Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Post-apocalyptic-y (that should be an actual word), dark sky, fire, beat-up school bus - yeah, I like it well enough. It's intCover Blurb: Yes or No? Post-apocalyptic-y (that should be an actual word), dark sky, fire, beat-up school bus - yeah, I like it well enough. It's intriguing.
Characters: I am still not attached to anyone, except maybe Alex, Dean's younger brother. Dean just spends too much time pining after Astrid, and then he loses his honor (more on that later), so what small attachment I had for him kind of vanished. Astrid is just a bitch, and a bit of a two-player. Chloe desperately needed to be used as an alternative source of food; I wanted to smack her so badly. Sahalia actually gets a little better, but I still don't like her. Niko kind of becomes a broken-down wreck, which was just sad; I wanted to wrap him in a blanket, but not necessarily because I liked him. He was just that miserable. Alex is the intelligent one here; the one who actually keeps his cool and all that, so I guess I liked him. But I still didn't become super attached.
The Romance: Dean still likes Astrid. Astrid is a pill; I don't know what he sees in her. (view spoiler)[Jake turns up again, and Astrid pretty much starts playing both of them. Seriously, Dean, just move on. (hide spoiler)] Alex also starts developing a crush on Sahalia. What's with the guys falling all over themselves for slutty girls? Neither romances take up a ton of time.
Plot: Most of the kids have left the superstore in Monument 14 and are now making their way to Denver Airport, where people are being evacuated to Alaska and Canada. Alex, Dean's brother, is among the kids. But Dean and Astrid have stayed behind, along with Chloe and the twins, because if they are exposed to the chemicals outside, they will turn into bloodthirsty killers. Dean decided it was safer for them to stay behind, and for the others to send out a rescue party once they reach Denver Airport. Outside, Alex's group faces a nightmarish landscape with hostiles everywhere and no food or clean water. And back at the superstore, De and Astrid struggle to survive, as the power is slowly drained, and other hostiles try to break in. Sky on Fire was a very short read; shorter than it probably should have been. A lot happens, but not as much as I was expecting. For the most part, the encounters Alex's group has with outsiders are pretty quick. Dean and Astrid continue to try and make the superstore safe, then it gets breached, and they have to fight them off, et cetera. I wasn't bored; the book was too short for that to happen. But I did feel like a lot more could have happened.
Believability: No complaints.
Writing Style: First person, present tense. The chapters alternate between Dean and Alex's narrations, and they both have a very distinctive voice. I didn't enjoy Dean's narration as much because fewer things happened beyond his pining for Astrid. But overall, I never found myself dreading a narration switch.
Content: Astrid and Dean sleep together, but there are no details.
Conclusion: In some ways, the setup for a third book felt a little forced. The Author could have made this one longer and put everything that no doubt will be in the third book in this one. But I'll stop complaining now. Sky on Fire was too short to drag, and this is a plot-driven book; not so much character-driven. With the kids split up, there is less high school drama, less whining. So overall, I did enjoy this installment more.
Recommended Audience: Guy-read, eighteen-and-up, fans of post-apocalyptic....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Probably my most favorite cover of the three books. There's a character impersonator, but you can't see his/her face. And I doCover Blurb: Yes or No? Probably my most favorite cover of the three books. There's a character impersonator, but you can't see his/her face. And I do love the color gray.
Characters: I actually started to become genuinely attached to some of the characters in Savage Drift. Before, I didn't necessarily dislike any of the main characters, but I really wasn't invested in what happened to them, either. But I came to really care about Josie, once we saw her darker side and how she was struggling with it. I felt bad for Niko, of course, and I liked Marco a lot. I'm still not a fan of Jake, though, or even Astrid, and Dean got kinda annoying in this. Chloe is still a pill; why couldn't she have died? And Sahalia is still trouble, but maybe she'll get better as she gets older.
The Romance: Jake and Dean are at each other's throats constantly when it comes to Astrid. Dean is worried that Astrid doesn't love him enough, and Jake wants to be a part of the baby's life because he'll never be able to father another child. I understood Dean not wanting Jake around; Jake was the furthest thing from a good role model and he was always pushing in where he wasn't wanted. At the same time, though, I really hate it when guys fight over a girl. Maybe if Astrid had accepted Dean's protection, or if Dean had been a bit more mature about his defending Astrid. But it all came across as totally juvenile, and I honestly wanted to tell Dean that he could do better than Astrid. No, she wasn't helping matters, either. Sure, Jake's your friend, but once you've crossed a certain line with a friend (i.e. slept with him), you can't really maintain that friendship when you have someone else in your life. It doesn't work like that.
Plot: The group from Monument 14 made it to a safe location in Canada. They're recovering from the trauma and the chemicals, and the world is slowly, but surely, being cleaned up and made safe once more. However, not everything is back to normal quite yet. Military scientists are taking a bit too much interest in Astrid's pregnancy, and Niko has just found out that Josie is being held in a separate camp for violent O's. A camp that is almost worse than a death sentence. The Monument 14 kids must reunite once more to rescue Astrid, Josie, and brave the rumored drifts of chemicals still out in the wastelands. Savage Drift is actually probably my favorite out of the three. Not quite as much happens as it did in Sky on Fire in terms of danger. But there is a darker edge to it. My main complaint? Everything moved too quickly. For the most part, Dean and his friends' journey to Josie's internment camp is pretty smooth. They have a lot of help, the chemicals are dispersing, and there just isn't as much danger.
Believability: Not applicable.
Writing Style: First person, past and present tense. Dean's narration is in past, and Josie's is present. I enjoyed Josie's narration more mostly because stuff happened to her. And it also gave me a break from Dean's jealousy. I was sorry that Alex didn't have a narration; I actually missed him.
Content: None.
Conclusion: The climax was a little too tidy. Things go from bad to worse, it looks like there might actually be some character deaths, but then everyone is saved at the last minute by a coincidence. I don't mind coincidence; fiction is all about taking a plausible - but not likely to happen - coincidence and making it happen. This one, though, was just a little too convenient, a little too tidy, and it caused a pretty anticlimactic ending. Oh well. Savage Drift was still fun, and my favorite out of the trilogy. It was the cleanest, I actually started to care about some of the characters, and though less happened, it was the darkest.
