Monument 14 (Monument 14 #1)
by Emmy Laybourne (Goodreads Author)
Book Synopsis(Goodreads):
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.
Quote 1:
“Night came and fell hard.
Not like God drawing a blanket over our land
But like someone snuffing a candle.
Sudden and total.
Out—just like that.
Now we are waiting.
Waiting in the dark
To see if someone
Will switch on the light.
We can cower,
We can fear,
We can get lost together or
Get lost alone.
But the truth is:
I am the light. You are the light.
We are lit up together.
We are silhouettes of sunlight
cast against the night.
Shining now, let us
Shining, hold the light,
Shining, so that our families
Can find us.
Shining.”
― Emmy Laybourne, Monument 14
Quote 2:
There had been a woman there. Right outside the door. And now she was dead.
And then Niko roared.
He balled his hands into fists and started striking his own head. Bam, bam, bam!
“Niko, stop!” I shouted.
I stepped forward to try to help him. To restrain him, somehow, so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
“Let him be,” Jake said. “He’s just working stuff out.”
Niko destroyed the aisle, ripping, punching, tearing, throwing, cursing, spitting, shouting. Crying.
Slowly, he started winding down.
“All right, man,” came Jake’s drawl. “It’s gonna be okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Niko shouted. “She’s dead and if I’d just thought faster I could have saved her!”
He drove his head into a heavy, wooden crate.
“You’re pissed!” I shouted. “You’re so angry you want to burst!”
My volume and intensity surprised him (and me), and he stopped what he was doing.
“We could’ve saved her and we failed! You could have saved her and you failed!” I shouted.
It seemed like he needed me to push back at him with the same weight of his own anger and despair.
“She’s dead! They’re all dead and we can do nothing to save them!”
Niko crumpled to his knees and rested his forehead on the linoleum. Now I could stop yelling. He could hear me.
“It’s not your fault, Niko,” I said.
“But I could have helped her.”
“It’s not your fault,” I repeated.
“You didn’t cause the tsunami, man,” Jake said quietly.
“It’s not your fault.”
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Brayden said.
Niko’s body relaxed.
Jake, Brayden, and I just watched him for a while as his chest heaved and he regained his usual composure.
Niko drew his sleeve across his face.
He sat up and looked around.
“Shoot,” he said. “Look at this mess.”
― Emmy Laybourne, Monument 14
The Page Unbound 