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4.05 AVERAGE

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is the 2nd book of Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. All 3 books run concurrently, not chronologically. 

Writing: solid. Atwood is a pro. 
Plot/characters:  I spent the beginning of the book wanting more info on the virus, but it seems that that info is told from the pov of the scientists in the 1st book. 
The plot is standard end of the world dystopian. Atwood usually feels pretty realistic…you believe this scenario could definitely happen. Ren and Toby are likable characters. Ren speaks in 1st person. Toby in 3rd. The pain ball arena is particularly disturbing. 
Profundity: I mean…besides the fact that we need to quit destroying the world and that people are always your biggest danger in an apocalypse? 
challenging dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

truly a hard read. boring, confusing, not too sure what the plot was supposed to be. by far my least favorite margaret atwood read
adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
medium-paced
challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Was kind of meh about this one. I don't really like parallel stories, I always want to know what happens next. I am very interested though to move on to MaddAddam

Oryx and Crake I really enjoyed. This second book was fine/ok. Probably 2.5 stars out of three, but not much more. The story just did not grip me for some reason. It is the story of Toby and Ren, who we find at the beginning of book, both trapped, after the waterless flood (in year 25) needing to escape their imprisonment because their food and water stores will run out. The story, like Oryx and Crake jumps back forth in time, and we see how Toby and Ren got to be where they are, see the the world from a new perspective, but unlike the first book this one is just not as intriguing. It is still worth a read, but Oryx and Crake was a special novel that I found very compelling. This one was a pleasant read, but did not do anything special (despite liking both central characters).

I might have liked this more if it was a stand alone book and I hadn't read the first. As it is, the world is no longer a discovery and it has none of the crackling tension of Oryx and Crake, so even though the character relationships are better and it's expounding on similar ideas, it ends up falling kind of flat.