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sreddous's review
5.0
This is a well-paced, tense apocalyptic story! The beginning is a tiny bit fast and a tiny bit hard to get established in (which might be just a result of this being third in a series, so take that with a grain of salt), but, man, once we get established this turns super cool super fast.
Action scenes are snappy and well-described. Especially in the beginning, I like when they first meet the prisoners, and right away it's established that the antagonists are a big threat that make the stakes feel high all the time. Without spoiling too much, I felt dread in my stomach the whole time while Hannah was making plans to meet with Neil about halfway in, and then of course the action just escalated from there with Jackson's appearance and more encounters with the monsters. As a nitpicky thing, I think I don't love that the word 'freak' is used to refer to them, but the worldbuilding makes it have enough sense that it doesn't feel unnecessarily cruel.
And on that note about the effective action scenes, the pacing is SUPER effective here. We get enough “action,” but then enough “breaks,” so that it doesn’t really muddle together and we're able to sort of get re-established in everyone's goals before then getting engaged in another action scene.
The descriptions are good too! It's not really flowery writing which is fine for this genre and pacing. As an example, I like the tension yet relief when they arrive at places like Shelton, it still feels emotional and helps keep us grounded in what these people are going through even while we're dealing with crazy monsters and such.
Overall, a really cool high-stakes ride!
Action scenes are snappy and well-described. Especially in the beginning, I like when they first meet the prisoners, and right away it's established that the antagonists are a big threat that make the stakes feel high all the time. Without spoiling too much, I felt dread in my stomach the whole time while Hannah was making plans to meet with Neil about halfway in, and then of course the action just escalated from there with Jackson's appearance and more encounters with the monsters. As a nitpicky thing, I think I don't love that the word 'freak' is used to refer to them, but the worldbuilding makes it have enough sense that it doesn't feel unnecessarily cruel.
And on that note about the effective action scenes, the pacing is SUPER effective here. We get enough “action,” but then enough “breaks,” so that it doesn’t really muddle together and we're able to sort of get re-established in everyone's goals before then getting engaged in another action scene.
The descriptions are good too! It's not really flowery writing which is fine for this genre and pacing. As an example, I like the tension yet relief when they arrive at places like Shelton, it still feels emotional and helps keep us grounded in what these people are going through even while we're dealing with crazy monsters and such.
Overall, a really cool high-stakes ride!
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