Recommended Audience: Girl-and-guy read, eighteen-and-up, fans of post-apocalyptic....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? I do continue to like the simplistic, themed look of the cover art for this trilogy. Not sure what a piece of green silk is doCover Blurb: Yes or No? I do continue to like the simplistic, themed look of the cover art for this trilogy. Not sure what a piece of green silk is doing on the front (yes, I know it's supposed to simulate growing things, but why not then just put growing things on the cover? Green silk doesn't feature into the story in any capacity).
Characters: Darla and Alex haven't necessarily gone back to being likable, but they didn't irritate me like they did in Ashen Winter. I will never count them among protagonists that I care about or even like, but I didn't scream or roll my eyes every time one of them said or did something. And considering how I felt about them in Ashen Winter, such mild indifference is a big improvement. What changed? Well, Alex had to finally step in as a leader to put aside all of his adolescent wants and needs. That's right, people - he and Darla finally stop looking for condoms! Instead, Alex spends a lot of time searching for jewelry stores in hostile territory because he wants to give Darla a ring. . . . .Romantic, maybe, but stupid considering they should be searching for food. They turn their attention to the survival of them and the people that come to live in their little community, and I was finally able to ignore that they were just teens, because they stopped acting teenish. Alyssa, on the other hand . . . I would have been perfectly okay with the community using her as an alternative source of food. Alyssa seemed to be there merely to put tension between Darla and Alex, and romantic tension is never necessary in a novel. I don't care if it's realistic - I hate it. Ben didn't get on my nerves quite as much because he wasn't around a great deal. I intensely disliked Alex's mom, who turned all hateful and annoying every time she and Alex talked. Again, her sole purpose seemed to merely cause unnecessary strife. The "main" villain - Red - was . . . odd. He felt kind of out of place, given the story's setting. I can't say I didn't dislike him - I mean, the guy totally carried out his threats and was scary beyond all Hell. But I couldn't quite . . . . get him because he felt like he didn't belong in this story. And to be honest, his monologuing got old. Red is handy with knives, and he likes to tell his victims what arteries and other vital things he'll slice through if they don't listen to him. Kinda cool in a creepy way, but try wading through that many Latin medical words when you're already a little bit bored with the book.
The Romance:Darla and I cut the ersatz cake and smeared it all over each other's faces. I held her tightly and cleaned off her face with my tongue, while Rebecca looked on in disgust. (pg. 422) So, yeah, I'm still not a fan of the romance, but it really is toned down quite a bit more from other installments. Darla and Alex are still together, and they're still doing whatever they can without getting Darla pregnant, but everyone is really too busy surviving for the Author to cover their trysts as much as he did in previous books. Thank goodness. There's tension in their relationship, of course, because of Alyssa, who keeps plastering herself on Alex (and Alex won't tell her shove off). But overall, the romance didn't bother me as much.
Plot: The world is still in the grip of the Yellowstone supervolcano explosion, and learning how to survive isn't getting any easier. Flensers - gangs of cannibals - are controlling more and more of the countryside, and FEMA has backed out completely. This is a time for communities to band together, but instead, they've turned enemies. The town of Warren has been taken over by a gang from Stockton, and it's all-out war between them. Hate to tell you guys this, but the war is short-lived. It's more like one or two skirmishes that results in severe casualties - so massacres, really. The rest of Sunrise is spent with Alex building a community near a windmill farm for people who want to live peacefully. Refugees from other towns, Warrenites who are tired of their fickle mayor, reformed flensers - anyone who is willing to work hard and abide by the rules of the community. Alex and Darla go out on a lot of scavenging missions that result in some nasty run-ins - and Stockton and its gang feature quite a bit, despite the war being short-lived. The problems between Warren and Stockton are an ever-present looming threat; another volcano, if you will, that the Reader knows is going to explode at some point. So all in all, Sunrise has something that Ashen Winter just didn't have - tension. Yes, Sunrise drags - and let me tell you, this entire trilogy has given me a vendetta against kale. I don't care if the supervolcano explodes and that's all there is to eat. I will not eat kale ever in my entire life. I will starve first. But once again, I did find myself enjoying the survivalist aspects of the story, and I liked the danger that they ran into. This book got downright brutal at times, and I started to get seriously worried when things seemed to be going too smoothly.
Believability: Once again, the Author presents believable survival skills and a somewhat plausible natural disaster scenario. I still can't fault him anywhere in this area.
Writing Style: First person, past tense. Still nothing to complain about; the writing style is neither good nor especially bad. I'm a little tired of being in Alex's head.
Content: 11 s-words, 5 g--damns. One of the girls ends up being a lesbian, which was totally random and unnecessary and stupid. It didn't even become a major plot point; she just was.
Conclusion: Unsurprisingly, the conclusion is a little abrupt and has no real resolve. This isn't a complaint, merely an observation. I suppose the Author couldn't resolve an entire natural disaster scenario in three books - not one this massive. I can't tell you how surprised I am to be saying this, but Sunrise does actually make it worth wading through Ashen Winter. It goes back to being relatively interesting and eventful - and it doesn't just focus on Alex looking for condoms and flensers making lewd jokes. There's survival and bloody scrapes. And I'm so glad this trilogy turned around.
Recommended Audience: Guy-read, eighteen-and-up, great for fans of post-apocalyptic and survival/natural disaster novels....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? The continued simplicity and themed covers are a great plus for me. I love the cover art; I only wish my love for the series cCover Blurb: Yes or No? The continued simplicity and themed covers are a great plus for me. I love the cover art; I only wish my love for the series could extend to Ashen Winter.
Characters: Ah, what to say about our beloved protagonists? Not much. In Ashfall, I liked Alex relatively well. He was funny, he was resourceful, and he had a kind heart. His resourcefulness and kindness continues in Book #2, but I no longer cared whether or not he lived or died. Why? I don't really know - I just no longer cared. I tried, but I didn't. And the same goes for Darla, though my indifference morphed something akin to actual dislike with her. Darla was strong and practical in Ashfall. She had a sharp tongue, but it never felt like The Attitude; it just somehow fit her. In Ashen Winter, I got tired of it real quick. She snapped at everyone, was always crossing her arms, and was ready to be offended by everything anyone said. Enough already, Darla - you don't have to always have the tough act. I really didn't like Alyssa, with her clingyness, shrieking, and slutty behavior. I don't care if selling her body was how she survived the cannibals - I got tired of her always trying to force herself on Alex. And she also came with Ben, her autistic brother. I am going to sound really horrid for a moment, and I don't mean to offend or diss anyone, so please don't take it that way. Retarded characters slow books down - they just do. Ben was useful, and he wasn't severely autistic, but every time he started having a fit, or even when he talked, I felt nothing but annoyance. The fits always came at a very inopportune moment, and when he talked it was like having Data from Star Trek along with them. I don't like Data. Don't get me started on Alex's parents, either. They just slowed things down, too.
