Empty

We really have no idea how much we rely on fossil fuels in this world. When I think of a gas shortage, I think of having to cut down on driving, but really had never thought of just how many products are petroleum based, from toothpaste to ball point pens. Our reliance on fossil fuels is terrifying, and Empty by Suzanne Weyn shows just how quickly everything can fall apart.Sage Valley is your average town full of middle class folks who work hard every day and live their lives as though nothing in the world will ever drastically change. When a global-wide oil shortage begins, however, they are in for a rude awakening. Suddenly kids are biking to school. Sports teams stop because they can't drive to the opposing schools. Gas costs $40, $60, then $90 dollars per gallon. People can't heat their homes. Medicines are in short supply. Food deliveries stop. Very quickly, people start to get desperate.Tom is your average second-string football player who only worries about his crush, head cheerleader Nicki. When the gas shortage begins, his biggest concern is not being able to drive her home. Nicki's biggest concern is having to wear her glasses because there haven't been any deliveries of her contacts to the pharmacy in a long time. Gwen has gone from the outcast to the only kid who has a warm house thanks to her brother's black market dealings. As if the gas shortage wasn't the worst problem, the climate change is finally about to get the better of them. Two enormous hurricanes from the gulf coast and the East Coast merge and make their way up the East to practically destroy everything in their "superhurricane" path. Disaster relief is virtually nonexistent in the current times, and Sage Valley is left to survive by its own devices.This is not only a story of how everything falls apart (although that is certainly in the foreground). It is also a story of how tragedy brings people together. How people in dire circumstances can become selfless. Heroes even. It is also a story of how things need to change if we are to survive. Towards the end of the story, the kids find a "Green" house that was built to be self-sustainable with low amounts of electricity, food production, and heat. Are we prepared for what is going to happen when the non-renewable resources we gobble up are gone?In the deluge of apocalyptic books these days, this is a fairly good one, especially for adolescents. It directly deals with their lives and can be an eye-opener for just how drastically their worlds can change. Sometimes it is hard for kids to understand how things truly affect them, like wars, natural disasters, etc., until they are in their backyards. This book puts the disaster in the worlds of these kids. It is also a fairly short, low-skilled book that would be perfect for younger or low-skilled students. The plus is that it isn't nearly as depressing as some of the stuff out there. Sure everything changes, but that doesn't mean it needs to be the end of the world! We can still find ways to survive, even in circumstances we never thought we would face!

This book was very interesting to read for me. I noticed many other reviews said this book is poorly written, but also that the reader did not finish the book. I will admit that in the beginning, the book is dull and lacked dialogue. Apparently, the author had never heard of the expresion"Show not tell." But as the book progressed, things started to happen and get more interesting. It was almost as if the bad author left off in the middle of the book and another better writer took over. I overall enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to bear through the first few chapters and not just give up on it.

I had high hopes when I picked up this book. The plot/scenario sounded interesting - no matter what side of the "green" debate one stands on, I don't think anyone can deny that oil *will* run out some day, whether it's in the near future or a few generations from now - and I've grown used to young adult books dealing with dystopian, apocalyptic or just plain disaster plots in an intelligent and decently written way.So, yes, "Empty" held a lot of promise for me. Unfortunately what it turned out to be was a book that read like a lecture aimed at ten-year-olds (or perhaps eight-year-olds), certainly not young adults - although the half-hearted attempt at romance and characters in their later teens seemed to indicate otherwise. The language and narrative style were so simplistic it was hard to get truly interested and the lecturing, the "message" came through so hard and clear that it occasionally nearly turned me off (and I'm by and large a supporter of the ideas being promoted here).That's not to say the book was *all* bad - it was a quick and at times not completely dull read, and the characters, while not exactly engaging or with a huge amount of personality, weren't off-putting. Might be a decent read for a child / pre-teen who is interested in saving the planet and life without oil, I suppose.

We used this book as a book study in my 8th grade science classroom. The book started out really great, but the huge hurricane seemed to come out of nowhere. My kids were super annoyed with the ending.

This book was great, having read tons of other, I can say it was original, but I would have loved a bigger ending. And maybe more with Gwen and Tom.

I liked the book's plot but the writing wasn't the best. If you are looking for a well written book then don't read this, if you know the plot and like it read the book.

The book was very good. As a 8th grade science teacher we are learning about being more energy efficient this book works well with our unit of study.

It's is a nice read. It's a great discussion book for students to being to think about what the world would be like with limited or no petroleum.

Our book club has a young girl who participates. As we want to encourgae her participation we let her pick every 4th book or so. She picked this one which she thought was cool. It was a terrible book. Poorly writen and repleat with very bad science (even for fiction!).