Divided

by Elsie Chapman

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed Dualed, so I was nervous going in Divided. I just couldn't see where the story would go other than setting up for some big rebellion like every other dystopian novel. Well, that's exactly what it was. Plus a huge info-dump. It's been about a year since West completed her assignment. She's been the weaponry assistant at her school and put her striker days behind her. That is, until a member of the Board approaches her with a deal. If she kills the Alts of three Board members' children, he'll guarantee that her children will not have Alts to face down. It sounds too good to be true, but it's a risk West is willing to take.

The idea behind Divided is good, but I found myself pretty bored with it. It didn't have that same tension from the first book, and I felt like I was just waiting for the twist to pop up. Then it did, and I still wasn't interested much. There's a lot of new information about the world. A lot! This made me feel like this sequel was mostly written to address the lack of world building from the previous book, but it's also clearly a bridge book for the finale (I'm assuming this is going to be a trilogy). Unfortunately, nothing we learn fills in the gaps left by the first book. It actually left me more confused and frustrated, because Alts still don't make much sense in the grand scheme of things.

Divided is an okay sequel. It most definitely suffers from Middle Book Syndrome, and honestly, I still feel like Dualed would have made an excellent standalone. Most of the time reading this I was thinking "get on with it already!" It's not exactly slow, there's a lot going on, but it's pretty obvious what's coming next so it seemed like it took forever to get there. Of course, there was some new developments which I didn't see coming, but aren't altogether surprising. I'll still read the next book, because I do want to know what's going on, and hopefully my lingering questions will be answered.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.