Adversity

This series is crazy. And I love it. ( )

3.5-4 stjerner udelukkende på grund af slutningen! ( )

It's incredible. This series could be the poster-child for Murphy's Law, because every time stuff can get worse, it does. Whenever there's the potential for something to get more twisted, it will. And yet it's still mind-blowingly suspenseful and emotional.

As some problems in the FAYZ start to be resolved, more simply rear their heads. Systems for money and food are as good as can be expected, but then the council system begins to fall apart. Kids still run amok, unwilling to follow the rules that Astrid, desperate for order but unable to think beyond logic, wants to set down. And then chaos begins. The dream-seer Orsay is gathering a cult following that calls her the Prophetess, and she claims she can see the world outside the FAYZ. Zil and his Human Crew want to annihilate every superpowered "freak" in Perdido Beach, by whatever means necessary. Caine wants to find a mysterious island off the mainland rumored to be full of food. And both Brittany and Drake, kids deemed undeniably dead, are seen walking again. Once more, the book rushes seamlessly from horror to horror, scene to scene, ending in another adrenaline-shot climax that you almost have to read a couple times for everything to sink in.

I love what this series has done for the concepts of true survival, dystopia, and human nature. There is no sugarcoating, there is no shying away from what desperate, afraid, cruel, lost people will do. There's only a brutally honest portrait of survival in the hellish FAYZ, never mind the addition of the superpowers. In this series, perhaps more than any other, do I see one of the truest portraits of kids, and people in general. There are no perfect relationships, there are no perfect people, and there are no easy choices. These kids sink to the depths of inhuman brutality and perform feats of incredible selflessness and courage (and everything in between), many of them doing some of both.

The character development is also amazing, because it's subtle. It took me by surprise when I found myself wanting to cheer for Howard, slap some sense into Astrid, shake Mary, applaud Quinn, or hug Diana. Because it's not until these horrific circumstances that you watch these people change before your very eyes, and you understand something about how easy we have it, about how much we take for granted, and about how much credit we give ourselves as "moral" and "upstanding" human beings. I also love the way new characters are introduced, given their own backgrounds and personalities, and then phased teasingly away from, hinting at their involvement in later chapters or books.

I don't know how I'll stand the wait for PLAGUE. ( )

X meets Y: Wild West meets Lord of the Flies

Thoughts: This book was pretty good. The nature of the series has you losing characters and gaining characters with each book. I just couldn't get behind these new characters yet. Michael Grant is awesome at putting kids through the wringer.

Coming Back for more?: Yep!
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