Rebel (Reboot, #2)

by Amy Tintera

[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!***