Empty

3.7

2.0 (1)

62 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Author(s)

Suzanna Weyn

Publisher

Scholastic

Genre(s)

Dystopian

Age Range

12+

Release Date

February 01, 2010

ISBN

0545172799

Buy This Book

A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out...

Civilization has just run out.

It's the future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Sage Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - but there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a society that needs to be rethought. Niki, Tom, and Gwen may find what they need to survive. But their lives are never going to be the same again.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Running on Empty

March 29, 2012

Overall rating

3.7

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

With current gas prices predicted to rise, Empty seemed timely. Every day we hear about the rise in gas prices, causing the prices of about everything to go higher as well. We hear discussions about alternative energy sources and about research, but will it be too alte.

Set in the not too distant future, the gas is running out and the world as we know it is starting to end. With out electricity what would people do without their cell phones, mp3 players, tables, ereaders, even the Internet? I enjoyed the Barcode Tattoo by Weyn and looked forward to reading this book.

What makes this book unnerving is the fact that oil will run out and we need to start using more alternative energy sources. Our society is very dependent on oil for our daily living.

The downside of the novel is that it is so short. Being a quick read, I flew though the pages wanting to find out what would happen next. The novel reaches its climax and then rushes to the ending, I wanted to read more. I feel that there was more to tell about the characters and how they cope with the obstacles in front of them. I wanted to know more about what happens to the main characters and the United States.

The plus side- the novel provides a great opportuni for discussion on the topics on energy conservation and alternative energy resources.

Good Points

Timely story
Fast pace

Joanne Mumley, Twitter Manager Top 50 Reviewer 217 reviews

Report this review Comments (2) | Was this review helpful? 1 0

User reviews

1 review

Overall rating

2.0

Plot

2.0(1)

Characters

2.0(1)

Writing Style

2.0(1)

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A(0)

Already have an account? or Create an account

Empty review

May 10, 2013

Overall rating

2.0

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Here's my problem with Empty: the sentence on the back goes as so "It was true -- the world had ended." This, along with the synopsis, led me to believe it had already happened. Not the case. So not the case. In fact, that's actually the second-to-last sentence in the book. And thus, I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen.

I suppose my intro was a bit misleading since that really wasn't my only problem.

Problem #2: NOBODY will acknowledge the gravity of the situation for a good 2/3 of the book. Everyone, including the president, just keeps going "Don't worry, it's impossible to run out of oil. Everything will get better." But it's not and it's right there in front of everyones' faces. Things have been getting steadily worse for years and now every country is running out of oil completely, blackouts are occurring, gas is up to $50 a gallon, grocery stores are running out of food and supplies -- and the list goes on. But what does everyone do? Nothing. They hide their heads in the sand and pretend it's not real. Now, I know this is a natural reaction for a lot of people but I just wanted someone to acknowledge the magnitude of the situation much sooner.

Problem #3: The romance element. I feel like you need to choose the story you want to tell most when in a book less than 200 pages. The romance was a bit too overdone, in my opinion. If it would have just been a straight Girl to Guy plot, that would have been fine, but instead, there's four different main people involved (2 guys, 2 girls) and there's this weird quadrangle going on. First Girl A likes Boy B then they have issues and Girl A likes Boy A and then they have issues and Girl A goes back to liking Boy B. Then we have Girl B who's just confused by it all and sort of likes Boy A, but sort of doesn't, then actually does. Sound confusing? Yeah, I was a bit confused as well, and I had all the facts.

Despite my issues, Empty was still a fairly good read. I really enjoyed the look at the future and the different ways to greenify the planet. I'm into that sort of thing, though, so that might've helped. I know some people get put off by this sort of eco-terror future (is that a thing?)

The Nutshell: I had quite a few issues with Empty, but I did enjoy the end message. In the end, though, there are plenty of other similar stories I'd recommend to someone first.

Miss