layawaydragon
Written on Nov 17, 2012
+New characters
+Character growth
+More family involvement
+Twists
+Pacing
+More world-building
The Bad & The Other:
-Cliffhanger
-Love triangle
-didn't like the portrayal of the new girl and Willow's attitude of “Oh, she's flirty so she must have daddy issues. How sad”.
-Didn't like Willow's use of “man card”. It felt off and I said, “Wait, why is she saying that? Do we still have this shit in the future? Fuuck.”
-No specifics on where they are in the US or anything, so when they travel I was disoriented.
There's a lot more conflict. SO much drama. All the drama. Beyond the personal, the outside world has a host of new issues, including rebel fractions, and ELE's outed as lying fuckfaces.
It revolves around the search for Willow's friends and leaves the consequences of their findings for its sequel Survivng ELE. It's about survival and learning surface learning and being a rebel. It's great finding out about everyone outside the FEMA shelters. The dystopian global government conspiracy is on the back burner for the moment.
I did like how there are bright spots and down time for them so it's not all doom and gloom 24/7.
Willow wasn't all that personable as she's going through some growing pains. It's a good thing though for character progression. The repercussions and changes are coming in the next book. There's enough going on and her mindset is explained well enough that she's not insufferable.
Love Triangle:
UGH.
However, there is a heartwarming moment when she seeks advice about being torn. She actually struggles with realizing she can be attracted to other people while in a relationship. She's the epitome of sheltered and it makes sense.
I was also ready to hate Tony because ugh. He's a standard tough guy with a dark past, of course. But he at least backed off when Willow said no.
And their connection is well done so it's not a stupid or shallow pairing.
(Man, I really hope I'm not jaded from seeing so many godawful ones I'm happy to see mediocre or something lol.)