The Romance: I guess we're supposed to assume that Darla and Alex's relationship is a mature one because they spend so much time hunting for condems so Darla doesn't get pregnant and bring a child into a devastated world. Oh my gosh, how hard is it to keep one's trousers on?! You guys are living in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster ever and you're seriously thinking about sex?! That's all that the romantic relationship boils down to: finding condems so Alex and Darla can sleep together. And while Alyssa doesn't really create a love triangle, Alex does have a hard time resisting her charms. Y'know, he loves Darla, but his body needs to be satisfied . . . . *roll eyes*
Plot: It's been six months after the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted, plunging the world into the Dark Ages. Alex and Darla have been living at his uncle's farm, trying to survive a bitter winter growing kale and salvaging whatever they can find. But when a gang of men called flensers - cannibals and human traffickers - attack the farm, Alex discovers evidence of where his parents might be. Together, he and Darla set out to track them down and bring them back to the relative safety of Warren. But the dangers they faced six months ago in the trek to Alex's uncle's farm have only increased. Not only do they have to dodge the FEMA soldiers and their refugee camps, but gangs of flensers as well, who would turn Alex into a side of meat and sell Darla to men for company. When Darla and Alex become separated, Alex has to pull on his last reserves of strength to not only rescue her, but his parents as well. With cannibals wandering around, Ashen Winter should have be awesome. It wasn't. Half of the book is essentially a retelling of Ashfall. Long hours of trekking through snow, hunkering against bitter winds, dodging hostile towns and FEMA soldiers, foraging for food, losing supplies, finding supplies, losing them again, and getting injured in every possible way without any of it actually being fatal. Seriously - the number of injuries in this book was ridiculous. Survival is always interesting, but even I got really tired of reading about the same old stuff over and over and over. Especially when Alex gets into a lot of scrapes due to his own rash actions and stupidity. When Alex actually has to face down the flensers, Ashen Winter starts to get a little more interesting. But what ends up happening is a ton of peril and build up that doesn't go anywhere. It maintains that high, suspenseful note for a long, long time, but . . . . nothing really happens. Boring!
Believability: And this is where I still have to give the Author props. He has believable survivalist skills, injuries, and endurance. Is it bad that I feel a grudge, having to give the Author props on anything with this book?
Writing Style: First person, past tense. Because I no longer care about Alex, I got tired of his narration voice. Very. Quickly.
Content: 12 s-words, 4 g--damns. Alex and Darla grope each other, Alyssa and Alex grope each other, other people grope Alyssa. There's a very intense torture scene. I was squirming the entire time.
Conclusion: Car chases - ugh, more boring. There's a way to do car chases; this isn't how. The end was climatic, but somehow it just made me yawn. What a disappointment. I did like Ashfall, but I had doubts about a sequel ever since finishing it. Ashfall dragged; how could a sequel be anything but dull? Not only that, but I ceased to care about anyone! I'm really not looking forward to slogging through Book #3 - Sunrise.
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? As simplistic as it is, I do actually really like the cover art. Maybe because it follows a theme throughout the entire trilogCover Blurb: Yes or No? As simplistic as it is, I do actually really like the cover art. Maybe because it follows a theme throughout the entire trilogy. I don't know; there's just something about it that caught my attention.
Characters: Alex is a pretty cool protagonist, despite his guy-ness (no mistaking the fact that he's a guy). He's remarkably resourceful, very grateful for the rare bit of help he receives, and pays in kind to anyone he comes across, even if he really can't afford to share his provisions. He also knows how to take care of himself when it comes to a fight. I have a real appreciation for characters who can do all of that. Probably what's even more surprising is the fact that I liked Darla as well. She's very pushy - bordering on Attitude - but it somehow just worked for her. Added to that is the fact that Darla has reason to be cocky: she's anything but useless. She knows how to keep a farm running, scavenge food, and build useful items out of scrap. And she's not some sexy chick who just happens to speak mechanics, either; she's and believable farmgirl who knows what she needs to to survive. That said, she's also not afraid to rely on Alex's skills when hers fails. And while Alex is always commenting on how is embarrasses him to be outstripped by Darla, he still seems to take it pretty well. Darla is at first pretty rough-tongued with Alex, but I really cannot say that I blame her. Given the circumstances, I wouldn't trust some random guy showing up on my front porch needing food. And after she gets to know him, her brusqueness becomes more teasing.
The Romance: Ah, but of course, there's a romance. There's always a romance. And at first, I actually didn't mind it. Alex falls pretty hard to Darla, but that's only to be expected, and it was a little amusing. Darla shrugs him off, but not for long. After a traumatic experience, Alex becomes the only person Darla can depend on, and that creates a very strong attachment between them. Maybe it's the circumstances that kept the romance from feeling like it went too fast. A traumatic experience such as what these two teens go through would create a bloody strong bond in a short amount of time - a bond that could be relied on. However, as soon as Darla turns her attention to having sex, and all Alex can think about is getting condoms so he doesn't accidentally get Darla pregnant, the romance felt pretty bloody shallow. Guys, you just survived a massive volcano eruption that has entirely changed life as you once knew it. You're running low on food and water, practically everyone you meet wants to kill you - and you're seriously thinking about getting into each other's trousers?! Seriously?!
Plot: When Alex's parents go off for a weekend without him, he's thrilled. Now he can spend all his time playing World of Warcraft, hanging out with friends, and eating junk food - all without the hassle of his mother. But Alex's peaceful afternoon is violently interrupted when the supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park erupts. The days turn into permanent nights of raining ash and unbearable noise. Electricity is cut off, phones and cars go completely dead - contact with anyone outside of his neighborhood is completely gone. Nevertheless, Alex decides to hike out of his hometown and find his parents, to make sure they're okay. But venturing out into the ash and a mass of very desperate people is no easy task. The air is unbreathable, neighbors Alex has known as his life will do anything for food and fresh water, and an early and harsh winter is on its way. Alex can trust no one, and yet he may not survive if he doesn't. But can he truly risk it? I have to admit that a lot of disaster stories don't much intrigue me, but this one for some reason did. Okay, okay, I'll tell the truth - I was lucky enough to get a chance to read an ARC for Book #3 in the trilogy - Sunrise - but of course I can't anything out of order. So I just had to read Book #1 and #2. Turns out I'm glad I did, because I actually really enjoyed Ashfall! A terrifying beginning, and a story of survival against unimaginably harsh conditions, it was hard to put down . . . . For about 200 pages. Hit the 250+ mark, though, and I started to get bored. I mean, let's face it - there's only so many ways one can tell about a character slogging through ash, getting stuck in ash, running out of food and water, finding kindly (and not so kindly) farmsteads, building shelters, and peeing. Oh my gosh, the amount of peeing in this book was ridiculous! We get it - peeing would be one real chore in such circumstances as this book presents us, but do we really need to know every blessed time that Alex needed to pee? Either the Author should have added more instances of cannibals, not killed off his deranged escaped criminal as soon as he did, or just parred this book down by a couple 100 pages.
