maybe 40% too many characters makes this sequel to one of the great YA novels ever about power and cruelty feel a bit shapeless and pat. Yet the concept is so strong and the prose so sure it carries the reader through. Useless without reading the original first. ( )

Not as good as the first one. ( )

It’s the latter half of the school year. Jerry is back in town after a recovery period in Canada. David Caroni is suicidal over a failing grade that Brother Leon had given him. Brother Leon is headmaster. But primarily, love-addled Obie no longer feels the old loyalty to Archie and the Vigils and in fact has come to hate him. It’s his plan to have a magic guillotine trick go awry at a school talent night. The trick does not go awry, and Archie lives. Archie is very impressed that Obie tried to kill him and Obie is disgusted and alarmed that being driven to murder is what it would take to shake or rouse the unflappable Archie.

I actually think this is just as good as the first. Maybe even better. ( )

Well, not to complain about Robert Cormier, the sequel to 'The Chocolate War' was disgusting.
It's' plot needed to be bigger, and better too. You have to try to introduce more characters, all the while while following the main plot, which circles around Jerry Renault and the Virgils. You must understand that this is stil happening. However, all this book is about is Obie getting back at the Archie and the Virgil's for ruining him.
Honestly, I wanted to see more of a conflict through Jerry and the Virgils. Instead, I got Archie trying to set up his boys with a kidnapping, which almost turns into a rape. Truth be told, the book did have. It's strong points, but it needed to have more about what the first book was, which yet said, was and always will be about Jerry Renault and the Virgils.
For my last as you would say, rating issue, the reason I gave it only three stars was because the book needed to have more action. Sure, Obie did try to kill Archie in the end, but the plot of the attempted murder was too weak. I would say, to make a strong murder scene, you would need to make Obie smuggle in a gun, or what not. Anyways, I was impressed that this book reached amazing sales, and I have to say congratulations to Mr. Cormier. Anyways, if Robert came out its another book, I would be positive that the plot of the book would circle around something other than the Virgils, but yet I digress. ( )