Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts
Jun. 12th, 2013 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies.
For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul …
It’s several weeks after DARK INSIDE. Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason are living in a Vancouver suburb with a number of other survivors (including Jack, who’s still blind after being stuck on the head during a Bagger attack). Life’s hard but they’re getting by, finding supplies in other abandoned houses and making contact with other survivors. But the Baggers are also getting organised, clearing out houses one-by-one and rounding up the uninfected with the promise of help and shelter at the Plaza of Nations.
When Clementine and Michael decide to visit the university to see if her brother Heath is there, Aries and Mason also take the opportunity to check in on her family home. Both decisions have consequences for the group as they each begin to uncover not just the sinister intentions driving the Baggers but also the truth about one of their closest allies …
The second in Jeyn Roberts YA post-apocalyptic trilogy is a meandering affair that, for me, suffered from a cast of bland characters who never came to life on the page. It lacked any real antagonist until the second half of the book so there was nothing for the group to react against, which left the plot to be driven by contrivance and some really daft decisions by the main characters instead.
The narrative voices of Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason were too similar so I sometimes found it difficult to work out which was which while the ‘Nothing’ narrated chapters suffered from purpose prose and the revelation of their narrator was unsurprising. The emergence of Leon (the Bagger who runs the Plaza camp) as an antagonist came too late to interest me and in any event he was two-dimensional.
The inevitable YA love triangle between Aries, Mason and Daniel limped along and I never got a sense on what they all saw with each other. In fact, the Baggers’ interest in Aries and her qualities confused me as she shows no leadership or other interesting qualities. The fact that the final quarter is driven by an argument between Clementine and Aries that leads Aries into making a completely stupid decision had me rolling my eyes.
The action scenes packed with violence but I felt that the main characters are too protected so there’s little sense of jeopardy. Ultimately, it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to want to read the conclusion.
The Verdict:
The second in Jeyn Roberts YA post-apocalyptic trilogy is a meandering affair that, for me, suffered from a cast of bland characters who never came to life on the page. It lacked any real antagonist until the second half of the book so there was nothing for the group to react against, which left the plot to be driven by contrivance and some really daft decisions by the main characters instead. Ultimately, it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to want to read the conclusion.
Thanks to Amazon Vine for the free copy of this book.
For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul …
It’s several weeks after DARK INSIDE. Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason are living in a Vancouver suburb with a number of other survivors (including Jack, who’s still blind after being stuck on the head during a Bagger attack). Life’s hard but they’re getting by, finding supplies in other abandoned houses and making contact with other survivors. But the Baggers are also getting organised, clearing out houses one-by-one and rounding up the uninfected with the promise of help and shelter at the Plaza of Nations.
When Clementine and Michael decide to visit the university to see if her brother Heath is there, Aries and Mason also take the opportunity to check in on her family home. Both decisions have consequences for the group as they each begin to uncover not just the sinister intentions driving the Baggers but also the truth about one of their closest allies …
The second in Jeyn Roberts YA post-apocalyptic trilogy is a meandering affair that, for me, suffered from a cast of bland characters who never came to life on the page. It lacked any real antagonist until the second half of the book so there was nothing for the group to react against, which left the plot to be driven by contrivance and some really daft decisions by the main characters instead.
The narrative voices of Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason were too similar so I sometimes found it difficult to work out which was which while the ‘Nothing’ narrated chapters suffered from purpose prose and the revelation of their narrator was unsurprising. The emergence of Leon (the Bagger who runs the Plaza camp) as an antagonist came too late to interest me and in any event he was two-dimensional.
The inevitable YA love triangle between Aries, Mason and Daniel limped along and I never got a sense on what they all saw with each other. In fact, the Baggers’ interest in Aries and her qualities confused me as she shows no leadership or other interesting qualities. The fact that the final quarter is driven by an argument between Clementine and Aries that leads Aries into making a completely stupid decision had me rolling my eyes.
The action scenes packed with violence but I felt that the main characters are too protected so there’s little sense of jeopardy. Ultimately, it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to want to read the conclusion.
The Verdict:
The second in Jeyn Roberts YA post-apocalyptic trilogy is a meandering affair that, for me, suffered from a cast of bland characters who never came to life on the page. It lacked any real antagonist until the second half of the book so there was nothing for the group to react against, which left the plot to be driven by contrivance and some really daft decisions by the main characters instead. Ultimately, it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to want to read the conclusion.
Thanks to Amazon Vine for the free copy of this book.
