Review: Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe? by Hazel Osmond

 Synopsis from Goodreads:

Ellie Somerset is a great advertising copywriter going nowhere fast - a boyfriend who is always at work, a tendency to dress like a short-sighted bag lady and a Creative Director who rejects her fresh ideas - they all conspire to keep her just treading water. Even her Great Aunt Edith, a demon at filthy scrabble, has a better social life than she does. All that changes when Jack Wolfe becomes her boss. Whilst everyone else at the agency thinks he's Heathcliff in jeans, Ellie just sees a stalking, scowling Alpha male with a nasty redundancy plan up his sleeve. As Jack makes it his mission to smarten up Ellie's attitude and her appearance, it's time for her to prove herself. But that means getting closer to this very sexy, very wicked man, and as she does Ellie discovers that this particular Heathcliff has an awful lot to hide.

Review:

I admit that the title 'Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe?' put me off at first. It's cheesy. But the blurb was so good that I had to give it a go. Luckily, I didn't regret it. Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe? is a great chick-lit book. I adored the banter between Ellie and Jack. I loved the mystery surrounding Jack.

At first, Ellie doesn't have much confidence in herself and others take advantage of her. She doesn't even notice that things are going downhill with her idiot of a boyfriend. When Jack points out her shortcomings, it's only natural that Ellie should be defensive. That's the start of their bumpy relationship.

I loved how Ellie developed throughout the book. Slowly but surely, she does gain confidence and works out what she wants. She felt like a real person and I understood how confused she felt by the ever-puzzling Mr Wolfe. I liked both Jack and Ellie because Osmond wrote from both their perspectives. However, I always felt closer to Ellie because some of Jack's reasoning seemed weak.

I would give Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe? five stars because I liked all the characters and I couldn't stop turning the pages until I finished this book but I had to take off a star because of some things that happened towards the end of the book. I wished Ellie took much more of an active role in solving the mystery surrounding Jack from earlier in the story and I wished Jack wasn't so horrible to Ellie at one point.

Overall, I really enjoyed Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe? as Ellie and Jack were great characters. It was a funny and light book at times and much more serious at other moments. It's quite a thick book and I finished it in a day so it is one worth reading. I'm quite new to chick-lit but this has definitely been one of the best ones I've read so far. I can't wait to read Hazel Osmond's next book, The First Time I Saw Your Face. 

Rating: 4/5
Author: Hazel Osmond

Review: Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Review:
 

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes will stay with me forever. When Will Traynor becomes a paraplegic after an accident, he thinks his life is over. All his dreams; his career, his love-life and most importantly, his independence are taken away from him in an instant. By the time he meets Lou Clarke, his new carer; Will is jaded. However, Lou surprises him. It soon becomes Lou’s mission to make Will love life. 

I devoured Me Before You in a day. It was a beautiful, heart-breaking story. There were many instances where I was crying (which is totally unlike me) or had a lump in my throat. It was a highly-charged emotional story. I was expecting a light, fluffy romance from the cover but what I got was a gritty and honest story about serious ethical situations (euthanasia) with a side-helping of romance. 

Me Before You was depressing at times but I'm glad that it was because it was truthful. Moyes didn't sugarcoat anything which I'm thankful for. Me Before You, whilst fictitious, rings true. I loved Will and Lou. They were real people to me, with real lives and real problems. They helped each other to overcome so many barriers. I loved how Will’s paraplegia was dealt with in such a sensitive, emotional and realistic way. No patronising or preaching.

The story was mainly told from Lou’s point of view. However, a few chapters were narrated from other characters viewpoints, such as Will’s parents. I did wish that some of the story was narrated from Will’s point of view; however, Moyes is such an eloquent and accomplished writer that I bore the full emotional brunt of Will’s situation even when told from other people’s points of view. Actually, Me Before You may have had a greater impact on me because we are held a short distance away from Will's innermost complex thoughts.