Believability: This is where Ashfall really won out. Disaster scenarios are fun - they make better movies than books, because one really does need awesome CGI to make a disaster scenario interesting. But disaster scenarios are also rather silly and not to be taken seriously at all, especially since most are like The Day After Tomorrow (and if you like that movie, that's fine, but even you can't say that you took it seriously). Ashfall, however, presents Readers with a scarily plausible situation. Supervolcanos aren't something to roll one's eyes at. A regular volcano alone can cause quite a bit of havoc, such as grounding flights in an entirely other country, but a supervolcano - well, it's not called "super" for nothing. I'm of course not saying that there aren't holes in Ashfall - there always is, and it's difficult to predict the extent - or the kind - of havoc a supervolcano could cause. But the Author comes up with some good ones, and it's quite frankly a little scary.
Writing Style: First person, past tense. There was nothing special about the narration. I was all right with being inside Alex's head - he was funny, even if he did spend a lot of time oogling Darla and mention every time he needed to pee (honestly; boys). But it was nothing special. The Author could have laid off on mentioning bad breath as often as he did, too.
Content: 6 g--damns, 2 s-words. There is a rape scene (pg. 200), though there are no details at all, and it is interrupted. Of course, it is very obvious what is going on - but again, without being explicit. The violence is at times rather gristly. And there's a gay couple in the beginning of the book, but it didn't feel like the Author was shoving any personal opinions down my throat, so it didn't bother me too much.
Conclusion: Can we say abrupt? What I would like to see in Book #2: more world building. Darla and Alex are pretty in the dark about everything that's going on in the outside world, which makes sense. I mean, they've had no way of finding anything out. And because the Reader is following these two characters along, they, too, are going to be in the dark. But some things definitely need to be explained in Book #2, such as what exactly is the government up to? How much has the rest of the world been affected by the supervolcano? If food is scarce everywhere (as it is implied at one point), then one can assume it's affected the rest of the world pretty severely. But I would like some background information. I want to know why the rescue operation of the more damaged areas has turned more into a totalitarian regime with concentration-like refugee camps rather than an actual rescue attempt. If the Author spends Book #2 answering a lot of these questions, I'll be satisfied, and I might even begin to see how the Author is going to extend this into a trilogy. Because while I liked Ashfall, it did get a little boring towards the end (except at the refugee camp).
Recommended Audience: Guy-read, seventeen-and-up, great for fans of disaster, post-apocalyptic, and survival stories. ...more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? I do like the cover, with the spooky shadows and ominous red coloring. Unfortunately, my love for the cover did not transfer oCover Blurb: Yes or No? I do like the cover, with the spooky shadows and ominous red coloring. Unfortunately, my love for the cover did not transfer over to the story itself.
Characters: I don't have anything good to say in this department. Michael is too busy lying to everyone and hating himself for doing it to really be a good protagonist. There is also the huge fact that Michael is too much of a guy for me to like him on any level. Patrick, his five-year-old brother, is a major brat, not to mention the most dense child I have ever met. He seriously thought it was all a game? And really - he trusted a total stranger that quickly over his own big brother? A brother, I might add, he completely trusts and would follow to the ends of the earth. Stupid child! Jopek, I'll admit, was kind of a fun jerk to hate, but I cared so little about what happened to Michael and Patrick that it didn't really matter to me what Jopek did to them. I mostly wanted Jopek to die so I wouldn't have to put up with his obnoxious accent and ridiculously stupid G.I. Joe persona. The dude was so clichely military awesome that I wanted to groan out loud (actually, I did). The other characters lined up in the typical zombie-cast fashion: the jerk that everyone wants the zombies to eat, but of course ends up lasting for a long time (Jopek), the girl (Holly), the sweet religious, older lady who everyone likes and is therefore doomed to be eaten by zombies (Bobbie), and the young man who blindly follows the jerk and meets a sad end because of it (Hank). Their personalities are about as complex as your basic zombie characters, too: not very. And of course, besides the zombies, there is the fanatical group of crazy humans that have turned the zombies into God's judgment and sacrifice people to them. Rubon, their leader, was a lousy villain. Sure, he was crazy, but he was exactly like every other religious fanatic in zombie stories.
The Romance: Like a typical guy book, not a whole lot of time is spent with romance (not complaining!). Michael notices that Holly is hot, and of course since Michael is a nerd, he doesn't think he'll have a chance with her. Blasting zombies to kingdom come overshadows the romance, so it boils down to a basic, kinda sweet teen crush, and doesn't go much further. So the romance really didn't bother me all that much.
