cepbreed 's review for:

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

3.75

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I cannot put my finger on it, but this sequel lacked the bite of the first story. When a new dystopian world is introduced there is so much to uncover, so many mysteries, and this book dashed the opportunity to capitalize off of the excitement by droning on into the semantics. By that, I just mean it could have been much more straightforward. I can say that I absolutely adored the twist and it was very well done. I will be vague; this choice furthered the plot much more simply than a new introduction could. I am very impressed with how the Thunderhead was handled. It is hard to write an omniscient AI this compelling. However fun the world-building is, I was still missing a lot of interaction between Citra and Rowan.

Song:

• Cinnamon Girl - Lana Del Rey
• Everybody's Watching Me (Uh Oh) - The Neighborhood

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury