Es tut mir so weh zu sagen, dass dieses Buch einer der schlechtesten Bücher ist, die ich je gelesen habe. Es war echt nicht gut. Am Anfang war es noch ganz in Ordnung, doch irgendwann kam der Moment, wo ich mich gefragt habe: Wann passiert mal was?

Ich hatte echt das Gefühl, dass in dem Buch nichts passiert! Irgendwie blieb alles gleich und es war auch überhaupt nicht spannend. Außerdem hatte ich noch total viele Fragen und vieles blieb am Ende für mich einfach ungeklärt.
Was ich auch nicht gut fand war, dass das Ende zu schnell kam und ich das Ende auch nicht wirklich verstehen konnte, bzw. konnte ich Davys Entscheidungen allgemein überhaupt nicht verstehen.

Ich bin wirklich sehr enttäuscht und verstehe nicht, wieso der erste Band so gut war und der zweite Band mega schlecht war. Ich denke auch nicht, dass ich weitere Bücher von Sophie Jordan lesen werde

2 out of 5 stars

This review has things that are technically spoilers but don't contain details.

I have so many issues with this book: the main one being the horrific romance. But I will get to that rant later. First, the plot was essentially nonexistent, as many people have mentioned. At first, I thought it was my reading slump from Queen of Shadows. I quickly realized it was that this book's pacing was horrible. I have a reading journal, and I wrote: "Halfway through and no end in sight". That was also true 75% of the way through the book. I had no idea how this very complex social and political situation was going to wrap up in 50 pages. And it wrapped up in one page. Without her. I found that hilarious because of course she and her friends had nothing to do with the problem being solved. The "Resistance" did absolutely nothing. The happy ending was completely ridiculous and sounded like something a fifth grader writes about her first boyfriend.

The writing also had some issues that I could not deal with. The author would sometimes go into this weird 2nd person thing, saying things like "did I not just say that?" You have to be consistent with 2nd person or not use it at all. It throws off the rhythm of the book. Speaking of which, the repetitiveness is distracting and irritating. I noticed this with the first book as well, but Jordan repeats details, especially character descriptions, a lot. For example, towards the beginning of the book, she tells us that Gil is good at hacking twice within the span of two pages. Lastly, there were some grammar issues that annoyed me. It would be small things in characters' dialogues like they didn't have a proper education. This whole thing happened in pretty much under a year. I know you all can speak properly.

The next section is slightly more spoiler-y.

Davy irritated me to no end. At the beginning, I sympathized with her clear PTSD, and I actually appreciated the fact that she distanced herself from Sean for that reason (it seemed like a realistic emotional reaction even if it was unreasonable). But after she got to that compound, she became gullible and weak. She constantly kept coming back to Caden even though he was one of the worst love-interests I have read about. She had that "I am so pretty and better than everyone else but wait do you think I'm pretty? Did I mention that I'm more talented than everyone I know? Me being a perfect music prodigy has nothing to do with the plot but I decided that you should know" sort of thing going on. And why did she still believe that all carriers were super dangerous and could not be trusted? SHE AND ALL OF HER FRIENDS WERE CARRIERS. And remember how she was so upset that she killed people? She got over that pretty quickly when a guy with pretty hair and eyes kissed her.

But the number one thing that bothered me was the romance. Caden is a horrible love interest, and it saddens and frightens me that people like him. He is emotionally manipulative, a liar, and possessive. He latches onto her after a very short period of time. Let's do some math: Sabine gets notice that she is safe about a month before she gets to Mexico. That letter got sent probably about 2 weeks after she got to the compound. So let's say she was at the compound for 6-8 weeks. Caden didn't kiss her until about 2-4 weeks in. After it was revealed that he lied to her, there was about a 2 week period where she didn't interact with him. Therefore, they were "together" for about 2 weeks by some very rough estimates. Then he pops in with the whole "we were meant to be together and I love you", which he only says when she is about to leave him.
The biggest major red flag is her feelings about him. She knows that what he is doing isn't healthy or right. He has to know what he is doing to her.

A lot of his behavior was not ok. It sickened me that their relationship was based on his controlling manipulation over her. Clearly, she was not in a good place to be making emotional decisions, and he took advantage of that. Here are just a couple of scenes that set off warning bells in my head (I don't have page numbers because I read it on my phone):
"[Davy] Don't get any ideas. I'm not staying...
[Caden] We'll see..." After that, she feels uncomfortable. He clearly knows that he is going to persuade her to stay against her better judgment.
Or that one scene where he is interrogating her about whether or not she has a boyfriend even though it is none of his business, especially at that point when he had not showed any romantic interest in her. Later in that scene, he accuses her of always running from him, even though they have known each other for about 2 weeks at that point and he had been gone for some of those days.
The worst part was when he announces that she is going to stay in his room. She knows that his is being possessive. She knows that it is controlling behavior, yet Jordan just brushes it aside because he is cute and protective. He pulls on her hand hard enough to make her stumble down the stairs.
"A hard arm wraps around my waist.'Nooooo!' He lifts me off my feet... and carries me, legs kicking, arms flailing... He... thrusts me inside."
That is not ok! When she tries to get away, he focuses the blame on her and tries to guilt her by saying that he saved her life and was just "trying to keep her safe". He convinces her that she is in the wrong about the situation then covers it up with pretty words while she is vulnerable. After this, he has the audacity to tell her that she is his and has to make sure everyone else knows that. The next day, she is in the control room with Terrence. He doesn't like that she wasn't in immediate sight of him and treats her like a child who ran off from her parent.
"Until we capture him, you're not leaving my side"
I could name more, but that is enough. I looked up some signs of emotional abuse, and some of them seemed to resonate with the concerns that Davy had about Caden. I know this may seem like overkill or exaggeration, but it worries me that these types of behaviors are so embedded into fictional romances that they seem acceptable.

Jordan usually writes romance novels, so I understand that she wanted to include romance in this installment. However, the way she portrays the love interest is extremely concerning, and I hope that people realize that relationships should not work like this.

The only thing I really liked was the subplot of the chapter beginnings of the societal reactions to HTS. Although the problem was resolved way too easily.

**Update**
I almost forgot to mention the ridiculous plot twist at the end. There was no reason for Junie to act like that. The "girl who is crazy because she loves a certain boy so she kills everyone else in the way" just gave an excuse for girl drama to occur within the last 20 pages of the book. Completely unnecessary and just makes me angry. Honestly just calling her an Agency spy would have made a lot more sense.

Fand den Teil noch ein bisschen besser als den ersten Band.
Grade das die Protagonistin mal nicht die ist, die alle rettet und die Welt wieder in Ordnung bringt fand ich super.
Leider ging Davy mir mit Ihrem Charakter auf dem Keks und auch das Sie 3 "Beziehungen" hatte fand ich etwas viel. Ja gut sie war nicht gleichzeitig mit ihnen zusammen, aber 2 hätten es dann auch getan.
Aber trotzdem hat es mir super gefallen, kann zwar die negativen Stimmen verstehen, bin aber froh das es mir noch sonst gefällt hat.