Plot: Oh dear. Well, first off, the official synopsis lies - big time. The "Game" and the "Game Master" are totally unimportant to the story, and last for only about forty pages of this 368-paged book. (view spoiler)[Michael just made up the whole Game and Game Master for his brother so Patrick wouldn't know that the zombies were real. I guessed this by page 10, and it's revealed by page 40; maybe sooner. (hide spoiler)] What the synopsis also fails to mention is that this is a zombie novel. It conveniently doesn't really tell you what the Bellows are - just that they're creatures who prey on people at night. Nope; they're Class A zombies! Needless to say, when I found this out - which was page 5 - I felt totally cheated. Like Michael does to Patrick, this story tricked and lied to me, so that I would read it. What promised to be an interesting and bizarre story boiled down into nothing more than dodging zombies every other page, strung out emotions, and more zombie dodging. In short, there isn't a plot! Once Michael and Patrick meet up with the survivors in a no-longer Safe Zone, they tag along with Jopek every time he goes outside of the perimeter to blast Bellows (no pun intended), and after lots of moaning and muscle flexing and cheesy one-liners from Jopek (while standing astride a pile of rubble with a machine gun in each hand), they all go back behind the perimeter to explore one another's emotions. This mostly consists of Michael realizing just how much of a jerk Jopek really is, while trying to keep Patrick hoodwinked about what's really going on - and Patrick being a stupid child and not realizing the truth. There are some "tragic" losses to the little group (surprise, right? I mean, zombies never get to anyone in the main group), Michael stages a coup against Jopek, which doesn't go well because his other participants are totally unwilling, and then - gasp! There's a twist! Super zombies! Okay, that's not what they're called; they are eventually dubbed Shrieks, because they can literally shatter glass with their screams. Oh yes, and they climb walls, you can pump them full of lead with no effect, they're blood is black and oozing, and for some inexplicable reason, they're shedding their human skin to expose nothing but bone and sinew - and still they somehow manage to climb around. Did I also mention their cliche unhinging jaws? To top all of this silly zombie zone gore, Michael and Patrick have personal issues that, yes, crop up. Patrick is constantly on the verge of a tremendous mental breakdown - the sort that you don't recover from. If he becomes too rattled, he'll disappear into himself and never return. This, of course, leads to a lot of temper tantrums that are supposed to be emotional breakdowns, but quite honestly, it just made Patrick seem like a brat. Why couldn't a zombie eat him? And then Michael is a compulsive liar, blames himself for everything, and has a sob story to constantly break into the narration as flashbacks. Question: why are zombie stories so fixated on emotional trauma?
Believability: It's a zombie book. I shouldn't be looking for believability at all. But I'm going to, because there were two things that really bothered me. One: even if Patrick doesn't think that everything that's going on is real, the kid would still be super traumatized. He's seeing people getting killed in gristly ways! Two: the supposed cure. If the virus is mutating, the original cure would more than likely no longer work.
Writing Style: Third person, past tense. The flashbacks, however, are in present tense, and often interrupt the narration in wholly untimely moments. The writing style was terribly difficult to follow. It is almost like the Author wanted the feel of a first-person narration without actually putting it in first person. As a result, Michael's personal thoughts are constantly being interjected, and these are written like stream-of-consciousness. They leap here and there, the words are often run together (like this: ohmygoshIcan'tbelievethisishappeningrunrunrun), and sometimes Michael will be arguing with himself inside his head, and the Author won't tell the Reader! So we get a series of thought processes that are going back and forth between each other, and the Reader begins to wonder if Michael is losing his mind. The general narration was also just plain convoluted, disjointed, movie-ish, and bad.
Content: 31 s-words, 22 g--damns. The f-word is never actually used, but the derivative "fuggin" is a constant and far too close to the actual word for my liking. The violence is, surprisingly, not nearly as detailed as I thought it might be, but it's still got the classic zombie gore.
Conclusion: Why do I get the awful feeling that this might have a sequel? Because it ended on a "this isn't finished" note. In a series of disjointed events, Michael is forced to face down the Raptures - the fanatic religious group that worships the Bellows. This somehow leads to a totally ridiculous explanation to where the virus that created the Bellows and the Shrieks came from, and that leads to a classic zombie horde - complete with a zombie boss. And then . . . poof! Michael defeats them in a totally spur-of-the-moment, what-a-coincidence manner that left me rolling my eyes and shaking my head. Ah, but are they really defeated? Of course not! Because someone out there is going to urge the Author to write a sequel, and nowadays sequels simply must be written (apparently). I really cannot express the depth of my disappointment with The End Games. When I first read the synopsis, I was so excited to read it, because it sounded awesome and weird and possibly a bit like The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games combined. And then I opened it, eagerly scanning the first two pages, and . . . I realized that I had been tricked. It is only because of my dear Readers that I finished the book at all: because I wanted to let you guys know what I thought of it. And now you know.
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Combine the title and the setting (or rising) sun in the background, along with the lone figure, and it definitely says "apocaCover Blurb: Yes or No? Combine the title and the setting (or rising) sun in the background, along with the lone figure, and it definitely says "apocalypse." What it fails the say is how slow of an apocalypse it really is.
Characters: Problem Number One: I didn't care about any of the characters. I at first rather liked Cassie because she had a sarcastic sense of humor and she wasn't afraid to use a gun. As she stated often, her M16 was her best friend. But then she met Evan, and Cassie swiftly spiraled into a clingy, bitchy, and sometimes irrational person who spent way too much time noticing Evan's bottom. I realize that Cassie has some loneliness issues and a great need for human contact and trust - after so long in the wilds alone, trusting no one - but really, her attachment to Evan comes too quickly. I just wouldn't trust someone that fast in a post-apocalyptic scenario, even if I just needed to, at risk of losing my sanity. Ben didn't have much of a personality; the nickname Zombie suited him very well. Sam could have been a super annoying whiny little brat, and he wasn't, though I wanted to slap him when he asked a bunch of questions rather than just listening to his big sister. I'm the youngest of my siblings and I knew to listen to my sister when she told me to do something - especially in the event of an emergency. The bottom line is, I didn't care about Sam. Ringer was kind of cool, I'll admit. She handled a gun and commanded a certain amount of respect from the boys without having an Attitude. But did I become attached to her? No. Evan, meanwhile, had a bad tendency of lurking behind doors and in hallways, so he came across as just a little bit creepy. I also knew his personal background "twist" as soon as he walked into the story, so his "mysteriousness" was lost on me. And as for the aliens? Well, they were hostile alright, and I like alien invasion stories when the aliens are hostile. Nice aliens are so boring. However, I saw some flaws in their extermination plan that kind of ruined their scariness factor. I wanted to physically pop into the story and say, "Um, aliens, good job being evil and all, but there's this one little thing that really bothers me, and it kind of makes you guys look silly rather than super smart and unbeatable."
The Romance: Cassie falls for Evan, and Ben falls for Ringer. Ben and Ringer's relationship doesn't get very far, and I was okay with it for the most part. It's kind of sweet and in the background. Cassie and Evan, however, are the exact opposite. They both fall for each other fast and hard, even though they don't know each other at all - and Cassie has a very good reason to suspect that Evan isn't who he claims to be. (view spoiler)[He's an extraterrestrial. Not only that, he's the sniper who's been hunting Cassie. (hide spoiler)] So why would you get all lovey-dovey with a guy your brain tells you you shouldn't trust? It's not like Cassie is working him so she can get something from him, either. Like I said earlier, I get that Cassie has this overwhelming need for human contact, but this is going overboard. And could she please stop oogling his bottom just for a little while - or mentioning how his breath smells like chocolate? For the record, chocolate smells awful when it's on someone's breath.
