled a lot for focus away from the story. I almost gave up on this book because of it. I did see a suggestion in the reviews to change the audio speed to 1.2x and it seemed to help the hard use of the word SAID a little but really you just have to get used to it and eventually you won't notice it much anymore.

That being said, I will not say that the narrator did a bad job overall. He did a very good job of making each character unique sounding, and did a very good job of putting emotion behind the characters words.

The story itself is interesting enough to where I will definitely listen to the next book. it really left you with more questions than answers, which is fine because I feel like it will bleed nicely into the next book. Over all I would say it is worth the read/listen minus the SAID thing.

Modern Lord of the Flies

The story has a good basis & some surprises, but there were lots of holes. Maybe there will get filled in with the sequel; just it's hard to imagine how the situation was not a topic of discussion more for these kids trapped making adult decisions. I truly was frustrated by the emphasized "Sam Said," "Drake said," "Cain said," "Lana said,"... It got the point that I cringed each time "said" was said.

Narration is awful

I’ve read this book probably 5 times since middle school. It is my favorite series I’ve ever read, but I just can’t get past the narrator’s “character SAID” every other sentence…