Author: Suzanne Weyn
Format: Hardback
Pages: 182
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Personal Copy
Taking place in futuristic America, Empty follows a group of teens as they struggle with a depletion of our most relied-upon resource: oil.
The Middle East no longer controls the oil industry, OPEC is a thing of the past, and Argentina is on the brink of inducing WWIII as a result of hiking the price of their own oil. However, many believe that Argentina is just bluffing, causing people to begin panicking and speculating what they would do if the world truly was out of oil. Then, when all seems as if it were to fall apart at any moment, a superhurricane forms and takes out much of the eastern American coastline (eery to read in the midst of Sandy...). The teens (separate at times) maneuver their way through a devastated society and try to make sense of this "new world" they must not take care of.
A fascinating book in some parts, this title really just leaves me wanting more. The characters are stereotypical and the teens' dialogue is preachy and uncharacteristic. At one part, a girl is telling her friends all about the Greenhouse Effect and alternative fuels, justifying her wealth of knowledge by saying that she read some literature on the topics. The high-level vocabulary and phrasing, however, do not flow well and appear reference-like.
One thing I did really enjoy about the book was the inclusion of faux news articles. It was an interesting way to bring in other perspectives. After narrating about a boy delivering food to neighbors, Weyn puts in an "article" about how people were curious to know who this mystery donor was. I loved the inter-contextual aspect.
Overall, this was an okay read. I would not read it again, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. For readers interested in the future of fossil fuels or the environment, this would be a nice, quick read. If you are not interested in such things, you may just want to skip it.
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