As Moyes wanted, I felt as conflicted about the issues in the story as it was possible to be. After becoming so emotionally close to the characters, it made it everything very personal and real. Overall, Me Before You by JoJo Moyes was an amazing, unforgettable story which everyone needs to read. I cannot wait to read more from the brilliant JoJo Moyes. 

Rating: 5/5
Author: JoJo Moyes

Review: The Breakaway by Michelle Davidson Argyle

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Naomi Jensen is kidnapped, it takes her parents two days to realize she's missing. Escape isn't high on her list of priorities when all she has to return to is an abusive boyfriend and parents who never paid much attention to her. For the first time in her life she's part of a family-even if it is a family of criminals. But she's still a captive. In a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life, Naomi embarks on a dangerous plan to make one of her kidnappers think she's falling in love with him. The plan works too well, and when faced with the chance to escape, Naomi isn't sure she wants to take it.

Review:

As soon as I read the blurb for THE BREAKAWAY, I knew I had to read it. It sounded really intriguing. My gut instinct didn't let me down; The Breakaway was a fantastic story and the ending left me craving for more. Argyle writes wonderfully; I felt like I was in Naomi's head throughout the course of the story and could understand how and why her feelings changed as the story went on. I actually wish the story was longer as I would liked to have read more about her imprisonment and developing relationships (particularly with Jesse) than the few hundred pages allowed.

The story opens when Naomi wakes up in a motel. She has just been kidnapped. She has no idea why she has been kidnapped but her kidnappers inform her that she has seen too much of whatever criminal activities they were doing. Rather than kill her, they grudgingly take her with them and lock her in a room in an innocent-looking suburban house.

Over the course of her captivity, Naomi has to come to terms with the life and people that she has lost; her uncaring parents and her overbearing boyfriend. Slowly, her feelings about her abductors begins to change to something more positive... but will she ever be free?

The characters were complex and puzzling. Though I never did like Naomi's parents, I could understand why they were the way they were. Naomi's four kidnappers were mysterious. I really wanted to figure them out. What reasons could they have for kidnapping?

They were threatening and violent and almost at the same time comforting and sympathetic. Argyle was great at portraying these complex paradoxical behaviours in her characters by making it believable. I wanted to understand Eric, Evelyn and Jesse and while I did come to know them better throughout the story, I believe there was a lot more Argyle left unsaid (unwritten).

Naomi and her love interest's relationship was what gripped me. As Naomi's feelings for him morphed, I didn't know whether it was her real feelings or Stockholm Syndrome in play. I guess I was feeling exactly how Naomi was feeling; confused.

Naomi was a strong and brave character. She was put into a nightmare situation and tries to deal with it in the best way that she can. The Breakaway was suspenseful and gripping. I read it in one night. Though the ending was fulfilling, I still wish I was given a few more answers at the end. I dislike loose endings/open-endings in most cases. Luckily, Argyle is planning to write a sequel for The Breakaway which will be out next year, entitles Pieces. I have subscribed to her newsletter so I can be informed about this.

Overall, The Breakaway was a terrific book, not one I will forget soon. Most of all, I loved the characters and their interactions. I felt that there was so much more under the surface. Survival is every human's most natural and primitive instinct. It is amazing how much a human can endure to ultimately survive. I would like to read more books like this. I would recommend everyone read The Breakaway.

Rating: 5/5
Author: Michelle Davidson Argyle 

Review: On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day. T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island.

Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

   
Review:

 ON THE ISLAND is one of the best books I have read this year.

I can’t stop thinking about it.

Actually, I think I’ll read it again after I’ve written this review.

On The Island blew me away because of how incredible it was. I love it when you go into a book feeling uncertain whether you’ll like it because the blurb is so unassuming and then stay up all night reading obsessively, devouring page after page.

The story opens when the plane on which TJ (a sixteen year old cancer survivor) and Anna (his thirty year old tutor) crashes into the Indian Ocean after the pilot suffers a heart attack. Through sheer fear and determination, the pair make it to an uninhabited island. Hoping for rescue, Anna and TJ must try their best to survive on the island with their limited resources. As the days turn into months, they try to survive in their unforgiving surroundings, deal with danger and understand their growing and complex relationship.