Plot: People on Earth are going about their normal lives, oblivious to what might be out there in the rest of the universe - and whether what's out there might take exception to humankind. Then one day an alien spaceship appears in the atmosphere and a huge EMP pulse - generated by the spaceships - brings civilization to a complete halt. That's the 1st Wave. The 2nd Wave creates giant tsunamis simultaneously around the world, wiping out entire countries. The 3rd Wave was the Red Death - a virus that destroyed even more people. The 4th Wave? Extermination. Hunting down and sniping the remaining survivors. Cassie's story picks up at the beginning of the 5th Wave - which is where the aliens' brilliant and unbeatable plan began to show holes. (view spoiler)[As Cassie sits under an abandoned car, bleeding out from a bullet wound in her leg, she remembers how she became separated from her dad and little brother Sam. Soldiers are gathering up children under the age of fifteen and taking them to Camp Haven. There, the military claims that they have discovered that the aliens are living inside of people, like parasites embedded in the brain. But the military has found a way to detect these aliens, and the children of the world are their only hope of destroying the extraterrestrials. So they train the children up into little child armies, embed a tracker in them so they can be found no matter where they are (totally not suspicious, right?), and unleash them on the aliens. The newly minted soldiers tote around special goggles that make alien-infested people glow green so they can be spotted easily. Ah, but here's the twist: the military base is run by the aliens! And the glowing people are in fact innocent humans that haven't been captured by the aliens and chipped. The lack of a tracking chip is what makes people glow green. What's my problem with this? In their base, the aliens have a giant map that allows them to locate every single surviving human on Earth, anytime, anywhere. If the aliens can do that, why don't they just blow them all up? Or send in an alien SWAT team and mow 'em down? Why go through the trouble of gathering together a bunch of human kids, brainwashing them, training them, equipping them, and risking them finding out the truth? (Which, of course, the main characters do.) In trying to create a unique and shocking plot twist, the Author ignored the fact that with this ability, the aliens simply wouldn't bother. There aren't many people left; just go out and systematically destroy them without the need of an elaborate deception. (hide spoiler)] The plot's other flaw is pacing. In the beginning, we Readers are dropped right smack in the middle of everything, with absolutely no explanations, so it's kind of confusing at first. But gradually Cassie gives us the backstory and we're good to go! Except . . . nothing much is happening. All of the action is in the backstory, when the aliens initiate the first four Waves. The 5th Wave is spent with Cassie oogling Evan's bottom, Ben being turned into a child soldier, and Cassie oogling Evan's bottom some more. With an alien invasion, I expect a lot more to happen. At first the slow pace is the sort of slow that keeps the Reader intrigued; the Author drops just enough hints of things to come, but doesn't explain too much. But once I figured out what was going on, and once it became clear that we would spend more time staring into Evan's chocolate eyes than with the actual aliens, I got bored. Very bored.
Believability: Not applicable, unless we're talking about survival skills, and the Author did fine in that area.
Writing Style: Cassie's narration is in first person and switches between past and present tense. It got so bad that I just ceased to notice either way. And then we're thrown into Ben's narration with absolutely no warning, and for a minute I was very confused. How did Cassie end up here? But then I realized: it's another character. Ben's narration is in present tense pretty consistently and therefore easier to follow. There's a couple of parts in third person, past tense, but they don't crop up often and just act as a way to transition smoothly into future key events. There was nothing I liked about the writing style itself. It was extremely movie-ish and choppy; there was no beauty to it, and it made the action sequences feel like a cameraman who couldn't hold the camera still.
Content: 27 s-words, 2 g--damns, 5 f-words. The violence is a bit gory at times, but not all that bad.
Conclusion: Once Cassie broke into the base to find her brother, things became rather convoluted. She finds him and meets up with Ben, but after that . . . I was a bit lost. They were leaving, and something was blowing up, and Cassie was almost sucked in - I think - and it created a black hole - literally? I didn't catch that - and a plane took off . . . . Since there's two sequels, I gathered they didn't defeat the aliens, though I wasn't sure at first. It just kind of . . . ended. Maybe it's the norm for alien invasion stories to be slow. It seems like it shouldn't be, but so far I have yet to read a fast-paced one. The 5th Wave started out confusing, got a lot better, and then fell. I didn't care about any of the characters, I figured out the twists and got bored, the writing didn't suit me, and the end was a bit of a confusing mess of melted metal and dirt clods. Will I read the sequels? No.
Recommended Audience: Girl-and-guy read, eighteen-and-up, fans of slower-paced alien invasions, post-apocalyptic, and disaster stories....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? It’s all right. Like the other covers in this series, it doesn’t do anything for me. The title would have peeked my interest iCover Blurb: Yes or No? It’s all right. Like the other covers in this series, it doesn’t do anything for me. The title would have peeked my interest if I hadn’t already read the series, but the cover definitely wouldn’t have. It’s just kind of boring.
Characters: I’m one of those rare people who actually cared about Thomas in The Maze Runner; I didn’t find him flat or annoying and useless. I felt sorry for him, he had a good personality, and he did his best in the circumstances. But the protagonist for The Kill Order - Mark - I just didn’t care. My feelings were, for all of the characters, lukewarm: I didn’t dislike them, I didn’t like them, and I didn’t care what happened to them. The latter feeling might be due to the fact that I knew the story couldn’t have a happy ending, but more on that later. There weren’t even any side characters to get attached to because the Author killed them off too quickly for them to even become characters.
The Romance: This Author has never spent a great deal of time focused on romance. Mark and Trina have a thing for each other, but because I didn’t care about either of them, I didn’t care about their attachment.
Plot: Sun flares have baked the Earth to a inhospitable wasteland. Resources are scarce, people have turned against each other in a war for survival, and now a deadly virus has broken out. Mark, Trina, and Alec are trekking their way to what they hope is a safe haven, but deadly secrets await them along the way. Sounds rather exciting, but really, there isn’t much that happens. There is a lot of action, as Mark and Alec fight their way past virus-infected crazy people, and it gets super repetitive. Seriously, how many times can they get surprise-attacked; how many times can Mark make a stupid move that almost causes him to lose the fight; how many times can he almost fall out of the Berg’s window? There isn’t a big revelation of secrets, though The Kill Order did confirm a lot of things I suspected in The Death Cure (why they were measuring brain patterns. The book doesn’t get specific, but the idea makes a bit more sense. And more importantly, how did the Flare come to be in the first place). But it’s a pretty basic storyline, and not a whole lot happens. At times, it’s kind of boring.
