Empty by Suzanne Weyn

Empty had great potential. It was a quick read, only 183 pages. It is set "ten years from now" according to the first page, and there is pretty much no oil left in the world. Everything in society quickly went downhill. People started using electricity as little as possible, gas went from $30 a gallon to $40 to $80. The U.S. went to war with Venezuela, the last place with oil. There isn't enough gas to ship supplies around, so the malls, pharmacies, and food stores are shutting down. It's told from the point of view of three high school students, Gwen, Tom, and Niki. Gwen's a goth girl who has lived alone with her brother in a rundown house ever since her mother ran away. Tom is a football player, though not the best, and works hard to keep his family together. Niki's a rich cheerleader, but her family ends up broke and she learns to deal with it. The book kind of reminded me of Life As We Knew It, in that end of the world type way. This book was kind of a message shouting out about how we are running out of fossil fuels. No one can drive, plastic is rare, everyone's fighting over what's left. And that bit was kind of interesting. What made it not so much fun to read was the love triangle. Tom, naturally goes for Niki, the cheerleader, but he also has an unexplained crush on Gwen. Gwen and Niki both like Tom. He asks Niki out, kisses her, then goes and kisses Gwen. It was all so shallow. Tom seemed to be a good person, not the type that would do that. And I always get frustrated with love triangles in books. I liked Gwen and her brother best; they were the only ones who seemed realistic.

Overall, I found the book to be like french fries. They never taste as good as I think they will. The book didn't draw me in, I just kind of read it. So it gets a 2.5.