On The Island was a phenomenal book for a number of reasons. Graves wrote a well-researched and thus believable story about survival. I appreciated all the layers of detail. I sympathised with Anna and TJ from the outset. They were such great, realistic characters. I loved them. Their reactions to the different situations throughout the story rang true. I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next. I never felt annoyed by any decisions made by the characters in the story. They were well-rounded, loveable characters who thought through their choices before making them. I loved their maturity.

Most of all, I loved the relationship between Anna and TJ. Graves wrote it in such a sensitive, sophisticated and realistic way that it took my breath away. I won’t go into it for fear of spoiling it, but seriously, wow. I also loved the suspense. I felt like I was there with Anna and TJ on the island going through their many trials and tribulations with them. I asked the same questions that were going through their heads. What will they eat? What happens if one of them is seriously injured? Will they make it?

The fact that the story is embedded into reality just made it all the more perfect. On The Island is a sensational book, one that I will be reading time and again. I can’t believe I haven’t heard about this book long before now, but I am so glad that I have read it now. On The Island is a definite must-read! Go and read it now!

Rating: 5/5
Author: Tracey Garvis Graves

Review: Finding The Fox by Ali Sparkes

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Dax Jones is an ordinary schoolboy . . . until something extraordinary happens one day. Whilst frightened for his life, he inexplicably changes into a fox! Before long, both a government agent and an ambitious young journalist are on his tail.

The agent tells him that he is one of several children with special powers and he's been offered a place at a secret government school where he can develop, and learn to control, these powers.

If Dax accepts, on no account can he tell anybody, especially not the journalist. Dax jumps at the chance of attending the boarding school. His home life is unhappy and he would do anything to escape it.

And when he gets to the school, he is amazed to find himself amongst kids with all sorts of talents, from the ability to levitate to the ability to move things using only the mind. Dax immediately feels at home.

But first the journalist tracks him down. And then he begins to wonder who exactly is behind the school, and what they want from the pupils there. Suddenly Dax's fox senses are on high alert . . .

Review:

Finding The Fox was an exciting book. It is about a boy called Dax Jones who’s quite ordinary life- apart from dealing with vicious bullies and putting up with cruelly unloving family members- gets turned upside-down when he suddenly discovers that he has the ability to transform into a fox.

It is a gripping read filled with suspense and mystery and packed with numerous vivid and 3D characters. His life is suddenly fraught with peril as a determined journalist doggedly gets on his trail to find out the truth about him and a government agent also takes a close interest in his newfound ability.

The plot thickens as Dax journeys to a top-secret school for children who have extraordinary powers and becomes a member of the COLA club. Dax must tread carefully when he finds out that not everyone at the school can be trusted as he realises that some of the staff members possess extremely sinister powers.

His new school is spectacular however, and alongside normal lessons Dax has the opportunity to develop and exercise more control over his unusual ability in special classes. He also makes good friends who have equally remarkable powers such as telekinesis, invisibility and healing.

But all is not well at his new school and he must use all his determination and cunning in order to survive.

If you enjoyed reading Frozen in Time by Ali sparkes, then you will undoubtedly find this book both captivating and exciting. I am eager to read the next two books in the Shape Shifter trilogy, Going To Ground and Running The Risk.

Book Rating: 5/5

Cover Rating: 4/5

Author: Ali Sparkes

Review: From Where I Stand by Tabitha Suzuma

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Raven is a deeply disturbed teenager, who, after witnessing the death of his mother, is placed in foster care. The Russells do their best to earn his trust, but only little Ella manages to get through to him.

Meanwhile, at school, bullies are making his life a living hell. An unexpected companion comes in the form of Lotte, a classmate bored by her 'ordinary' friends.
Together, they track down Raven's mum's killer, with the goal of exposing him to the police. But their carefully crafted plan goes dangerously wrong and suddenly nothing is as it seems.
Everything is falling apart and, ultimately, there is only one, final way out.
 