Believability: Not applicable.
Writing Style: The same as the others: action-packed. There’s no annoying Glader slang in this one, which was rather nice, and his action sequences, while tiresome, are well written and easy to follow. There’s not a lot of character development, but his books have always been more plot-driven. Still, it would have been nice to have some.
Content: The violence isn’t as meaty as in previous ones, since a lot of the crazy people aren’t nearly as far gone as the Cranks in the other books. Still, there’s some rather bloody moments that made my stomach turn a bit.
Conclusion: Just a warning: don’t expect it to be happy. About halfway through the book, I knew how it would end, but since I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, I didn’t get choked up at all. As a prequel, The Kill Order does pretty much what it should: it gives background and explains a few things. I definitely would not read it without reading the other three first, otherwise it will ruin the mystery of the other books, and it might put you off the series entirely, simply because it’s rather slow and doesn’t have any really good characters. But it’s what I was expecting, so I wasn’t disappointed.
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? I like this one a little better than the last two. The fortress is ominous and intriguing. But the covers for this series stilCover Blurb: Yes or No? I like this one a little better than the last two. The fortress is ominous and intriguing. But the covers for this series still don’t do a whole lot for me.
Characters: I was very unsure of Brenda in The Scorch Trials, but she proves her worth and “coolness” in this one. She doesn’t have any mood swings and she’s not constantly flirting with Thomas. Theresa once more disappears from the story before I even get a chance to know her, so I never developed much of an attachment for her. I didn’t particularly care for Jorge - he just got kind of annoying after a while, - but I finally settled my opinion of Minho, and it is a decidedly positive one, though out of all the original Gladers, Newt is still my absolute favorite. Thomas continues to be a strong, caring protagonist that I felt continually sorry for. He overcomes one problem, only to be faced with another. This guy never gets a break.
The Romance: With Thomas not really trusting Teresa, there isn’t any opportunity for romance, though Brenda certainly seems to have some feelings for Thomas. But the Author doesn’t waste time on it.
Plot: It isn’t as creepy as the last two, and not quite as weird. But the Author has instilled so much distrust of WICKED in the Reader, that I was convinced through the majority of the book that WICKED really was lying to Thomas, and that they were still in the Trials. The Author doesn’t try to backpedal and paint WICKED to be good - in fact, he does quite the opposite, - but I certainly kept waiting for it to be revealed that the Gladers were being subjected to another test, even though WICKED said that “the time for lies is over.” That’s how thoroughly the Author made me distrust them, and so I was completely able to sympathize and agree with the characters.
Believability: Still not really applicable.
Writing Style: The style is the same as it always has been: works for the story, blessedly in past-tense, and exciting.
Content: The violence is a lot less brutal or constant in The Death Cure as opposed to last two.
Conclusion: Here’s where the book earned a lower rating than the last two. While I liked the bittersweet end - because a story like this can have no other kind, - the climax felt rushed. The Author introduced way too many new characters all at once, and then had them vanish, and some characters kept showing up in the oddest places. I was expecting the explanation behind the Maze and the Trials’ purpose to be a bit vague, and for the most part I gathered the general idea behind it. But there were a few things that the Author failed to explain, namely: Why was it that Brenda was able to communicate with Thomas telepathically? And how (or why) was Teresa’s group deceived into believing that Thomas escaped WICKED before them, while Thomas thought that Teresa escaped first? It was, as a whole, a good and natural conclusion to the series, and maybe the prequel will explain some things. Aspects were just a little too rushed, and not everything was explained that needed to be.
Recommended Audience: Guy-read, older teens because it is still creepy, fans of post-apocalyptic fiction....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? No. Like The Maze Runner, this one just doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not especially eye-catching, it doesn’t indicate muchCover Blurb: Yes or No? No. Like The Maze Runner, this one just doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not especially eye-catching, it doesn’t indicate much about the story, and it’s nondescript. It would not attract my notice if I wasn’t already reading the series.
Characters: Thomas is still a surprisingly likable protagonist, and as the story progressed, I grew to like him more and more, and I felt tremendously sorry for him. Seriously - how much more trauma can this poor guy take? Teresa doesn’t get an opportunity to become annoying, since she leaves the story pretty much as soon as it begins. I’m not complaining; I would rather her be absent than be present and get on my nerves. My opinion of Minho is still divided - I found him neither irritating nor especially likable. The main new character, Brenda, got from me an equally undecided opinion. Sometimes she was annoying, other times she was all right, and on occasion she was just plain weird. I marked it down to the fact that she was going insane and left it at that.
The Romance: Thomas and Teresa’s attraction develops a bit more in this installment, but remarkably didn’t annoy me. If Teresa had been around more, I think it would have, but as it was, I found the few “romance” scenes to be kind of sweet. I was worried that Brenda would create a love triangle, and she still might, but it didn’t really get focused on all that much in The Scorch Trials, so my fears were belied.
Plot: I really don’t know what to say about the plot. It was weird. Whether it was a good weird or a bad weird, I really can’t say. It was just plain weird. I didn’t dislike it, which I suppose thrusts it into the “good weird” category. The plot wasn’t a mystery like The Maze Runner; it was more of a journey story: the Gladers knew who the baddies were and they had a specific destination to travel to, encountering tests and bizarre things along the way. With the Cranks, the story often felt a little bit like a zombie book, but not so much that I got irritated. I preferred The Maze Runner’s storyline, but this one was also so different from it that it’s hard to compare the two. There were some unexpected turn of events, and a lot of weirdness (I spent a good portion of the book shouting, What?!), therefore I definitely didn’t get bored.
Believability: Not applicable.
Writing Style: It actually is a smidgen worse from The Maze Runner. It just didn’t flow quite as well, and the Author seemed to have Thomas fall asleep or pass out a lot because he couldn’t come up with a better transition between scenes.
Content: The violence in this volume at times approaches very close to being graphic. while nothing like Michael Cadnum’s books, it could be disturbing for some Readers.
Conclusion: The end is what had me exclaiming in disbelief. It was a good end, but it was probably the most bizarre part of the whole story. It is also the best part. Once more, everything seems to be solved and the Gladers are finally safe. But then one more twist is revealed, and it left me laughing in delight. Once more, I am so glad I had the sequel already on hold at the library. As a whole, I liked The Scorch Trials. It kept me engaged, and I didn’t find it to be a disappointing sequel at all. But it was weird.
