Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, #2)

by Samantha Durante

[lizarodz]

4.5 Stars! I received this book from the author in exchange of my honest review.

Wow! I’m glad to report that Shudder did not suffer from the second book syndrome. It had many twists and turns and many surprises that kept me at the edge of my seat for most of the book.

Shudder starts where Stitch left off. Isaac and Alessa are outside or Paragon looking for a rebel base. They have a really hard time trudging through the ‘outside’. They are afraid of the virus that took most of humanity, they are hungry, and to top it all they find some weird ‘creatures’ that are following them. I don’t want to spoil the book for you, so let me just say that it was quite the quest. This time served to tried and strengthen Alessa and Isaac’s relationship.

I like Alessa and Isaac because they are strong, but flawed characters. They are deeply in love and they are fiercely loyal to each other and to those they love. Even if Isaac felt helpless at times to help Alessa with her newfound abilities, he still sticks with her and tries (typical of a man!) to find an explanation and cheers her on.
One of the things I like the most is that we find out a lot more about the post-war, post-virus world. We understand what happened to our characters and to humanity as a whole and why. We get many answers (even if we don’t like them!), and still have many questions.

Stitch read like a paranormal contemporary (a ghost story) and then switched when we know what was really happening. In contrast, Shudder’s story is told in the third person point of view, from different perspectives. We have the distinct voices of Alessa, Isaac, Nikhil, Phoenix, and at a lesser degree 14. Surprisingly, this adds a lot of depth to the story without making it confusing. There seems lot be a traitor in their mist and I hope that she knows better.

The writing is good, and easy to understand. To me, the best part of the series is the plot and world building. It is a testament to Ms. Durante’s imagination that when came up with this dystopian world and all its evils. I suspected some things and others had me fooled until the end. Let me just tell you that Paragon is a bad place :)

I can’t wait to read Stuck, coming out next year!


About the cover: I live the cover a lot. It has the illusion of a ‘break’ with neurons behind and Alessa and Isaac’s hands reaching for each other.