It’s been so long since I read Peak but I remember it fondly. Unfortunately, this sequel did NOT live up to my memory of Peak. I love a fast-paced adventure but this one didn’t do much for me. It was quick and easy to read but that's pretty much it.
For starters, I think this book needed more development. Everything happened too fast and the tension was never the right amount. As a result, I wasn’t as invested in what was happening. I also found the entire situation unbelievable. A lot of things didn’t add up and there were way too many loopholes. For example, the climber from Australia is some guy who cannot even climb but the entire event is supposed to be full of professional young adult climbers. Could they not find a single kid who knew how to climb in Australia? I am just like woah.
Peak, for the most part was an okay kid, but he said some obnoxious things that made me wonder whether or not he lived under a rock (yes I am trying to be punny.) I guess when you’re a child prodigy, anything is a possible…
Maybe pass this one if you, like me, haven’t read Peak in years. Or if you haven’t read either, Peak might be something cool to try! Mountain climbing for the win!
I may have liked this one, maybe not the best of the series, but definitely quite a close second. Or, more accurately, the last 100 pages were superb enough to bring up the first 200 pages that dragged and didn't hold much character development. Those were pretty much traveling up the Amazon River, feeding dinosaurs (not as exciting as you might think), running through a jungle, or zip-lining through/into trees. But then you hit the South American research compound where you run into the clones, mutations, Nazis (essentially), and a whole lot more good stuff, none of which I saw coming. Okay, well, I saw the happy ending coming from a mile off, but none of the other stuff.
Blackwood got promoted from generic "oooh, I'm so evil, look at me, I want to stuff endangered animals for my private collection" to a legit villain with an actual backstory and motivations and Ilike it. I'm almost sad to see him go, now that he's an interesting character and not a pansy. It really does make sense though. I always thought he was too hard-core and violent to have a motivation of animal stuffing.
I was disappointed we got to see so little of Violet, Rose's clone, but I'm glad that she's not the psychopath we thought she was and she gets to live with her clone's daughter's family.
Also, we saw so little of the O'Hara family together. It was kinda only the whole reason behind the books, so I would have thought that a bit more time could have been spent on seeing the plot finally fulfilled.
My only other real disappointment was that so much time was spent on running around, which made the last 100 pages, while awesome, way too rushed.
And this bugged me:
"I guess that means you're not going to answer me."
"Yes," Ziti said.
"You mean no."
"Not understand."
Yeah, me either. He actually does mean "yes", so why you're saying he means "no" doesn't make any sense. (Page 166-7)
Also, there was cell service in the underground bunker? Either highly suspect or very impressive.
New books today! Haha I seem to buy them more than I read them!
Anyone read any of the above? :)
Hope you all are having a lovely night/day