Rebel (Reboot, #2)

by Amy Tintera

Having broken free of HARC, seventeen-year-old Wren and Callum escaped north but the Reboot Reservation is preparing to wage all-out war on the humans and the two are torn about their loyalties until Micah commits the ultimate betrayal and their choice is made.

• ISBN10: 0062217100
• ISBN13: 9780062217103
• Publish Date: 13 May 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ace]

Originally posted at: http://www.novelthoughts.org/review-reboot-rebel-by-amy-tintera/

I first discovered these books while working at a school – a job I only just left – a few years ago. How I found them? I saw the covers and thought they looked cool and always went ‘must read’ of course I never did while I worked there. Starting this new job requires me to spend hours (2.5) on a train each day so I ended up at the library and saw them both on the shelf so I grabbed them. I don’t regret it one bit.

The Reboot Universe is detailed, captivating and alluring in many ways. At first, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect especially with the whole ‘coming back to life’ part. Dystopia and Zombies while not new they aren’t exactly common. (List of Dystopian!Zombie books) Or at least I haven’t come across many of them. I was also afraid that this wouldn’t be well written despite the hype about it that I found on the internet. Dystopia is one of those genres I find that many people write because it’s big and sells well such as Vampires, Werewolves etc. I was therefore quite pleasantly surprised on just how quickly I got hooked on this.

Amy Tintera has done an amazing job at developing the world of this duology. From the very first page I was captivated. The level of detail and background is great. The whole dystopia and rebooting is done in a way which is believable and to me that is the most important aspect of the books. Yes it’s Dystopian and essentially has Zombies in it but it’s believable and I could truly see it happening if such a disease did exist.

The character’s and the development they went through were great too. Wren is someone who was dead for nearly three hours before coming back to life. She’s changed a lot. The book starts out with her being an emotionless killer machine but through her interactions with Callum over the course of the first book and then into the second book we see her grow and develop in a way that doesn’t leave us scratching our heads and going ‘why do that’ just for the sake of doing it. The fact that she didn’t immediately fall in love with him was great too. I was worried it was going to be incredibly cliche in that regard but was pleasantly surprised. I would have liked it to have zero romance but as a YA novel well… Romance is to be expected. Despite that it wasn’t the focus of the book which I appreciated. Sometimes you just don’t want to read a romance line when people are fighting for their lives.

Not doing it as a trilogy I think helped a lot. The books were fast paced but not too fast. If it was drawn out over three books I think it could have gotten boring so I applaud Amy for not conforming to genre ‘standards’ of doing things in threes. It was a well-made choice.

[ladygrey]

This was pretty much what I expected. I think I would have liked to see some growth in Wren and Callum's relationship instead of a status quo. And a lot of things happened rather quickly. But it was sort of nice not to have it all drawn out. I think there wasn't enough for three books but a little too much for two. Though two was definitely the better option.

The writing was pretty straightforward without being overly simplistic. So it's a quick read (a little too quick for a five hour flight). And I liked the secondary characters quite a bit. Here's the thing, though. I don't get why authors insist on killing people. I get that there's battles and people die, even people close to you. And plenty of people die in this - I get the magnitude of it. But tertiary characters are fine to get the point across. Secondary and primary characters make it more "realistic" and things. But you get to chose what happens as the author - why would you kill people off? Realism is overrated.

And there's lots of action, which people like. But I had a hard time tracking it in several places. Which tends to happen with me so I don't usually love action that much.

But it was fairly funny. And cute in a few places. So that worked pretty well for me.

Plus, it's about zombies and I actually enjoyed it. So, that's something of a feat right there. And wraps up everything nicely.

[KitsuneBae]

This review first appeared on Thoughts and Pens.

Rebel, which is the last book of the Reboot duology, did not really redeem the overall concept of the story. Did I say that right? Hahahah. I mean, the Reboot series was not bad but I think there are still a lot of areas that needed improvement. I was actually generous with my rating for the first book of the series because the theme was really interesting. It’s like reading a zombie book from a whole new perspective because the characters were not zombies and yet, they died and reawaken like one. I remember that my main concerns with the first book were the character inconsistency, the instances where there’s a lot of telling than showing and lack of solid explanation about the KDH virus. Nonetheless, it was a fairly decent read. And I hoped that my main problems will be answered in book 2.

So back to Rebel, it picks up where Reboot left off. Wren, Callum and the rest of the rescued Reboots from the Austin Facility have already reached the reservation. And our main characters thought that they can finally live their lives in peace. What they didn’t know is that the leader of the reservation camp was actually brewing a grandmaster plan that will change the world forever. And so this is where the trouble comes in because apparently, Wren and Callum have differing views when it comes to morality.

In book 1, I was seriously annoyed with Wren because her character didn’t deliver. She was supposed to be kickass, unemotional and all that. But for most of the time, it was “Everyone feared Wren because she was 178 and whenever she’s around, everyone cowers in fear.” Not to mention that I haven’t seen her being cold and distant towards the other Reboots. And sadly, Rebel didn’t rectify the said inconsistency. And so I still hated her in this book because a lot of her decisions depend upon what Callum thinks.

As for Callum, I was able to force myself to like him in this book because despite his gigliness (deal with it!), he managed to display some redeeming qualities.

Moving on to the plot, it was predictable and lacked tension. I was hoping that there’s going to be more particularly that it was marketed as “perfect for fans of James Patterson, Veronica Roth, and Marie Lu.” But the thing is, I really liked how fast paced the book was. I also appreciated that Amy Tintera didn’t hesitate to kill some of the characters that needed to be killed.

Overall, Rebel was an okay read. I have nothing else to say about it because it didn’t really leave a solid impression on me. Will I recommend it? Of course, but maybe not to the fans of James Patterson, Veronica Roth, and Marie Lu because I have this feeling that they’re going to be disappointed.


***An e-ARC of this book was provided by Harper Teen in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!***

[Kelly]

4½ Stars.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/05/rebel-by-amy-tintera-review-and-giveaway.html
I loved Reboot, so unique and incredibly written and Rebel is no different, apart from perhaps enjoying it that little bit more. It picks up only moments from where Reboot left readers, standing in front of a sign which left us guessing if they had reached the sanctuary. They've got a band of fellow Reboots they'd freed from the Austin facility and need to find a safe haven, from not only HARC, but humans alike. There isn't going to be a silver lining anytime soon.

I really enjoyed Wren's character growth in Rebel, she's slowly shedding her cold, assassin type lack of personality and embracing humanity. Although not completely sold on the idea, her moments of indifference allow Callum to step forward and assert himself. Something he was lacking in Reboot. Rebel breached the gap between the clinical feeling of science fiction in book one, to the brewing revolution in which Reboots and humans will need to unite. But throughout their fight, their relationship grows into more than just an attraction and Wren's candidness really shone, finally giving her a humanity she so desperately needed.

I'm loving these Duologies being released in young adult at the moment. A Duology is the new Trilogy, without the middle book filler that focuses on character relationships and drama. My only, and very mild complaint is that it needed a few stray ends that weren't polished to perfection. Perhaps a few extra chapters of battle, as the situation seemed to be a little too timely. But if my only complaint is that the storyline was wrapped up to perfection, then it's a pretty damn perfect series. Sorry to see it end.