 
 
REVIEW:

From Where I Stand by Tabitha Suzuma was an amazing book! I read it in one sitting in the early hours of the morning. What kept me awake and reading? There's a simple answer- Suzuma's writing is gripping and fluid. She writes with confidence and gets into her characters' heads really well. There wasn't a point at which I thought- oh, it's getting boring now, I can stop here. That was why I had to keep reading.

From Where I Stand is about a 14 year old boy called Raven in foster care. At the start of the story, he meets his new foster parents, Jackie and Dan- and also their five year old daughter, Ella (who can speak really well for a five year old;).

Raven is monosyllabic and uncommunicative and you can tell he's been through a lot. He's lost his mother, he doesn't feel like he belongs anywhere and he's being bullied at school.

Enter Lotte. She's the only friendly person at school and Raven confides in her about his mother's death. His mother was murdered, Raven knows who the murderer was and he's going to do something about it.

Raven was a fantastic character. He had problems but won't talk about them with anyone, not even with Lotte in some cases. He keeps himself at a distance, so much so that we, the reader, don't know what to think of him and his actions at times. This balance of how much the author let the reader know was brilliantly balanced.

I really liked all the characters- well, except Kyle and Brett, who we're not meant to like anyway. Lotte was kind and helpful, but I thought she was slightly naive. I have to remind myself that she is only fourteen, but still... Dan and Jackie were great foster parents and Ella was cute (sometimes :).

Overall, From Where I Stand was a great story and I would recommend it to everyone who likes fantastic writing, well-developed characters and shocking twists.

 

Book Rating: 5/5

Cover Rating: 4/5

Author: Tabitha Suzuma

Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma (The Mysterious Benedict Society #3) by Trenton Lee Stewart

Synopsis from Goodreads:

IF YOU FAIL,


ALL IS

LOST.

Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance embark on a daring new adventure that threatens to force them apart from their families, friends, and even each other.
 
When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before.
 
Review:

The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart was a fitting finale to the trilogy. The action was mostly confined to the house during the first half of the book which reflected the feeling of imprisonment that Reynie, Kate, Constance, Sticky and their families were feeling. 

The book was mainly concerned with the Mysterious Benedict Society attempting to avoid being captured by the sinister Mr Curtain and protecting The Whisperer from his evil intentions. Can Mr Benedict find the cure for the condition that afflicts him?

We learn more about Constance in this book. Light is shed upon her experiences before joining the Mysterious Benedict Society. However her astonishing powers are never fully explained as her parents were normal, unremarkable people and it is hard to believe that Constance would be able to do so much from the age of two. Constance must also find out whether the man claiming to be her father is speaking the truth or whether it is one of Mr Curtain's insidious plots to make use of her incredible mental abilities.

We also discover the full extent of Mr Curtain's cruelty as he punishes Reynie for something Kate did as he knows this would cause her great emotional distress. At a point in the book, Mr Curtain is given an opportunity to mend his ways to become a better person. However, he must choose whether to make use of this chance or not. Surprisingly, a silly character such as SQ Pedalian plays a pivotal role during the climax of the book. 

The characters are well-rounded throughout the trilogy; by this book they are defined. I loved all the characters as they were so vividly written. However, I was not impressed when Milligan, a skilled agent, when locked in perilous combat with Ten Men, uses an old trick that he utilised in the previous book. I felt he should have done something new and original.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma was witty, well-paced and full of action, making sure I kept reading. Yet again, there were interesting riddles to solve and I really enjoyed trying to figue them all out. I liked how the characters interacted with each other and mostly I liked the battle between good and evil.

