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A review by canderson
Travelers by Brett Riley
4.0
The FREAKS are back! While I felt like the stakes were a little lower overall in Travelers, than they were in FREAKS, I found myself voraciously turning pages while reading. The author, Brett Riley, does a superb job of building up the tension with the FREAKS grouping, now that a their former bully is one of them. As the reader, it is hard to forgive the bully, but when the bullied becomes a bit too violent, I found myself swinging back and forth between who I felt more empathy for, which gives me just a little taste of what the rest of the Freaks must be feeling, too!
This novel gave us a little more time with Gabby and Christian, which I liked a lot. They were both interesting characters in the first book, but we were stuck more-so inside Jamie, Kenneth, and Micah's heads, so it was nice to see a little more of the story from Gabby and Christian's perspective.
Baltar is definitely a BAD DUDE, I can feel it... I was a little disappointed that there wasn't as much time devoted to Baltar and his magical abilities—where did they come from? what kind of portals did he open? why hasn't Micah spoken to his dad (even via text)? also, we haven't heard back from social services so how do they know someone is staying with Micah? ... I'm sure this will probably be front and center during the next book, but I felt a little disappointed in the Freaks with their lack of questioning of Baltar, aside from the first day where they just took his amulets without question.... the horror fan in me is screaming for them to be smarter!
But aside from my Baltar bothers, I loved the action and high tension that Brett Riley creates. I also really enjoyed the deeper character building in this novel, and the light romantic tension in that teenage love-triangle style.
The pacing kept me on the edge of my seat just waiting to see another rabbit poke its nose somewhere odd or for Micah to maybe lose his grasp on reality. I am now patiently waiting for Book 3, and hoping it delivers more thriller/horror vibes and some answers that are bouncing around my noggin since I finished the last page.
This novel gave us a little more time with Gabby and Christian, which I liked a lot. They were both interesting characters in the first book, but we were stuck more-so inside Jamie, Kenneth, and Micah's heads, so it was nice to see a little more of the story from Gabby and Christian's perspective.
Baltar is definitely a BAD DUDE, I can feel it... I was a little disappointed that there wasn't as much time devoted to Baltar and his magical abilities—where did they come from? what kind of portals did he open? why hasn't Micah spoken to his dad (even via text)? also, we haven't heard back from social services so how do they know someone is staying with Micah? ... I'm sure this will probably be front and center during the next book, but I felt a little disappointed in the Freaks with their lack of questioning of Baltar, aside from the first day where they just took his amulets without question.... the horror fan in me is screaming for them to be smarter!
But aside from my Baltar bothers, I loved the action and high tension that Brett Riley creates. I also really enjoyed the deeper character building in this novel, and the light romantic tension in that teenage love-triangle style.
The pacing kept me on the edge of my seat just waiting to see another rabbit poke its nose somewhere odd or for Micah to maybe lose his grasp on reality. I am now patiently waiting for Book 3, and hoping it delivers more thriller/horror vibes and some answers that are bouncing around my noggin since I finished the last page.