Review: Strong Addition to the Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2013
This third book in the series started off slow and I had trouble getting engrossed. I suspect because I didn't like Walt in the first book, and as much as I wanted to like Raina I just couldn't warm up to her. As the book progressed, however, I found myself liking Walt much more -- although he remains a very flawed person, but one I could root for. Raina never grew on me, despite being such a strong, independent girl, which normally I'd appreciate. I don't even mind her bloodthirsty nature, given the world she grew up in. However, I didn't understand where her blood/animal sacrifice or her moon worship came from; with her current age (14?), she had to be around eight when the Panhandler struck. If her birth parents had been religious, I can see her turning that into some sort of superstitions, but animal sacrifice seems like a weird turn for an eight year old girl to take, even one fighting for her life on a daily basis.All that said about the characters, the book really picks up -- although some long sections do feel like filler just to tell us how determined the characters are. And I was glad to see Ness again, grown into his new role. I'm looking forward to the next installment.As an aside, I noticed that several negative reviews seemed to be from people who hadn't even read the other books judging from their comments. Who starts with the third book in a series and then complains that they don't like it? If you're reading this review and haven't read the first two books, please don't start with this one! In fact, you can buy the first three books in a Kindle collection that (at least currently) is a fraction of the price of any of the single books alone.