I read the first book in this series, and although it had typos and a sappy love interest near the end, there was something about it that drew me, so I read the second book, 'The Savage Lands'. There was some cool stuff in this book, creepy even, but unfortunately it had all the flaws of the first one and added regular episodes of teen girl over-the-top lust/infatuation from beginning to end, distracting continuity error, and… drum roll please… a love triangle. *gags*. Not every love triangle I've seen has made me gag, but most of them do, and this was probably the WORST ever love triangle. I mean, we're talking Twilight level bad. At least in Twilight, Bella was more or less committed to Edward, and she was just playing the other dude for her own purposes. Yeah, she was a jerk, but this isn't a review of that book anyway, so don't argue with me about it. Avery, the heroine of THIS book, is a jerk too, but I kind of think it's in a good way, and not because she's playing anybody. She's just no nonsense and ruthless. Except when it comes to hot guys. If you're into super-sappy-I-don't-know-who-I-love-even-when-I'm-looking-at-both-of-them infatuation, then this is the book for you.
I liked Avery in the first book, and there are things I like about her in this one, but EVERYTHING to do with the male characters in the book is overdone and sappy, in my opinion. I am well aware that this is a matter of preference and not objective like the technical errors, but it's what turned me against the series. I'm sure that people who enjoy that sort of stuff are thrilled with these books, but it killed them for me. I really enjoyed the world and creepy stuff in it. I'm kind of sad that I can't stomach the swooning. Ah, well. There are worse things.
Language: Pretty sure it's completely clean.
Sexual Content: Clean unless you count 'Oh, he touched my back' and 'I feel so warm when he looks my way'. I made those examples up, but that's the general idea. There is also a set of scenes where serial rape is talked about, making it unsuitable for young readers.
Violence: Yes.
Overall Message/Plot: The message might be that slaughtering the enemy is the best way to go. Not sure about that yet, since the book kind of ended in the middle of the story. The plot 'Survival in an awesome dystopian world' is way cool and I'd love more of it. The plot 'He's so hot and so is he and they both keep looking at me but I don't know why I feel this way what should I do' is distinctly less cool.
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