The Ask and the Answer

Man, reading this book was stressful. At least part of that is because of what was happening in the world when I was reading it. It turns out that dystopian fiction (and especially the second novel in a trilogy when everything gets really bad) is not great escapism when real life is starting to feel like a dystopia.

But that doesn't mean it was a bad book. There was a lot to like about it. Mostly, I appreciated the fact that the narration was split between Todd and Viola. Todd is a frustrating protagonist. He was raised in a toxic environment and kept ignorant. This makes him easy to manipulate and means that he spends most of the book following the bad guy's orders and trying to justify it to himself.

Viola, on the other hand, is everything I want from a YA heroine. Intelligent, eager to learn, and able to see the bigger picture. She has a strong moral compass, and while she's willing to concede that other's might know more than her, she keeps coming back to what she feels is right. She's a lot easier to root for that Todd, though I'm sure it helps that she spends most of the book in the resistance camp while Todd is a prisoner of the facist leader.

It's amazing how bad things get and how quickly they get worse. Once again I was a bit frustrated by the reckless pace of the plot. It never seemed to let up and let me breathe. But it does a great job of painting an increasingly bleak picture. Even if that wasn't exactly what I wanted to read about.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, as expected. There are a lot of ways it could go, and I'm eager to see what happens. But I think I need a bit of a break from this series.

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