Chelsea
Written on Mar 7, 2016
Thoughts When I Finished:
After devouring the first book I immediately went on to reading this one. I think this might be one of those rare case where book two is better than the first book because I couldn't put it down!
What I Loved:
I love how great the author is at character development. Josi can be strong minded sometimes but she's mostly weak. Physically and mentally. Her fury is the only thing that drives her. She grows so much in this book though! She learns to be in tune with her body and her problem solving is better than ever.
I especially love the new characters in this book. Pace is a favourite because she's not afraid of anything. She's crazy brave for being so young. Shadow is another great character. Like his name suggests, he stays out of the spotlight but is always lingering. I have so many questions about him. Our new POV in this book is Raven. Born and raised outside of the city, she's different from everyone else. I can never decide between loving and hating her all at the same time. Claire and Tobias were surprisingly favourites of mine as well. They were sweet and kind but the story didn't focus on them much. I wish we had gotten to see them more.
I found the plot to be a lot better in this book. There was no back and forth between past and present which really helped me get into the book. I loved the change of setting and how the resistance wasn't really a resistance. They were more of a group trying to survive. I liked spotting the similarities between the resistance and the city that our characters just escaped from. They were trying so hard to be the better community but I don't think they really succeeded.
This book had a lot more information in it. Instead of the focus on Josi, like how the first book was, we were focus on trying to solve a bigger problem. The sadness cure is being deployed soon and our characters don't like that idea. So there's lots of information being discovered about the cure and the side effects which I found very interesting. Also the author is really good at giving us little clues here and there but not divulging the biggest secret until the very end. It makes for a nice surprise.
What I Didn't Like:
I don't think there was anything I straight up didn't like in this book. I still think we could use a little more information about the world created here but other than that it was really well done.
Review:
Characters - 5 stars
World Building - 4 stars
Plot - 5 stars
Entertainment - 5 stars
Writing Style - 4 stars
Total - 5 stars
Who I'd Recommend To:
I'd recommend this to people who are in need of a newer dystopian book. I've been getting really bored of them lately and this one seems to have picked me back up! It's not for those who aren't fans of strong female heroines right off the bat because our heroine has to work for her strength. If you don't mind watching your favourite characters struggle every once and a while then pick this one up for sure.
Quick Review:
This was an even better sequel than the first book. It makes my hopes for book three pretty far up there! This is probably one of the more unique dystopias I've read since there wasn't really anything in here that reminded me of a specific book. For me, it was the characters that really kept me hooked. They all had such great personalities that kept me entertained the whole way through! It was also really nice that the author kept a little bit of a mystery in this book, similar to the first. The mystery part only made the book that much harder to put down.