Gated
Book - 2013
Seventeen-year-old Lyla feels ambivalent when the charismatic leader of her isolated suburban community is told that the end of the world is near and when it arrives they must all be ready to defend themselves against the unchosen.
Publisher:
New York :, Random House,, [2013]
Edition:
First edition.
ISBN:
9780449815977
0449815978
9780449815984
0449815986
0449815978
9780449815984
0449815986
Branch Call Number:
TEEN FICTION Parker Amy
Characteristics:
339 pages ;,22 cm


Opinion
From the critics

Community Activity
Quotes
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neocarleen
Dec 18, 2013
“If you really love someone, you have to be prepared to do what’s necessary to help them learn and grow, even if it’s painful for the both of you.”
n
neocarleen
Dec 18, 2013
“It comes down to whether or not you’re ready to die today. I’m not. If the world ends, we can’t fight it, but we can fight one man. We can choose to live this day and every day after it that we have left.”
n
neocarleen
Dec 18, 2013
“If a sky this dark can still be peppered with so much light, maybe this world can be too.”

Comment
Add a CommentLike I said in my review of Dean Koontz's The Taking, the usual scary things like aliens and ghosts and things don't scare me nearly as much as something I think could actually happen, like insect spider and snake attacks, psycho killers... and people like Pioneer, leader of "the Community" in this book. Actually, having grown up in a religiously conservative home, and having seen real people in the news like Jim Jones and David Koresh, it's all too easy to see something like the events in this book happen in real life. Between the Grade-A wackos and the folks just trying to run a scam, there are way too many opportunities for this sort of thing to happen.
I give it a 3.5 out of 5, and the reasons I didn't rate it higher are mostly just my personal preferences. I feel like there might have been better resolution of the relationship between Lyla and Will, and some of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. But Parker's description of a doomsday cult, right down to showing how the members couldn't even realize they were in a cult, was great, and far scarier than any Friday the 13th movie I've ever seen.
I picked this book up again, even though I suspected I'd tried it before--yep, in 2013. Didn't finish it then, but I did this time and even enjoyed reading it. Never having been in a cult, I don't know if it's an accurate portrayal of such a community, but it certainly was plausible. Lyla is a strong character who has to bravely pit her own contradictory thoughts against Pioneer, who usually tells them all what to think.
Great book. Thought-provoking, and a serious page turner toward the end.
An interesting YA thriller that explores the community dynamics of a modern day cult. Narrorated by one of the Community's teenage girls, we follow along she prepares for the near-future apocalypse, but not everything is as it appears. Can she trust the Community's profit?