Recommended Audience: Guy-read, older teens due to the violence and dark undertones, fans of post-apocalyptic stories....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? No. It simply doesn’t do anything for me. The cover isn’t what attracted me to the book; other peoples’ reviews is what got meCover Blurb: Yes or No? No. It simply doesn’t do anything for me. The cover isn’t what attracted me to the book; other peoples’ reviews is what got me to read it.
Characters: Thomas, our protagonist, is surprisingly likable. He’s tough and smart and resourceful, but he’s also caring and continually fights against the idea of being controlled. The other Gladers vary a lot from each other, each one likable in their different ways. Alby is the leader, and Newt his “second,” who steps up into the leadership role when Alby goes mental. Gally was one creepy dude - like the sort who could go berserk at any moment and beat someone’s head in. Chuck was like a cute little brother; I felt Thomas’s attachment to him. I don’t really know how I feel about Minho even now. I didn’t dislike him, and he was a strong character, but I didn’t feel any special attachment to him, either. I didn’t think I would like Teresa at first, but she’s actually a very good female second protagonist. What sarcastic comments she makes seem like genuine teasing, and not The Attitude, and she makes herself useful.
The Romance: It pretty much doesn’t exist. I get the feeling that Thomas and Teresa will end up liking each other, but in this first book, their relationship feels more like just a really close camaraderie. They were both involved in something important before the Glade, they’re both outsiders, and they have to save the Gladers together, so of course they have a close bond.
Plot: A complete success. The Author had me guessing from the very beginning. I loved how it began - I felt Thomas’s disorientation and fear - and I loved everything in between. The Grievers were genuinely scary, because they are never really fully described, there aren’t usually a bunch of them in one scene (with a few exceptions), and the Reader doesn’t really get to meet them all that often. The finale battle made them a little less scary because there were so many of them in one place, but for the majority of the book, they actually creeped me out. I absolutely loved the whole isolated and sinister feel of the Glade - the way everyone acted, how they wouldn’t tell Thomas anything, the Banishment, the walls closing at night, the Box, how there’s no rain and the temperature is always perfect, the Changing, - and the Maze’s secret left me feeling delighted.
Believability: Not really applicable for this book. Maybe it will be later in the series.
Writing Style: The Author’s style isn’t what I would call masterful, but it worked for the story, and he did a tremendously good job with description. I could picture the Glade and the Maze very clearly, and the whole atmosphere of it.
Content: The violence isn’t graphic, but it’s still brutal.
Conclusion: At first it seemed like all of the questions had been answered, and I was momentarily disappointed. But then the Epilogue revealed a whole new set of questions, and I can’t wait until the sequel comes in from the library. The end was as dark and sinister as the rest of the book, with a good number of deaths and several OMG moments. I really liked The Maze Runner. I wasn’t expecting anything special when I first got it, but it definitely surprised me. It reminded me of a combination of a darker Twilight Zone and Lord of the Flies. I stayed up super-late reading this book, always saying, Just one more chapter; I can’t stop here!
Recommended Audience: More of a guy-read than a girl-read, older audience due to scary content, fans of post-apocalyptic thrillers/mysteries....more
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Yes, because it fits the genre and has a very ominous, dark quality to it. If it weren’t the sequel to Dark Inside, though, I Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Yes, because it fits the genre and has a very ominous, dark quality to it. If it weren’t the sequel to Dark Inside, though, I probably would not have picked it up, because I would have immediately dismissed it as a zombie book.
Characters: I don’t have a whole lot to say on this matter. The Author did do a lot of exploring of character emotions and relationship building, but the majority of characters really didn’t leave an impression on me either way. However, Daniel did actually grow on me in this. Whereas I thought he was kind of creepy in Dark Inside, I began to like and pity him in this installment. Colin and Ryder were immensely easy to hate; I can’t wait until a Bagger gets Colin. But the rest of the characters sort of blended into one, especially the girls, whose narrations read pretty much the same way, so sometimes I forgot who was the protagonist for the current chapter.
The Romance: The love triangle between Daniel, Aries, and Mason actually didn’t bother me, because all three of them behave maturely, and Daniel and Mason aren’t at each other’s throats, fighting over Aries. I don’t really know why every girl in the story needed a boyfriend, though; considering the situation, I would imagine that romance would be the last thing on a person’s mind.
Plot: It got a little old, to be honest. Dark Inside had a fair amount of running-and-bashing in heads, but that wasn’t all it was about. Rage Within pretty much made up in that department. I enjoyed the aspects of the plot where we actually began to learn more about what was going on, but the majority of the book is spent with the characters dodging Baggers, arguing amongst each other, surviving, and searching for more survivors. There isn’t a great deal that is revealed in this installment, and I was disappointed with that fact.
Believability: Generally, it isn’t applicable to this book, though I must admit that the Baggers create a far more convincing police state/totalitarian regime than any I have read in dystopian novels: they round up undesirables, administer immediate and harsh punishment, drag people from their homes at all hours, and create concentration camps. While I found “Baggers” to be a rather silly name, they were genuinely creepy.
Writing Style: The Author’s style hasn’t varied much from Dark Inside: it begins choppy and little hard to follow, then smooths out as the story progresses. I still like the switching between narrators with each chapter, though as I have noted earlier some of the narrative voices sound so similar that I forgot who was narrating. She gets a bit more descriptive with the violence in this installment, and I got kind of tired of when every single time the characters ran into a body, we Readers would once more have to read about the stench of decomposition, the squishiness, et cetera. It’s not graphic, but it gets old very quickly. An Author needs to describe a corpse only so much.
Content: 1 s-word. The violence is not graphic, but it comes close at times, and is often stomach-turning and grotesque.
Conclusion: The twist behind what is “possessing” people borders on being lame. Depending on how the third book goes, I may in fact deem it irrevocably lame. About 100 pages in, I recall moaning to myself, Oh, please don’t let that be the answer. If that’s the answer, I am going to give this book a very low rating. While the twist is definitely lame, I also didn’t feel like the Author was making a personal opinion statement with it, which is what kept this book from getting a lower rating. But the whole, People brought it on themselves! plot has been so over-used in books like this; I would have preferred a government experiment gone wrong. In general, there were aspects of the book I definitely enjoyed, but it wasn’t as good as the first one.
Recommended Audience: Readers of Dark Inside may not be as thrilled with the sequel as they were anticipating, but they won’t be so disappointed that they’ll quite reading the series. Guy-and-girl read, older teens due to rather grotesque violence....more