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celjla212's review against another edition
2.0
The first book in the series, Variant, was very original and left me with a huge cliffhanger. I was very much excited to get into this book, but unfortunately the sophomore offering failed to deliver.
Feedback literally picks up where Variant stopped. Benson meets the real Jane, then she shows him where all the non-robot Maxfield kids have been living. It a weird, complicated situation, but Benson doesn't stop to question it too much.
The biggest problem I had with this book is that the author doesn't take the time to actually explain anything that's going on. I get that this was the second book in the series, but the reader is being thrust into a new setting, with new characters, and is left to figure things out on their own. The big twist at the end of Variant was that some of the people had been robots the entire time. Going in to Feedback, I was expecting to learn more about WHY this was, who was behind Maxfield, and many other things. But these answers were never really given voice.
I tried to like Benson, but I felt like he was causing trouble where there didn't need to be any. A love triangle was also the last thing this book needed, no matter how short-lived it was. Benson may have been confused about his feelings for Jane and Becky, but he had to realize that they weren't the same people he thought they were.
The action in the book didn't really start rolling under after the 200 page mark. To me, the plan had very little preparation and everything moved really quickly once Benson decided his course of action.
I felt like I was moving along blindly while reading this book, and that's not a good feeling. I finished it because I was hoping I'd learn more about the forces behind Maxfield, but I was ultimately disappointed.
Feedback literally picks up where Variant stopped. Benson meets the real Jane, then she shows him where all the non-robot Maxfield kids have been living. It a weird, complicated situation, but Benson doesn't stop to question it too much.
The biggest problem I had with this book is that the author doesn't take the time to actually explain anything that's going on. I get that this was the second book in the series, but the reader is being thrust into a new setting, with new characters, and is left to figure things out on their own. The big twist at the end of Variant was that some of the people had been robots the entire time. Going in to Feedback, I was expecting to learn more about WHY this was, who was behind Maxfield, and many other things. But these answers were never really given voice.
I tried to like Benson, but I felt like he was causing trouble where there didn't need to be any. A love triangle was also the last thing this book needed, no matter how short-lived it was. Benson may have been confused about his feelings for Jane and Becky, but he had to realize that they weren't the same people he thought they were.
The action in the book didn't really start rolling under after the 200 page mark. To me, the plan had very little preparation and everything moved really quickly once Benson decided his course of action.
I felt like I was moving along blindly while reading this book, and that's not a good feeling. I finished it because I was hoping I'd learn more about the forces behind Maxfield, but I was ultimately disappointed.
amandawhitt___'s review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Boring...
lsparrow's review against another edition
2.0
Perhaps it didn't help that I waited over a year between the first of the series and this one. I enjoyed the first book much better than this one. I still was interested in the storyline however in this one I felt much less connection to the characters. Also the end felt so thrown together as if suddenly the author realized that everything needed to be tied up neatly and yet left with space to continue the series. The whole premise of the storyline seemed less believable in this book and started to just not care. at least it was an easy read.
deedralapray's review against another edition
3.0
Perhaps it's because it took me a couple of months on and off picking this book up, but I only liked it. There was not a lot of explanation behind the "Why". I am still left scratching my head. It was almost what I had imagined, but there needs to be much more explanation of how Maxfield came to be. I don't want to include any spoilers, but the ending with the explanation of what sinister force was behind the academy was dull compared to the world in which the academy and town where build.
justlily's review against another edition
The dreaded second book curse. No matter how much I like a first book, inevitably I absolutely hate the second. And here we are. This is confusing and boring and I'm 150 pages in and I just don't care enough to keep going.
literarylover37's review against another edition
1.0
Very disappointing. I wasn't in love with the first one but I expected so much more from this.
melissasbookshelf's review against another edition
2.0
Just okay. The audiobook narrator was good, but the story just didn't hold my attention. The action scenes were few and far between. The ending just left more questions than answers.
billblume's review against another edition
3.0
Almost two years have passed since I read Variant by Robison Wells. Variant delivers a great conspiracy thriller for YA readers and finishes on a cliffhanger which I won't ruin in this review for the sequel. The second book picks up exactly where the first ended with Benson Fisher trying to escape the private school of Maxfield. The school is populated with students and no adults, making it something of a Lord of the Flies version of high school with gangs and plenty of violence and murder.
First things first, you will not want to read Feedback without first reading Variant. Robison does as good a job as I imagine he can trying to bring the reader up to speed in this second and concluding book, but with the large cast from book one carrying into the second, I found myself a tad lost at times. Most of the plot from the first book stayed with me, which does say something for Robison's work here, but many of the supporting characters don't prove as memorable.
There are some definite positives to this book. I was relieved to see Robison reveal the mystery behind the school. Part of me feared the daunting task of a credible resolution would force him to not reveal anything, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I found the explanation for Maxfield somewhat predictable and not entirely satisfying. If anything, it left me very hungry to read about the larger, worldwide implications of how this two-book series ends.
In book one, I liked the main character a lot more. He was very cocksure and focused on escaping Maxfield, but this book finds him less confident and much slower to take action. Given how things ended in book one, though, that's realistic. He regains his determination in the second half of this book and once again proves a clever, if not somewhat impulsive, hero.
Robison also leaves some loose ends within his subplots, and that disappointed me. I think Feedback would have benefited from being a longer read.
For all my gripes, I'm glad I found out how Benson's war with Maxfield's creators ends. My only advice to other readers would be to read Variant and Feedback back-to-back. If you're like me and read the first book a long time ago, I think it's worth the effort to go back and reread the first book before jumping into the second. I wish I had.
First things first, you will not want to read Feedback without first reading Variant. Robison does as good a job as I imagine he can trying to bring the reader up to speed in this second and concluding book, but with the large cast from book one carrying into the second, I found myself a tad lost at times. Most of the plot from the first book stayed with me, which does say something for Robison's work here, but many of the supporting characters don't prove as memorable.
There are some definite positives to this book. I was relieved to see Robison reveal the mystery behind the school. Part of me feared the daunting task of a credible resolution would force him to not reveal anything, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I found the explanation for Maxfield somewhat predictable and not entirely satisfying. If anything, it left me very hungry to read about the larger, worldwide implications of how this two-book series ends.
In book one, I liked the main character a lot more. He was very cocksure and focused on escaping Maxfield, but this book finds him less confident and much slower to take action. Given how things ended in book one, though, that's realistic. He regains his determination in the second half of this book and once again proves a clever, if not somewhat impulsive, hero.
Robison also leaves some loose ends within his subplots, and that disappointed me. I think Feedback would have benefited from being a longer read.
For all my gripes, I'm glad I found out how Benson's war with Maxfield's creators ends. My only advice to other readers would be to read Variant and Feedback back-to-back. If you're like me and read the first book a long time ago, I think it's worth the effort to go back and reread the first book before jumping into the second. I wish I had.
kerrygibbons's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't even finish reading this because it was so entirely boring. Boo.