They say middle books often struggle in trilogies, but that was NOT the case with this book. This book was even more emotional and intense than the first. I actually needed a moment to breathe after finishing it because it got all under my skin and riled me up. The first chapter alone nearly ripped my heart out!

All throughout the book, crazy, hit-you-in-the-face, heart-wrenching things kept slamming into me. Both present situations and bits of super well thought-out backstory were dropped into the story in the perfect amount and with the perfect timing for the ultimate holy-shit factor, keeping me on the edge of my seat.

I mentioned in my review of the first book how great these books are at making you think about the concept of humanity, the kind of decisions people have to make in terrible situations, and how far people will go when they get desperate and scared, but those things REALLY came to light in this book, much more so than in the first.

These characters are developed characters. And many of them are good or at least decent people. But they get thrown into this terrible situation in which the world is 99.5% Bane and the humans are fighting for survival every single day. It wouldn’t be realistic for everyone to always love one another, get along, risk their lives for each other, etc. And it wouldn’t be understandable or relatable for everyone to all be terrible, hypocritical, selfish, cruel sociopaths. This author found that perfect middle ground, that way to push characters to their limits and make them imperfect but not heartless either. She’s found a way to make them HUMAN, because humans do make mistakes and let their emotions get the best of them sometimes, especially when they’re scared and desperate. These characters were put into terrible situations, situations in which no answer was a good answer but a choice had to made. Sometimes they did the right thing. Sometimes they did the wrong thing on purpose. Sometimes they did the wrong thing because they lost control and got overwhelmed by the fear and desperation. Sometimes they did a questionable thing but it was understandable.

But, again, it was never done in an obnoxious way. It was really as though the author didn’t purposefully include a message but rather wrote characters who were so realistic and a setting so intense that it pushed the characters past the brink of their limits that the desperation, the fear, the morality, and the humanity, or lack thereof, all just spilled out organically.

So if you liked the first book, I think you’ll like this one even more. I definitely did!