Overall, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma was a fantastic read. I would recommend it to everyone as it was funny and full of action. Children and adults alike will love this trilogy. I can't wait to read more from Trenton Lee Stewart, beginning with The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict and The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums 

Book Rating: 5/5
Cover Rating: 4/5
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart

Review: The Dragon Whisperer by Lucinda Hare

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Quenelda has always had a magical bond with dragons, and her greatest wish is to fly one and fight alongside her father in the war against the hobgoblins. Root, on the other hand, wishes only to avoid the fearsome creatures, so the role of Quenelda's esquire is the last thing he needs.

Review:

The Dragon Whisperer by Lucinda Hare was an interesting read. It began well, with a gripping prologue which made me want to read more. It tells the story of an aristocratic girl named Quenelda and her dream of becoming a dragonrider and fighting alongside her renowned father against the hobgoblin swarm. What Quenelda does not know is that she has many more enemies than she could imagine who are much closer to home and her extremely rare abilities as a dragon whisperer places her in even more danger.

The Dragon Whisperer is exciting and packed with action and suspense. There are also a few shocking deaths and Hare does not shy away from describing extremely traumatic events in minute detail.

The characters are well-rounded. The main characters, Quenelda and her esquire Root, undergo dramatic and profound character development over the course of the book. The hobgoblin enemy however, seems to be 1D. They are, like in many other books, indistinguishable from the monotonous legions of the dead or the demon host, which is disappointing. I also think that there is plenty of scope for certain characters to be developed further as they have only been briefly shown in this book (such as the Queen).

The Dragon Whisperer contains quite a lot of modern military style vocabulary although it is set in a medieval world. Hare also assigns new names for the hours of the day and for the months of the year which takes some getting used to and forces one to do some rapid calculations. The book is well paced but ended abruptly as this book is only the first in a series. I definitely think The Dragon Whisperer is well worth a read and I am eager to begin the next.

Book Rating: 5/5
Cover Rating: 5/5
Author: Lucinda Hare

Review: The Maze Runner (Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Imagine waking up one day in total darkness, unsure of where you are and unable to remember anything about yourself except your first name. You're in a bizarre place devoid of adults called the Glade. The Glade is an enclosed structure with a jail, a graveyard, a slaughterhouse, living quarters, and gardens. And no way out.

Outside the Glade is the Maze, and every day some of the kids -- the Runners -- venture into the labyrinth, trying to map the ever-changing pattern of walls in an attempt to find an exit from this hellish place. So far, no one has figured it out. And not all of the Runners return from their daily exertions, victims of the maniacal Grievers, part animal, part mechanical killing machines.

Thomas is the newest arrival to the Glade in this Truman-meets-Lord of the Flies tale. A motley crew of half a dozen kids is all he has to guide him in this strange world. As soon as he arrives, unusual things begin to happen, and the others grow suspicious of him. Though the Maze seems somehow familiar to Thomas, he's unable to make sense of the place, despite his extraordinary abilities as a Runner. What is this place, and does Thomas hold the key to finding a way out?

In The Maze Runner, Dashner has crafted a creative and engaging novel that's both mysterious and thought provoking.

Review:

I read The Maze Runner by James Dashner due to positive reviews which were highly complementary and because I love dystopian fiction. Though I was wary that the book would end in disappointment, I was trapped by the maze of the book. It kept promising to deliver answers and positive action but unfortunately, it did not do so on both accounts. It was a dead end.

I have a rule where I stop reading a book if I don’t think it has promise by page fifty. However, just as I was about to stop reading The Maze Runner; something dramatic happened through the appearance of the only female character in the entire maze. So I persevered- but my valiant effort was not rewarded.

The characters were 2D. They spent a lot of time swearing. Dashner changes the conventional swear words into made-up terms of his own. Only one term is explained; ‘clunk’ means shit and words such as ‘shank’ are never explained. The Maze Runner would have been better with less swearing, it just got in the way of the story. I’m sure the book would have been reduced by at least thirty pages if it had cut the swearing out.

The other characters constantly tell the main character, Thomas, to wait till later to find out answers which are never given. The Maze Runner was also so long-winded because the characters did not have any memories from before the Maze. Even when Thomas can get his questions answered from Theresa on several occasions, he instead runs away, leaving me infuriated.

