Garrett

7/10

I really love the concept of this series and am very interested in reading the final book. The story is fast paced and exciting. That being said, I do think that this book was a bit too YA for me at times. Dialogue is not Shusterman's strongsuit at least in this story, I felt like a lot of the times he was trying to be dramatic and profound it just came off as trying too hard if not a big cringey. I felt this really began to show through in the last third or so when a lot is happening, and even though I was interested in what was going on and reading pretty quickly, there were moments that I could not take seriously due to the much overly melodramatic dialogue. Still excited to see what happens next, and the ending sequence was very unexpected.

If the movie adaptation is done properly it could be genuinely incredible. Absolutely love the way you learn about the world of Empis alongside Charlie, instead of the usually fantasy situation of having to understand the world alone as the reader, as he is seeing everything for the first time just as you are. Loved this to death