Theresa, the only female character in the Maze, was a disappointment. She was two-dimensional like the other characters and didn’t do anything unless she was told to. She did not use her own initiative as can be seen at the end of the book where Thomas has to tell her (while fighting a monster) to push a very important button. Also, there was no point in the telepathic link that Thomas and Theresa shared as they did not say anything of great import to each other.

The Maze Runner had too much suspense and not enough answers. It is necessary to give the reader enough information to keep them going. Even when some information was given in the last few pages, it was not sufficient and I felt cheated. The storyline in the Maze should have been interspersed with scenes from the outside world and the scientists. This would have made it more bearable.

You would have thought the inhabitants of the maze who had been stuck there for two years would have attempted to compare the different sections of the maps together, however they only analysed the maps individually which I thought was odd.

I was not surprised by the ending as I had figured out that the survivors of the Maze had gone from one experiment to another. I think the characters would have been wary that this could have been a possibility. We never did find out what the Maze was meant to prepare them for, but looking at reviews for the next two books, it sounds really farfetched.

The Maze was a completely pointless exercise and I do not want to waste any more time reading the next books, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. At the end of The Maze Runner, Thomas and the others are lulled into a false sense of security which I thought they should have been smart enough to see through. I did not get a great sense of what was going on in the real world as this was rushed at the ending.

I would not have written a review of this book as I have wasted enough time reading it, but I thought I should give an accurate picture of my opinion of this book. The Maze Runner was not a worthwhile read and I do not recommend it, however if you liked The Knife of Never Letting Go- it’s more of that.

Book Rating: 1/5

Cover Rating: 4/5

Author: James Dashner

Review: The Dead and The Gone (Last Survivors #2) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales.

When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

 
Review:

I really enjoyed Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, so I was looking forward to reading The Dead and The Gone, the second in the trilogy. It follows a male protagonist living in New York when the asteroid hits. Not knowing whether his parents and older brother are alive or not, Alex has to make sure he and his sisters survive.  

I was hoping for something more than a repeat of the first book and though it isn't the same, it pretty much follows the same pattern of the first book. I even felt that some of the characters from this book were identical from the previous book, such as Alex's sister Briana and Miranda's friend Megan. They were both religious, they both ate less than their share of food and... the third point is a spoiler.

What I liked was seeing survivors in a different setting; a city. New York felt like a ghost town, a city of the dead. There were many shocking points which I still remember, such as when a baby is trampled in a riot and when a man commits suicide by jumping off a building right in front of Alex and his sister Julie. The suicide isn't the shocking thing. The man hadn't even died and Alex was already 'body shopping' him.

Body shopping; stripping possessions from dead/dying bodies, really shocked me, even though it seems like a foregone conclusion in apocalyptic situations. Alex has a moral and religious dilemma throughout the book. Should he body shop? Should he steal from others' apartments? Was he really doing the right thing for Briana and Julie?

Though the style of the book is still dated entries, it is in third person, which is a big change from the first book and I didn't like this change at all. I didn't feel as if I knew Alex as much as I wanted. I really wanted to get into his thoughts more. His sisters felt 2D and we don't get to see the other characters for that long. I would have liked to have seen flashbacks of family moments and Alex's life before the asteroid. 

Also, I wished Alex had learnt to cook something. No point in being smart if you can't feed yourself. I wondered what he'd have done if both his sisters (the cooks) had to leave.

This book felt so much darker and colder than the first one which I think was the aim.  Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed and set up and I felt let down. There should have been more of a build up and a few more chapters after the 'end'. Overall, The Dead and The Gone was a good sequel, however, the characters weren't memorable and it didn't explore much more new ground than Life As We Knew It. There were some scenes which made the book worthwhile but I'm not sure I'll read the third book in any hurry.

Book Rating: 3.5/5
Cover Rating: 5/5

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer